"Don't worry, girl." Asami ran her hand over Naga's paws, and the Polar Bear Dog whined. "You'll be okay, and so will Korra." Even if Korra had been missing most of the day since the end of the siege. She'd taken Naga back to her and Korra's home, hoping the familiar space would make Naga feel better. It had the side benefit of making her feel better, too. There was still a lot of clean-up to do. Many buildings had been damaged and a lot of people hurt, but Republic City and the Fire Nation were free of the Red Lotus. Fighting was still underway in the Earth Republic but she'd spoke to Bolin and he'd told her that Ba Sing Se had been liberated. Zaofu had reported success with Asami's technique for disabling the airships.
Tenzin had turned Air Temple Island into a temporary hospital to help tend the injured. Most of the airbenders had congregated there to help with those who weren't in critical condition. The waterbenders had relocated the most seriously injured to the hospital.
While there was an overall feeling of relief, it didn't feel like the worst had come yet. There was to much uncertainty. The Spirit Portals were closed. Korra was missing on the other side and Jinora had been unable to reach her. She'd said that it felt as though there was a wall between them and the other side now, but that before she'd been cut off, that it had felt like the Spirit World had been sick. And if that place was sick, then chances were it could affect Korra. And there was nothing Asami could do about it.
Sensing the direction Asami's mood was shifting, Naga moved around, getting up and half plopping on top of Asami's lap. At least her injuries hadn't been serious. It had been a near hit, according to a healer, but the shaft had missed anything vital. Asami laughed and gingerly hugged the Polar Bear Dog. "Naga! I need to get back soon."
But Naga had decided she was going to stay put, at least for the time being. Asami sighed, resolved to her fate. At least she and Naga were together, and they could worry about Korra together. The Spirit World wasn't exactly her area of expertise, but it was one of Korra's. She'd be okay, she'd find a way back. Asami rested her face into Naga's soft fur and lamented, "Why'd I have to fall in love with the Avatar, Naga?"
The great beast seemed to shrug, huffing. She didn't seem inclined to express any other emotion, leaving Asami feeling as though she were just talking to herself.
"I should be there with her. We both should. We're not the kind of people who just sit around while she's in danger, you know. So if you could get off me that would be helpful."
She nudged at Naga, who huffed again, whined, and snuggled more on top of her. Asami could picture the headlines. Future Industries CEO found smothered to death a day after the liberation of Republic City. It wouldn't be the worse death, but an embarrassing one.
Asami nudged Naga harder, until the Polar Bear Dog finally rolled off of her. She dug her fingers into Naga's fur and stroked. "When this is all over I'm going to ask Jinora to teach me spirituality." She's always been intrigued by the spirits and Spirit World, ever since Harmonic Convergence. Maybe it was time to do more than just design machines after spirits. Maybe it didn't work that way, but she could at least try. It would bring her closer to Korra and that was never a bad thing.
Freed of being laid upon, Asami got to her feet and made her way through the condo and to her workshop. There were a few things she wanted to pick up before she rejoined the others. She couldn't really help out with the wounded but at least she could help get started on reconstruction planning. As nice of a diversion as it was, she couldn't tarry much longer. "Okay Naga. Lets go. Naga?"
A low angry sound rumbled in Naga's throught. Asami opened a drawer and pulled out an electric glove. pulling it on, she crept to the doorway, listening for whatever it was that Naga was sensing. Something approached, footsteps, and then the crackle of fire.
The front door burst open in a wall of flame. Asami ducked back around the door frame, shielding her head from the debris and the heat. When she moved her head to look again, she saw Amaya standing in the doorway. Fire began to spread through the condo and Asami had a single brief and vivid flashback to the night her mother died.
Naga barreled forward and Amaya lept over her, a wave of heat and earth erupting through the hallway towards Asami. She rolled into the kitchen, and Amaya's water whip left a red welt along the side of her face. She dodged another attack, swinging the door to the ice box open. It slammed into Amaya's face and Asami did it once more for good measure. Then she rolled over the counter and grabbed two kitchen knives. She threw one and used the other to deflect a piece of marble counter that Amaya earthbent at her. The lights in the ceiling exploded, popping one after the other as the fire Amaya started continued to spread.
As Asami passed the stove, she turned the gas on, then ducked underneath a wave of water that came from the sink. Asami pulled her glove off, setting it to overload before tossing it onto the stove. If the apartment fire didn't do it… "Naga!"
