Fire engulfed the plaza in front of the Spirit Portal as Korra and Amaya struck at each other simultaneously. It spread out to either side and shot into the air as both women threw everything they had at each other. The smoke cleared, and Korra ran forward, the ground rocking as she ripped chunks of earth out behind her. She threw them at the shadow bender, and Amaya deflected a rock the size of a Satomobile, only to take the full brunt of a stream of water as powerful as a fire hose. Fire followed the water, and Korra bent increasingly larger boulders at Amaya. Every attack Korra unleashed was stronger than the last and she was fueled by anger and justice. Her power was nearly overwhelming but Amaya juiced herself up, siphoning more and more energy and life from her sisters. Her earthbending tore cracks in the ground and her waterbending turned into a torrent. It didn't matter where Nuo and Lihua were; as long as they were alive she could tap into their reserves. She couldn't tire and she could fight for as long as the three of them could hold out.
And she still had a few more tricks up her sleeve. Amaya liquefied the earth beneath Korra, trying to trap her inside a rocky prison. The Avatar simply resolidified it, but Amaya took advantage of the momentary distraction, two dozen rocks crashing into Korra in rapid succession. They ranged in size from a human fist to an elephant koi. The attack staggered Korra and Amaya moved into the offensive, pushing her in a circle around the Spirit Portal. She relied heavily on her natural element, flame scorching the ground around them, singing Korra's clothing and nearly burning Yuki. Korra redirected each attack away from her or back at Amaya, trying to give Yuki and Malina a chance to drag Asami away.
Through a sea of fire Amaya pushed a wall of earth at Korra, spikes protruding from it like a porcupine-cat each tip pointed like fangs.
Digging her heels into the ground, Korra lifted her hands to hold the wall at bay. The earth cracked at her feet, and then shattered as she sank into the ground. Amaya pushed harder, the ground between them forming a crater, cracks spreading in a thousand directions from both their feet. Gritting he teeth, Korra pulled her arms to either side, ripping the wall in half and then crushing Amaya with them.
Amaya spun out of the way, and threw back everything she had. She whittled away at Korra with well aimed streams of flame and pieces of razor sharp rock that cut and lacerated the Avatar until she was bleeding from hundreds of cuts. Korra used her airbending to protect her eyes, and her earthbending to redirect the razor rocks elsewhere, but there were so many and they were coming at her so fast that she couldn't hope to avoid injury.
Amaya's energy seemed limitless, but Korra could tell it was having an effect on her. The tattoos through which she siphoned the power of her sisters were starting to ooze an inky black liquid, and there were cracks forming in her skin, more of that blackness shining out. It looked like the same kind of sickness that had infected Zaheer. Korra wanted to know what it was, exactly. Dark Spirit energy? Something new? Or something very, very old? But now wasn't the time. The fight was only going to get worse and she needed to end it soon. She called upon the Avatar State and the razor rocks came to an immediate stop.
Instantly, Amaya seized her chance, twisting the shadows around behind Korra's back into a spear with every intention of driving it into her heart and ending the Avatar Cycle once and for all. Someone yanked her head back by the hair. Asami's voice was hoarse in her ear. "Oh no you don't." Something sharp and hard was driven into her back, a cutting, piercing pain that threw Amaya's concentration off. The shadow spear dissipated, and Amaya stumbled forward. She turned and lashed out with earth and fire. It knocked Asami back into a raised piece of rock. She slid down to the ground, her vision blurring and the world seeming to spin around her.
Enraged, Korra rammed into Amaya, the two of them shooting out of the spirit wilds on jets of fire completely out of control. They blew threw a building and out the other side, swiped into an abandoned mecha tank and then crashed through an antique store.
Amaya got Korra in a head lock, squeezing tightly and twisting. The muscles in Korra's neck bulged as she resists, pounding her fists into the other woman's sides and back with all her might. Something cracked and she broke free, kicking Amaya into a Future Industries Appliances storefront. Korra landed in front of it, her body tensing, the veins in her arms popping as she started to move her hands in a bending form. The clouds in the sky began to roil and surge, lightning crackling among them. The wind whipped up into a frenzied hurricane, and Amaya lifted her arms to cover her face as she stepped out of the ruined shop. She stared in abject awe as Korra manipulated the wind and the water in the air. Flashes of lightning lit up the growing darkness as Korra drew everything into one intense and localized storm, right over Amaya's head.
Amaya moved to the right on instinct just before lightning came down from the sky. All that energy and power was fixated on one point, where Amaya had been standing. It demolished the ground between them, blasting Amaya away in the middle of her attempted escape. She skidded and bounced along the pavement, landing hard on a truck and knocking it over. She slowly got to her feet as the Avatar advanced on her, lighting striking the ground in a dozen places. Amaya realized that she could not beat Korra in a fair fight. It should have been obvious before, but it was definitely obvious now. But she refused to lose. She'd come this far, she'd burned too many bridges and too many people to give up at this point. Amaya would have to find a way. And she would find a way. Luckily for her, she didn't believe in fair fights.
