Hello all! I hope you're having a wonderful holiday! Sorry for the late update; life has been getting in the way far too often lately. But here is my gift to you; another chapter. I hope you enjoy it. ^_^

Please note that there is a bit of violence in this chapter and mild blood and gore in one or two lines. If you would like, there is a summary at the end of this chapter.

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Chapter 32

Strategy

The group burst over a rather large hill, Korra at the reigns. Naga was in a full speed sprint, dashing as fast as possible to whatever direction her human companion commanded her to.

"Korra, maybe we should be a bit more subtle than –"

A leap and a turn hushed Asami right up. But it wasn't the jarring motion that silenced her; it was the sight before them.

Several Southern Water Tribe people lay on the ground, motionless from their view. Their blue clothes were stark against the white snow on which they were sprawled. Some of them lay on growing pools of blood. There were a few homes in the distance that were either burning or smoking from the explosions. Chunks of the ground were destroyed around some of the bodies while others had fallen from the weapons of the aggressors nearby.

What made all of them – Naga included – freeze in their tracks were the dozens and dozens of glowing green-eyed, black-masked people surrounding them.

While quite a few Water Benders and Non-Benders remained, most of them were either too far away to know what was happening or out in Harbor City or hunting or Spirits know where. All Korra knew was that they weren't here where she needed them to be at the moment.

It took only seconds for their flanks to be covered.

Korra gritted her teeth. Asami was in a similar hostile state.

We fell right into a trap!

"Korra, what's going on?" Katara called from behind.

She ignored it and jumped down from her polar bear dog.

"What are you doing here?" Korra took commanding steps forward, some of the dueling Benders and Strikers halting upon her arrival. She carried authority in her – authority and rage. How dare these people come into her homeland, kill her people, disturb her peace and happiness. She was having none of it; not anymore. This swell was hindered when she noticed the attackers were arranged in several circles, one of which was enveloping her parents.

"Korra?" Tonraq called to her when he noticed her step off Naga. "You need to run. Get out of here, before they get you!" He continued while trying to keep the charging Strikers at bay with massive swirls of his mighty Water Bending.

"Dad!" Korra charged toward her father until several Strikers intercepted her. She dug her feet into the snow and stopped in an offensive position a few yards away from them. She recognized one of them in an instant from his wardrobe alone, though the pulsing baton in his hand didn't hurt her identification. "Have you seriously come all this way just to find me?"

"You? No. I have no interest in you. It's the woman I want." He pointed his weapon at the polar bear dog behind her.

There she is. After all this time, you'll finally be mine…

Naga crouched and growled at him, ready to pounce on a second's notice – despite the passengers on her back.

"Which woman? There're three of them there."

"The young one," another Striker stepped forward, her entire face hidden by her mask. There was malice and authority in her young voice. "Hand over Sato and no one else will die here."

Warship glanced at her, their intentions unknowingly different.

A faint groan echoed behind the pair of Strikers as another Water Bender fell to the chi blocking assailants. They turned their attention to Korra's parents, watching and waiting for an opportunity to strike.

"Stay alert. And don't let them get close to you," Asami whispered to the Water Benders behind her as she slid off of Naga.

Katara squinted, disbelief in her eyes.

Is that… chiblocking?

Naga protested, but Asami buried a reassuring hand into the animal's white fur. "I'll be fine." She turned to the two Strikers, noting in the back of her mind just how many were surrounding her allies as a whole.

I was right. They had at least triple what we fought in Republic City.

She joined Korra's seven and crossed her arms. "What do you want with me?"

"We're here to bring you back to Republic City."

"Why?"

"There's been a reward placed for your safe return back to the City."

Asami raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Reward? What reward?"

"Yuans. Money. A hundred thousand of them."

"By who?" Korra butted in, taking a protective step forward.

"Hiroshi Sato." The female Striker responded. She dug a rolled up piece of paper from her inner pocket and tossed it to the pair, folding her arms in a similar fashion as the engineer's afterwards.

Asami's hands fell to her sides as she watched the sheet bounce over to her feet. She picked it up and unfurled it, scanning over the characters rather quickly. "My father put this out?"

She nodded. "Posted it all over the City. Said you've been missing for several days. He didn't get any word from you and the police are getting nowhere in their search, so he put a reward up for your safe return." The Striker advanced a pace.

Korra slid in front of Asami just a bit – enough to block the stranger if she needed to.

If he filed a police report, wouldn't Lin have mentioned it to me?

Unless he filed it after we were together.