She jumped into Naga's back and Naga rushed through the hallway and towards the windows overlooking Republic City. Too soon they reached the glass and crashed through it. Shards cut Asami's face and arms as she tries to shield herself, and then her stomach started to flip as they fell. A massive explosion ripped through the condo, a fireball blowing through the windows they'd just jumped through and the heat close enough to singe Asami's back. Naga grabbed onto the fabric of an awning with her powerful jaws, and they swung into another condo several floors down. Without stopping, Naga burst through the door and into the outer hall way. Asami directed Naga to the stairs, clinging tightly and hoping the old Polar Bear Dog would be able to hold out.
When they came out the front of the building, there was a crowd gathered. Asami looked back up to where the smoldering wreckage of her home was, smoke billowing out of the blown out windows. The fire was spreading to other floors andfFor a brief moment she thought she saw a figure standing in the shattered window. Asami looked around her at the people gathered, then swung off of Naga. She grabbed her furry face. "Naga, go find Jinora or Jia."
Naga whined, but Asami leaned in closer, her voice desperate. "Please, go find them. We can't fight her alone and I'll never forgive myself if something happened to you. Go!"
Naga hesitated, whining again but Asami shoved at her. "Go!"
She turned and ran, not looking back to see if Naga had listened to her. Amaya would be on the ground floor soon enough and she needed to lead her away from these people. There was a motorcycle parked nearby, so she hopped on it and quickly hotwired it. The engine roared to life as Amaya emerged from the building. Asami glanced in her direction, making eye contact. Amaya seemed unconcerned, if a little irritated. It was disconcerting.
Asami tore off down the street. Two blocks down and she glanced back. Amaya was close behind her, riding some kind of earthen disc. The bender had one of her hands held out ripping up parts of the street as she pursued. She started to bend them at Asami, trying to hit her or the bike or knock her off. Cracks raced through the street ahead of Asami, creating a sudden chasm. Asami gunned the engine and jumped the bike clean over it. She couldn't risk looking behind her anymore, though she felt a surge of heat and leaned the bike to the left to dodge a blast of fire. Fire and earth, and water... Amaya wasn't using her shadow abilities yet, Asami realized. Either she was saving them for a special occasion, or she was cut off with the Spirit Portals closed. It would be risky to count on the latter, but that gave Asami an idea of where she could lead her.
With just her wits and her fists for protection, Asami needed to find something else to help her. There was a lot of debris on the ground and she grabbed up a piece of piping as she sped by, just before taking a hard right. With a straightaway between her and the location of the Spirit Portal, she opened the motorcycle's throttle up. She hazarded a look back. Amaya was gone. When she returned her eyes to the road, she saw her attacker at the end of the street, a massive wall of concrete behind her and a sea of fire in front of her.
"Shit." Asami leaned forward, the bike's gauge redlining as she drove directly towards Amaya. Amaya stood her ground as the two women played a very dangerous round of chicken.
At the last moment she jumped from the motorcycle, tucking her legs under her body and rolling as she hit the ground. The landing was rough and she bounced several times, coming to a stop a hundred feet later, her jacket torn up and the skin on one shoulder was ripped open and bleeding with bits of pavement and rocks studding it. She pushed herself to her feet, head ringing. A sudden shift in the air behind her was the only warning she had. Asami dropped back to the ground, narrowly avoiding losing her head to a chunk of cement.
"I get the feeling this is personal," Asami said, scrambling back to her feet and facing Amaya. She looked around for something else to help her, and picked up a trash can lid to use as a shield, with her pipe as a club. She barely had a chance to get ready before Amaya charged forward. Asami swung with the pipe. Grabbing onto it, Amaya yanked Asami forward and Asami slammed the lid into the woman's head and let go of the pipe. She took off at a sprint, jumping over a water attack and grabbing onto a sausage-on-a-stick cart. She shoved it at Amaya and then kept on running.
"Give it up, you can't beat me. Just sit down, and accept your fate," Amaya called out. Her irritation was bleeding into her voice and Asami had the small comfort of knowing she was getting to her.
Still some ways away from her destination, Asami ducked through alleyways, upending trash cans and pushing dumpsters between them. She'd expected something like this, eventually. Someone using her to get to Korra, to hurt the Avatar by threatening her family. Maybe Amaya thought it would throw Korra off balance. Maybe she just wanted an eye for an eye. Asami for her sister. She didn't know and she wasn't going to ask.
"I promise I won't hurt you."
"I've heard that one before," Asami mumbled. She emerged on a street less than a block from where the Spirit Portal used to be. There were several parked Satomobiles, and she ran towards one, prying the hood up. Even an engine could be turned into a weapon. She'd told Meelo that once. And now she was going to prove it.
When Amaya emerged from the alleyways, she was greeted with twin exploding Satomobiles. The shockwave blew out every window for two blocks and sent Amaya flying through the windows of a store front.