Forming a plan, she jumped onto a rolling wave of pavement, surfing it away from the Avatar. Lightning struck the ground at seemingly random intervals as she surfed the pavement, Korra giving chase as gusts of wind threatened to dislodge Amaya from her earthbent transport. She glanced behind her, gauging the distance and then reached out with her hands. The supports for several buildings on both sides of the street cracked, then crumbled. With a clattering roar they came crashing down on top of the Avatar.
Only stopping for a moment to catch her breath, Amaya stared at the destruction she'd caused. She doubted that was the end of Korra. She'd need something to keep Korra busy, to distract her, so she started to round people up. There were defenders trying to get home, even some children who'd been picked up by their families. All these people who were trying to get back to normal and they were exactly what she needed. Amaya encased them all in an earthen shell, and waited for Korra to show herself. Closing her eyes and drawing her fists together, Amaya drew more strength from her sisters. She had to connect more with the techniques that Zaheer had taught her. The shadow bending and the three elements she had access to. Shadows moved and undulated around her, shooting tendrils into the air. They twisted like abyssal whips, ready to strike at Korra - or the hostages.
Underneath the rubble, Korra seethed. She was protected by a bubble of air and an earthen shelter she'd bent at the last second. Amaya was getting to her. It would be so easy to give into her anger. The day had brought back too many uncomfortable memories and then Asami…
But if she was angry, she wasn't going to win, not against someone as zealous as Amaya. It was a battle she couldn't afford to lose. She forced herself to calm down, purging her mind of the image of Asami flung about like a rag doll and focusing instead on how to defeat this woman. She needed to bring her down, or wear her out, find some kind of opening she could exploit. Once she had Amaya pinned down she could try to end it without further bloodshed. If Amaya could even be talked down. Korra flexed her fingers, her hand forming the form that could remove Amaya's bending. Not yet. Not unless she had to.
Korra rose on a mountain of cement and steel, pushing the rubble off of her, until she towered over Amaya. It also gave her a good view of the damage they'd caused. The devastation from even in this short fight made her sick and it was at least partly her fault. She could beat Amaya by brute force, summoning up a typhoon or ripping open a hole to the core of the planet, but there might be nothing left of Republic City by the time they were done. That wouldn't be much of a victory.
And worse, Amaya was starting to come apart at the seams. Her tattoos' glow had turned darker, the ink leaking like blood. Shadowy cracks were forming in her skin, and her eyes had the same eerie glow as Zaheer's. There were all those tendrils waving in the air, surrounding Amaya like a spikey shield. If Amaya pushed herself much harder, she'd burst - and Korra didn't want to know what that would do to everything around her.
Amaya looked up at the Avatar, standing on her mountain of steel like some kind of goddess. She shifted into an attack stance, hands gnarled like claws, and then unleashed a torrent of fire. And laced through the fire were the shadows of the people she'd taken hostage the tendrils wrapped around and threaded through the flame so that even if the flame was stopped it would be too late to avoid the shadows.
Korra easily caught the fire, bending it away, but the shadows took her by surprise. One tendril stabbed her through the stomach, another caught her by the wrist. A third wrapped around her neck and started to squeeze. She airbent, shooting up and away, shattering the tendrils as she took off. They dissipate like fog, and Korra rose through the air in a sharp arc. She landed on the ground in front of Amaya. With a single flick of her wrist, she shifted the prison with all the innocent people in it down the street and away from present danger.
"You need to stop this! You've killed so many people! At what point is any of this worth it?" There was water from a broken pipe and Korra started to draw it to her, forming a sort of shield around her body.
"What right did you have to change the world? Why should one person have the power to change the fates of the rest of us?" Amaya spoke so vehemently that she had to wipe spittle from her chin. "The Avatar isn't just obsolete, you never should have existed!"
"Are you even listening to yourself? That's exactly what you're doing, that's exactly what Zaheer tried to do. You're trying to change the world to suit what you want without thinking about what everyone else wants!" Korra had moved close enough that she could feel the heat washing off of Amaya's form in pulses. Fire flickered in the air between them and her water shield protected her.
Amaya clenched her fists, her muscles tensing. Her tattoos suddenly burst and she jerked, as though she were a puppet whose strings had been cut. She looked down at her hands and the red oozing from her markings. "Oh." Her sisters were gone, the presence that had been a part of her life for so long empty and void. Amaya felt the last shreds of her soul blacken and wither.