Or he never filed a damn thing.

He's not working with the Strikers, Asami. He can't be.

Oh, and your weak benefit of the doubt is enough to make you believe this, huh?

Yes, it is. Maybe Lin was just too busy to know about the report. Her people are dying. She has more important things to worry about.

And why is it that her people are dying?

He… he would never condone this. My father is not a vicious murderer.

But these people are. And they want to take you away to him. Is that really a coincidence?

She paused a moment, trying to deal with the turmoil inside of her. Her mind flipped back and forth between the possibilities, her doubt and benefit of the doubt combating. "I don't believe you," she growled, though she wasn't sure if it was directed at the Strikers or at herself.

"How did you even find us? Why would you even bother coming all the way here if he posted this for the entire City to find?" Korra stepped in, just as confused on the matter.

"You don't think there aren't others trying to get here: thugs, lowlifes, poor folk? They're all scrambling to find you just to get that money, searching every corner of Republic City for you. We just happened to be quicker and better at tracking." She paused at the sound of another person falling. This time, it was one of her own. She took a breath to steady herself, a part of her wanting this violence to stop at any cost; she did not want to be in the Southern Water Tribe right now, not under these circumstances. She scoffed inside at her own weakness that brought her here and gathered her thoughts. "Look, Asami, your father misses you. He's worried about you and he hasn't heard from you in days. He just wants to see that you're safe and not dead in a gutter somewhere."

"Then I'll send him a message." She crumpled the advertisement up and threw it back at the Striker's feet.

"That's not going to be good enough. We didn't come all the way here for a rejection." Warship snarled back.

We came for vengeance.

"He wants you in person, Asami – returned to him in one piece." The other Striker continued, retrieving the note from the snow.

Sentai eyed the woman beside him, malice in his stance.

She's not going to just going to oblige, Ruby. Not until you get to the snow savage. And while you do that…

"And why would I go with you?!" Asami lurched forward, her hands balled into fists. She stopped just short of Korra's position. Her arms were shaking as her thoughts pounded into each other. "What makes you think I would just let you take me willingly after everything you've done? Especially you." She pointed to the man behind Ruby. "Warship, Sentai – whatever the fuck you want to call yourself. Why would I ever trust you after what you've put us through?"

"Because if you don't come with us, more people are going to die."

The sound of a scream at the hands of an electric glove radiated through the air. The plummet of the body into the snow echoed in Asami's ears.

She looked around at the people surrounding her: the Strikers, charged and ready to attack, Korra's parents, who were fighting for their lives against the many aggressors coming their way, the bodies and burning houses in the distance. She had wondered to herself how it was even possible for Water Benders to be losing this fight; this was their terrain, their home, after all, and for Spirits sake, they were surrounded by water to Bend.

But part of her realized that not everyone here were Benders when she saw a woman and child chased down by a man with an electric cable. He chucked it at the pair. It extended from its metal containment and wrapped itself around the mother upon impact with her back, binding and shocking her at the same time. She collapsed into the snow, unconscious with her sobbing daughter tight in her arms.

It was the sound of another explosive and the slice of a hidden blade into an older Water Bender's gut at impeccable speed that she grasped why this was a battle and not a slaughter by the Southern Water Tribe; while many of the Benders were able to hold their own, some of them couldn't withstand the tricks the Strikers were pulling out of thin air. She noticed a particularly fast Striker avoid a massive wave Bent at him while tossing a device at the Bender's feet, successfully blowing the middle-aged woman to bloody bits before she could even notice it.

Asami couldn't help but cringe to the sights and the sounds around her. Sentai was serious about people dying if she didn't go with them.

When her eyes fell on the back of Korra's head, she had lost her raging fire.

Maybe they're right. Maybe I should go with them.

This could be a trap, Asami. They could be using you to get to your father or to bargain with him, to have him make more weapons for them in order to ensure your safety.

Or he could have ordered them to do it. Another side of her stepped in. He could have threatened to stop making them weapons unless they found you and brought you back.

He's not making them weapons!

If they are telling the truth, it's a bit justified, don't you think? You should have written him some sort of letter or phoned him or something to let him know you were alright. In actuality, Asami, this falls on you.

I – I was too focused on finding Korra…

And look where that's gotten you.

Asami gritted her teeth.

People are going to die, right here and right now, if you don't surrender yourself to them.

But how do I know that they won't just kill the people anyways, once they capture me?

If this is a rouse, they could have your father, too. Don't you want to go back home? Make sure he's safe?