Asami had never run so fast in her life. She felt like she was running out of options, but the farther she got Amaya from where people were, the better. This area was still evacuated and deserted and the Spirit Wilds were finally in view. Maybe Naga would get help. Maybe she wouldn't. Asami couldn't count on it. Naga was smart but there weren't many people who could guess what her plan had been and she'd been making it up as she went along. Asami was alone, against one of the most powerful benders they'd ever heard of.
So she wasn't expecting to see the Satomobile approaching, like a metal savior. It braked hard and skidded to a stop. Malina was at the wheel and Yuki and Ty Lee were both in the rear seats. Never happier to see them, Asami jumped in. "We need to get to the Spirit Portal. I don't think I've delayed her more than a few minutes."
Malina turned the car around, but Ty Lee climbed out. Asami reached for her, fingers only grasping at air. "Wait, Ty Lee! What are you doing?"
Ty Lee turned to them, a bright smile on her wizened features. "The same thing you'd do in my place. This is it, this is what I have to do. I've been on this world for too many years and seen too many things to not believe in destiny. Maybe we'll meet again in the next life, Azula." She patted the side of the Satomobile and Malina floored it.
Ty Lee watched them recede into the distance, a peaceful look under her war paint and love in her heart. One last battle, one last hurrah. She unfurled her fans, turning slowly as Amaya approached. Her battle stance looked as though it were a natural extension of herself.
Amaya looked her over, frowning. She didn't know what to make of this old Kyoshi warrior. "What do you hope to accomplish, old woman?"
"I've fought better benders than you," Ty Lee replied, voice steady and eyes like iron. She darted forward, her speed astonishing Amaya. She threw three attacks that Ty Lee dodged so easily that it was like Amaya were in slow motion. A jab in her shoulder made her left arm go limp and pain shoot down her spine. A blow to the back of her head dazed her, blurring her vision. She tried to turn towards the old woman, only for Ty Lee to step behind her and leave most of her left side disabled. Amaya stumbled, staring at her in disbelief.
Ty Lee lifted one fan, and jerked it back and forth. "Why don't you come here and show me what you're capable of."
"Who are you?"
"Just an old circus freak."
"The Spirit Portal? Are you sure?" Malina asked. Asami tore her eyes from where she'd last seen Ty Lee before they'd sped away, and tried to get her emotions under control. There was no way the warrior would be able to hold Amaya off for very long. She'd volunteered for a suicide mission and ice gripped Asami's heart. I'm sorry Azula. I couldn't protect her.
"There won't be anyone else for her to hurt there. And I'm hoping maybe her presence will help Korra find her way back."
"Your presence, you mean." Yuki smiled at her, though the expression was tight-lipped. "Don't you know that's how it always goes in the old romantic stories? Your bond is so strong it will pull her right to you, she'll save the day and our cute butts."
Was that the kind of bond this was? Asami thought about Ty Lee risking her life for the reincarnation of Azula, and knew that she would lay down her own for the next Avatar. She'd called her Azula but there'd been something in Ty Lee's eyes at that moment that told Asami her sacrifice was as much for her as it was for her past life. "At this point I'm willing to believe anything. How did you find me?"
"Ty Lee." Malina pulled into the remains of the old Avatar Korra Park. The lack of the Spirit Portal made the whole area feel off somehow. Desolate and wrong. Over ten years it had become a part of the Republic City skyline, and the spirit wilds were as much Republic City as the markets and concert halls and office buildings. "She practically forced us into the Satomobile and told us to drive to the Spirit Wilds. It was like she had a sixth sense or something."
"She said it was a very black aura," Yuki added.
"I sent Naga off to find help, but mostly I was trying to get her out of harm's way. I wasn't actually expecting anybody to come," Asami admitted. "But if she can find Jinora or someone else we might actually stand a chance."
Yuki hopped out of the Satomobile, and tossed a glove to Asami. "What if help doesn't arrive?"
Asami inspected the glove, then started to jog towards the center of the park. "Then I hope I meet you guys in the next life."
"I like your optimism," Malinda said. She followed, without needing to be prompted or even encouraged. But this was her city, and even without Korra's speech she would defend it. And she'd defend this amazing woman she was quickly growing to respect.
"Remember, this is a holding action." Yuki's glove sparked as she checked the charge. "Nothing fancy, just keep her busy and try not to die."
"Now you're sounding like a cop again." Malinda patted Yuki's shoulder. "Mako would be proud of you. You'll make detective yet."
She swallowed, and nodded. "I hope we get to tell him all about it."
"Yeah, that might be nice." Though Malina's face was neutral, there was the faintest blush on her cheeks. Yuki hoped they lived just so she could rib her about it later.