"They're dead, aren't they." Korra's voice was gentle, understanding. But her tone changed. Harder, but still compassionate. "Lihua and Nuo. Whether they wanted this or not, you killed them and you're truly alone now. Whatever this darkness is within you, I can help. Let me help you, Amaya. Lets end this cycle of death."
Korra raised her arms, then started to loop water around Amaya, attempting to purify her of any corruption or dark spirit energy. It was a long shot, but one she had to try. She just needed Amaya to cooperate and this could finally be over, the shadow of the Red Lotus gone at last.
"I understand, now." Though she was distracted by whatever thoughts were going through her head, the water seemed to have a small effect on Amaya. Pain flickered on her face and she looked at Korra as if seeing her for the first time. She pushed back at the water, and shadows burst from the ground like a thick, viscous liquid, rising up Korra's body and then engulfing her. She was pulled to the ground, the liquid shadow trying to force their way into her mouth and nose. It choked at her, flowing towards her lungs and pushing down her throat with increasing force. She gagged, the sensation of drowning one inherently unfamiliar to her as a waterbender. But this wasn't water she could bend away and she was close to panicking. The Avatar State kicked in, stronger than before. Korra slammed her foot on the ground, and Amaya was thrown into the air by the pillar of rock Korra had summoned. The liquid shadow receded and Korra coughed, greedily sucking in great lungfuls of air and overcome by a sensation of the world closing in around her.
Her voice was gravelly when she was able to speak, and she stood a little unsteadily. Her eyes flickered back to normal, and she rubbed at her chest. "What do you understand? Don't tell me you're going to make a speech about cutting your earthly te-"
A sheet of rock suddenly ripped out of the ground and slammed into Korra. She landed on her back, momentarily stunned before it dropped on top of her. It only took her a few seconds to free herself and regain her bearings, but Amaya had already taken off in the direction of the people Korra had pushed away from her. Whatever she had planned for them, it couldn't be good.
Korra rolled her shoulders, then wiped blood from her nose and ran after her. Her skin stung in a thousand places and her lungs felt heavy but she couldn't give up. Even with her sisters dead, Amaya had access to their bending, some how. As though she'd siphoned everything from them. She was already dangerous and now she was desperate. Korra wouldn't fall for some of those attacks again. She was faced with the very real possibility that Amaya wouldn't surrender, and she'd be forced to do something drastic.
When the time comes, you'll know what to do.
But she didn't. With every second that passed, Amaya put more people in danger, and more of Republic City got damaged. For the first time in years she wished she could talk to her past lives, though she knew what some of them would tell her. Aang would tell her to take Amaya's bending. It was a thought that was increasingly occurring to her, but even that might not eliminate Amaya as a threat. It also wasn't exactly something Korra was all that willing to do. Kyoshi's solution would be a lot more violent, but that wasn't a step Korra was willing to take either. There had to be another way to stop her, something she could do to save more lives.
She rounded a corner in time to see Amaya fling the earth prison and everyone inside right at her. The people inside screamed, the sound cutting through Korra's heart. She returned to the Avatar State, catching them and setting them gently down. No one appeared to be hurt, but Amaya had disappeared.
"She's just going to keep hurting people," Korra realized. That was her strategy, force Korra to run around, exhausting herself trying to save as many people as possible, until she was weak enough to be dealt a final blow. She knelt, pressing her hand to the ground. Spirit Energy was strong in Republic City, she just needed to find the strings that Amaya's passage strummed. At least Amaya would be wearing herself out too, their battle turning into one of attrition.
The flow of energy pointed back towards the Spirit Portal. Korra realized if she got inside, she could do irreparable harm to the Spirit World, worse than Zaheer. But before she could get moving, the energy shifted again, away from the portal and towards the sea. Towards Air Temple Island.
"Oh no."
Many of the airbenders had returned to Air Temple Island, where they were taking care of some of the walking wounded. The most seriously injured were in Republic City proper, either at the hospital or at any number of tent villages and camps. But Tenzin had volunteered the island for those who were able to be moved to help ease some of the congestion. Things were going pretty efficiently, and he was ready to send for more people to be brought over when the water started to recede from around the island. Tenzin walked towards the shore, then stopped and stared in horror as the wave rose up. He turned around, running towards the grounds where the wounded were. "Everyone! Everyone get to high ground! Get to the other side of the island, move!"
The water rose higher, and higher above them, blotting out the sun as people scrambled to move the wounded and get them to safety. Suspended in the wave was a figure. Amaya stared down, drawing more and more water into her wave.
"Dad!" Rohan tugged at his hand. "We need to go, now!"
"No, son." He shook his head. "Have everyone take as many wounded as they can carry and fly away."
"But." The thirteen year old looked at his father uncertainly.