No. Not like this, at least.

Then people are going to die. They are going to destroy as much of the Southern Water Tribe as they can, and you know Sentai won't stop until Korra and her parents and every other Water Bender is dead.

Her eyes flicked between Korra and Warship. It was enough to make her falter.

Maybe I should surrender and spare their lives, spare Korra's life.

And if it's a trick? If they attack despite you giving yourself up?

Well, there's only one way to find out.

"Fine," she put on her most pathetic, defeated expression. "You win. I'll go with you. Please, just don't hurt anyone else."

That was easy enough.

Ruby lifted her hand in relief, throwing a signal into the air. Several of her comrades came forward, surrounding the four of them. "Take her away."

"No!" Korra stepped in front of Ruby, her arms outstretched in a protective fashion. "You're not taking Asami. I – I won't let you!"

"Korra, this is my choice. Think of how many people I would save in the Southern Water Tribe by doing this."

"And think of how many people are going to get killed because of this. Do you really think they're going to stick to their word?" She turned her head to her shoulder, as if to face Asami, but she kept her eyes on the Strikers in front of her. "Especially him." She nodded towards Sentai. "He tried to kill me, Asami. He tried to kill all of us. I gave him a chance, I loosened my hands, and he impaled me with his baton and almost killed me." She bore into his glowing green eyes with fire in her own. "No, I can't let them take you. If you want to go back to Republic City to see your dad, then I'll take you there myself. Fuck the reward money. I don't care if I have to swim all the way there with you on my back. I will not let them lay a finger on you."

"This is your last chance to walk freely, Asami."

Korra narrowed her position, prepared to lunge on cue. "More people will die if you surrender, Asami. All they care about is the money. They don't care about you. And I'm sure if you get injured, they're just going to cover up your wounds to claim their prize. But you're not a prize, Asami. You're a person, a person who should be treated with respect, not bought from a bunch of criminals with ransom money. I know your dad is worried about you, but is this really the way you want this to go? Besides, think of what they'll do with that money. They'll get more weapons, kill more people than before. They could eradicate every Bender in Republic City and start expanding. This is our chance to stop them before they get worse and worse. Look at all of them. If we shut them down here, their numbers will be hurt in the City. Then you won't have to go back to them; you can go back to your family and your friends. You can go back with me." She straightened and turned to Asami, caught up in her own emotions. "Please, don't do this."

Asami opened her mouth to argue when the weapon caught her eye. She shifted into an aggressive stance in what felt like slow motion as she yelled "Korra, look out". She grabbed Korra's wrist and pulled her out of the path of Sentai's sweeping baton, his movement more of an attempt to grab Korra by the neck than to hurt her.

Warship, you idiot! Ruby scowled him under her mask: it was bad enough that he went against the original stealthy plan and set the explosives off sooner than she wanted – forcing her to adjust her strategy to a trap instead of an ambush – but now he was acting completely out of line. He was ruining the mission, a mission that she didn't even want to go on.

Korra rotated from the yank until she was back to back with Asami. "See, Asami. They don't want us to survive. They just want you. They're going to kill us no matter what you choose to do."

Warship smirked and poised himself. He threw a signal into the sky. Several of the Strikers loyal to his command lunged forward.

Before Ruby knew it, she was shifting into an aggressive stance that she didn't want to be in, the rest of the Strikers continuing their assault on the Southern Water Tribe with her own, ghosted and forced order. It was the only thing she could do to ensure the mission was completed after Warship's buffoonery.

So she braced herself and prepared for the battle to come.

The Strikers came rushing in different patterns, weaving in and out in an unpredictable scheme. Some of them bore electric gloves while others used just their fingers to fight. Faint shimmers of hidden blades caught the light of the somewhat-darkened sun. The circle around Korra and Asami started to close in when Naga smashed through the lines. Much to Korra's surprise, Naga didn't stop running; she plowed through the others as fast as she could to avoid their chi blocking jabs, though a few of them did hit enough of their marks to slow her down.

Once the flash of furry white was gone, two women in blue robes stood before her, arms and legs at the ready.

Ruby stared at the Water Benders in a state of disbelief, recognizing the eldest immediately.

Katara?

Unfortunately for her, she wasn't the only one to notice the great Water Bending Master. Warship tightened his grip on his baton and gritted his teeth.

Katara.