Asami crossed her arms, staring in the direction they'd come while the two police-women talked. She wondered how long Ty Lee could hold out. Not forever. Experience could only help someone so much against sheer power, and Ty Lee was not longer in her prime. Perhaps a bender like Toph could have bought more time. But this wasn't her fight. It shouldn't have been Ty Lee's either.
She couldn't count Ty Lee out though. While the woman hadn't invented Chiblocking she was the most skilled user of it in recorded history. She'd fought Team Avatar to a standstill and helped capture Ba Sing Se. She'd been Lord Zuko's most trusted bodyguard. She was second only to Suki in skill among the more recent generations of Kyoshi Warriors. She could hold her own, Asami believed. Just not forever, not against a bender like Amaya.
It wasn't much longer before Amaya emerged from the Spirit Wilds. She walked with a limp and her left arm hung listless at her side. Her face was bruised, but the longer she walked, the quicker her leg and arm were returning to normal.
She was dragging a body behind her by the leg, and Asami felt herself start to shake with rage. Amaya tossed Ty Lee's limp body between her and the three women. "She wouldn't stop. She wouldn't give up even though she was outmatched. Will you all fight so hard for a crumbling world?"
Asami looked down at Ty Lee. She was battered and bruised, blood staining most of her tunic but the thing that drew Asami's attention the most was the smile frozen on her face. Yuki had to grab Asami's arm to keep her from attacking.
Yuki cleared her throat. "You're under arrest for murder, assassination, sedition against the United Republic and all the nations of the world. Come peacefully and you will be granted a fair trial."
"You have a great sense of humor." Amaya spit on the ground. "I'll make this quick."
"So you'll kill us. What then? That won't make anyone release your sister or your son." Asami kept her voice calm. She could have emotions later, she could be angry later, she could grieve later for a woman she'd barely known. Right now she needed to buy time. She hoped there was something to buy time for, but she needed to buy time.
"...what do you mean my son?" Amaya took a step forward, her face darkening. "What have you done with him?"
"He's been captured." Malina joined in on the bluff. "We have him and Lihua at a secure location and we're the only ones who know where."
"We can end this peacefully," Asami insisted. Her hands were held out, palm up, to show she wasn't going to make any moves. She couldn't anyway. Even on a bad day, Amaya outclassed all three of them combined and Ty Lee was proof of that. She'd clearly improved her control and siphoning of her sisters' bending, and Asami suspected if Amaya could use her shadow bending it would be stronger too. But it seemed as though the closed spirit portals were preventing her from accessing that power. A small thing, but even the small things could help them. She refused to look at Ty Lee's body again. If she did, she'd get angry. If she got angry, there was no telling what she'd do, but it would probably get them all killed.
"You can play with us, and it won't be any fun," Yuki said. "It's not like we can put up much of a fight. Or you could just come with us to your sister, and your son. We can still work something out. This war has done nothing but hurt people and you have to be as tired of it as the rest of us."
"There was a woman," Asami said, hoping against hope she could say something to reach her. "She joined the attack after Korra's speech, she fought in the square against your Red Lotus. She had a son, who'll now grow up without a family. We both know that pain, Amaya. Watching our mothers die. How many others will you force to feel the same way?"
"In pursuit of a greater world, there must be sacrifices." It sounded like something Zaheer would have said, and the way Amaya said it made Asami think he'd drilled it into her by rote. It made her uneasy, like it could have meant that Lihua had been right. There might not be any getting through to the Red Lotus's new leader.
"I am the Avatar of Liberation," Amaya said, her voice rising. She lifted her hands skyward. "Can you feel that? Like the strumming of a lute's strings. It's the Spirit World, and it's dying. Zaheer will tear down the barriers and two worlds will become one."
At first, Asami couldn't feel anything. Then it was like a vibration in the air, but she knew it wasn't Zaheer. Her heart beat with Korra's as one, she could feel Korra reaching for her, feel it resonate through her blood and her bones and deep inside her heart in a way that she'd never really felt this spiritually before. "Korra," she whispered, as a bright yellow veam flared to life, and the Spirit Portal stretched to the heavens. She turned towards the shadowed figure coming through, a shape as known to her as that of her own hands.
Too late, Korra shouted a warning. The shadow cast behind Asami by the light of the Spirit Portal rippled, razor thin spikes lashing. They sank into Asami's back and she stood there for a long moment, eyes wide and locked on Korra's. Then Asami slowly dropped to her knees. "Korra…?"
Fire flared to life in Korra's palms. The very earth around them shook and a stream nearby convulsed wildly as the wind picked up, violent and angry. Amaya expected to see the Avatar State but Korra's eyes remained like steel. A crack in the earth ran between her and Amaya. She barely registered Malina and Yuki. She only saw Asami slumped over, and Amaya's triumphant smile.
"At last," the shadow bender whispered.. "At last we end this."