"Go, Rohan. I'm counting on you. I'm going to buy everyone some time." He wrenched his arm free of its sling, and started to whip up a whirlwind. It might not be enough, or it might just be enough to funnel some of the inevitable deluge away, but he had to try, for his family and his people. The Air Nation counted on him.
One airbender against a tidal wave. Amaya would have laughed if she wasn't concentrating so hard. But then something curious started to happen. Airbenders began to join Tenzin. One by one, more and more of them. They came to his side, or stood behind him, adding their power to his. The whirlwind increased in intensity, spinning faster and faster and growing as wide as Amaya's wave.
"I thought I told you to get everyone away!"
"I'm sorry, we couldn't leave you."
Tenzin couldn't spare to glance at his son, but a proud look crossed his face. Maybe this would be enough after all. His confidence grew and he felt hope.
"We all stand together." Bumi stepped into sync with his brother, his grey hair whipping around his face.
"I thought you were helping out at the Northern Water Tribe."
"Guess I got back home in time for the big finale, didn't I. Glad I didn't get to miss it! This'll be a story for the ages." Bumi's voice was strained. He wasn't as confident in their ability to hold back Amaya's wave. But if his brother felt hope, then he could feel hope. He'd faced worse odds in his life.
The ground had turned to mud, and it grew increasingly hard to maintain balance. Tenzin's heart raced, his arm in agony. The massive wave crested, pushing against the windstorm that was the only shield between the airbenders and the wounded, and a watery death.
The ground suddenly solidified under their feet, growing as strong as metal and twice as durable. Kuvira strained to give the Airbenders enough purchase in the muddy ground. She'd brought Meelo here, and she could have left at any time, but here she was. The Avatar was a bad influence.
Korra hit the bay like a runaway train. The wall of water rose up in front of her, still too far away. She spun up a whirlpool, shooting into the air on a wave of her own. She felt the bay straining, could feel the effort Amaya was going through to maintain it. She started to tug at the water, pulling it away from Air Temple Island. A few more seconds and Amaya's wave would be gone but the tsunami started to crash down towards the island, breaking through the airbender shield.
Korra screamed in anguish, pulling at the entirety of the bay with all of her might. The wave jerked back and then collapsed, a third of Air Temple Island disappearing under the water. Korra stilled the waves and rocketed towards the island.
Amaya stepped onto the island, surveying the wreckage. She nudged her foot at a man, and sneered. "Too old. But you, you're just right." She drew a knife, then picked up a drenched young airbender. He didn't have his tattoos yet, but Amaya would simply carve them into his skin and take his airbending for herself. But the boy was suddenly blown out of her grip. She turned in time to see the Avatar charging towards her.
"Don't you dare touch Rohan!" She engulfed Amaya in fire, then purged the flames and punched her in the face, breaking Amaya's nose and sending her skidding along the soaked ground.
Breathing heavily, Korra looked around. She didn't know how many people had been washed away. She couldn't see Tenzin, or Pema, or Ikki, she didn't know where Jinora was. So many of her friends, of her people. So many innocents, and even those who weren't entirely innocent. None of them deserved this.
Korra's heart broke, and in a tired voice she stated, "You're never going to stop, are you."
"Take away my bending," Amaya said. She spit blood and teeth out as she climbed to her feet. "And I'll keep coming. The Red Lotus may die, but something new will grow on its grave. I am the seed. Take away my bending, I dare you, and then I'll show you revolution."
"Revolution? This war you started? All these people you've killed? You threatened the whole world!"
Zaheer had trained her. This whole time that madman had continued his work. What would stop Amaya from doing the same thing, from her own jail cell? The world's balance could be forever altered. In some ways it already was.
Amaya attacked, whipping water at Korra. She deflected the blows easily, dodging several shadow spikes that erupted from the ground. One arced suddenly, running one of the unconscious airbenders through. Korra felt the shock as though she'd been stabbed herself.
"Oops. Why don't you come closer? Maybe I won't miss this time." There was no humanity left in Amaya's eyes. Whoever she'd been before, whoever she would have been without Zaheer's influence, that person was dead now. All that remained was a ghost.
Korra's shoulders sagged. Sometimes the answers were right there all along. She just hadn't accepted until now what it was that she had to do. She could have ended this sooner. She could have done so days ago, at the start of the Red Lotus insurrection. She had the power and the strength to shut Amaya down in a heartbeat and the only thing holding her back had been her unwillingness to make the hard choices. Her inability to see that there was nothing in Amaya to save and yet, even now, part of her wondered if there might not be another way. But it was too late.
She could feel the metal from Asami's act of defiance, still lodged in Amaya's back. Korra lifted her hands, then twisted them and drove the shrapnel right into Amaya's heart.
Amaya fell forward as Korra slid to her knees, heaving.