Within an instant, Katara and Kya were Bending water at their foes, hurtling some of them away while others dodged the attacks. Katara moved at a speed that no one – even her own daughter – expected, using large waves and massive attacks to try and subdue the Strikers. While it worked for the slower enemies, the quicker ones either sprinted around it or – somehow – right through the base, almost as if their bodies were repelling the liquid. Kya moved the water around her in several whipping circles, keeping her perimeter clear as the aggressors closed in. They took Asami's advice and tried to keep the Strikers as far away as possible.

Korra and Asami clenched their jaws and waited for the Strikers to get within attacking range, having no other options. When two of them were close enough, the pair played off of each other, each rolling forward under their attacks. They latched onto the wrist of their main assailant and rotated on the ball of their feet, sending the men flying into each other in one powerful collision. One groaned on the ground while the other didn't make a sound. The duo stood right back into their original position – their spines almost touching – ready for the next assault. Six of them came charging in at once, though two were taken down by Kya and frozen to the ground. Still, it was enough to separate them, and once they were apart, the Strikers moved in to keep it that way.

Tonraq and Senna were fighting in an almost combined style of the other four: Tonraq used strong attacks while Senna stood more on the defensive, trying to keep a good amount of distance between themselves and the Strikers; if anyone had firsthand experience with the feeling of losing both their ability to Bend and move at the hands of the Strikers, it was them. They Bent back to back, occasionally playing off of the other with a controlled, enveloping swirl of a single stream of water. Like his daughter, Tonraq was protective of the woman he loved, and stepped in to redirect attack after attack. It seemed as though the more enemies he took down with his waves of water and precise icicle collisions, the more there were to replace them.

Though the other Benders around him were experienced, they had never dealt with such a fast and elusive foe. The elders held them off for a while, but their old age and lack of practice started to get the best of them. As the enemies swarmed in, some of them were rendered confused and useless with chi blocking. Others were electrified with the mechanical gloves or bound with shocking cables after missing an attack by hairs. They were not prepared for such an adversary, and when one thought about it, the Strikers were the perfect match for the Water Benders: while they were powerful in their ability to control water, their strength came from large, distanced attacks and redirecting one's energy back to them. Water Bending was not a closed-quarters style for many of them, and the nearer the Strikers got, the harder it proved to defend themselves against the aggressors. Every attempt to freeze them to the ground was dodged. When it got to the point that large movements wouldn't work, smaller flicks of the arms and wrists were their only hope. This, though, was not sufficient. It was the Strikers' speed and quick jabbing ability that gave them the advantage – once they made their way through the monstrous waves and ice daggers, of course. After that, the Strikers made short work of the Benders. Once one arm or leg was down, the rest came with ease.

It wasn't hard for Katara to see this; Tonraq and Senna weren't the only ones who had firsthand experience with chi blockers, though hers was in the distant past. Even the great Water Bending Master herself was starting to feel the pressure and struggle to keep her attackers at bay. She shot herself up into the air and rode a wave of her own creation, trying to both smother and draw out the Strikers that were attacking her away from Korra, Asami, and her daughter.

Kya eyed her with worry, unsure of whether to help her mother or assist the Non-Benders beside her. The amount of Strikers splitting between Katara and the pair were about even; the man with the baton went after Katara while the woman trying to persuade Asami to surrender attacked Asami directly. She gritted her teeth, distracted in her dilemma. A quick jab came close to her, and while she parried it, the hit was precise enough to block some of the chi in her left forearm. She used the mangled feeling in her limb to shift the ice under her, which sent her, Korra, and Asami up into the air on a platform while pushing away some of the Strikers at the same time. She rotated and sent a surge of water around her, knocking off two of the aggressors charging at the younger duo. They plummeted several feet until they collided with the ground next to Ruby. With another shift, she froze a third attacker to the ground, unable to do much else with her left arm now that the chi block set in.

While it kept the electric gloves and jabbing away, Kya's ice pillar was no match for the portable explosives at the Striker's disposal. They tossed the chemical devices at the base of the platform and slammed on a trigger the moment they made contact. The support cracked and crumbled underneath them, a spotted forest of assailant's waiting below.

"Hang on!" Kya used her right arm to Bend some of the ice under Korra and Asami into a wave that pushed them farther from the destroyed structure. Kya crashed into the ground, landing on her functioning arm in a contorted fashion.

Korra and Asami met much of the same fate, though the severity of their impact was lessened through the rolls they managed to pull out. They hopped up into aggressive stances as several more Strikers, led by their female commander, charged at them. Korra glanced over her shoulder for just a second at the Water Bender who had saved them from the explosion.

The Strikers swooped in on Kya, surrounding her and dipping in and out to throw off her pattern. While she was on her feet trying to fight, she was no match for their speed with her limited abilities. She maintained several swirling rings of water around her, but her movements were no longer fluid. She was on the defensive, trying to fend off the quick attacks. One slip and another jab collided with her left arm. A third one followed, forcing the numbed limb to hang at her side, useless. She did her best to fight with her near-broken right arm, but there were just too many of them. They swarmed her, nine fast shots to shut her body down. She fell into the snow, unable to move. All she could do was watch as most of the Strikers charged towards her mother, unable to do a damn thing to help her. Two of them remained, tying her arms behind her back and lifting her to drag her away.

Tonraq and Senna were close to meeting a similar fate. While the former was trained to handle this intensity of combat, it had been years since he's had to practice it to such a degree, minus the incident in Republic City and the attack on the Southern Water Tribe about fourteen years ago. He shook that day from his head and tried to focus, sweat pouring from his brow. Senna wasn't a Warrior. She could defend herself, that was for sure, but she was always more of a Healer and a peace bringer than she was a fighter; she preferred to use her words over her brawn.

And in this battle, it was beginning to show.

She found it more and more difficult to keep the Strikers at bay. She Bent a wall of ice around her and her husband, hoping to uphold a barrier for them to catch their breaths. But it took only seconds for their explosives to tear it down in her exhaustive state. They had been fighting the Strikers for too long, ever since the first explosion drew them from their home. Their attackers started to play off their weakness. They left themselves open to draw Tonraq out. Once the distance between the couple was great enough, they surrounded Senna and cut Tonraq right off from her.

By the time he could get to her, she had been chi blocked.

He rode a current similar to Katara's to clear some of the Strikers out of the way. Several of them discharged their electric gloves while stuck in his wave. The shock went right up to him, forcing its way through his soaked boots and pants. He tumbled to the jolt and rolled through the snow before he could get to his wife. He shot right up when he saw them grab her and tie her hands behind her back. With a new momentum, he Bent stream after stream of water at the aggressors in an almost-blind rage. The ones who weren't rendered unconscious from the impact with the ground or weren't frozen where they stood got right back up, unaffected from the cold or the brute force. The water rolled right off of their suits, keeping them dry and warm. He gritted his teeth and charged at them, a bit too hot-headed in his movements.

His frustration and desire to protect his family got the best of him.

A younger Striker managed to slip through his attacks, sliding on the ground until he grabbed onto Tonraq's foot. He sent a pulse up his calf before the Bender could free himself. While the shock didn't do much, it stunned him for just enough time to allow several other assailants to come in. They made fast work of his arms and once he couldn't Bend, the legs went, too.

Tonraq watched with horrified eyes as the Strikers attacking him closed in on Korra. He growled at the people tying his hands behind his back, wanting nothing more than to defend his wife and child.

"Korra!"

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Summary: Korra, Asami, Katara, Kya, and Naga burst over a hill to find many, many Strikers near Korra's home. They are attacking her parents and the other villagers. Several houses are smoking and on fire. There are bodies scattered around from successful Striker attacks of both Benders and Non-Benders. Due to their speed and technology, the Strikers are proving a formidable foe to the Southern Water Tribe. Korra steps off of Naga to go save her parents (who tell her to run) when she is intercepted by Warship and Ruby. Warship claims they want the woman (while pointing to the people on Naga's back) and Ruby specifies that they want Asami. Asami slides off Naga and approaches them. She learns from Ruby that they were there because her father had put a reward out for her safe return and tossed her a copy of the flier. They had come here to retrieve Asami and threatened to kill more people if she did not. Asami has inner turmoil over whether or not to trust or believe the Strikers and the battle between whether her father is working with them or not resurfaces inside of her. When she glances up, she notices more people in the Southern Water Tribe being slaughtered around her. She decides to surrender to spare their lives and to spare /Korra's/ life. Korra, of course, refuses this, making claims that, if Asami wanted to return to Republic City to see Hiroshi again, then she could go with Korra. At this point, she softens and faces Asami, trying to get her point across that the Strikers are bad news and that, if they stop them here, they could save a lot of lives in Republic City. Warship tries to grab Korra with his baton to use her as a bargaining chip, but Asami notices this and pulls Korra from his reach. They end up back to back and Korra reaffirms how they don't care about anything, they just want Asami and the money.

A battle ensues. As the Strikers rush over to Korra and Asami, Naga plows through them and is mildly chi blocked as she continues to run past them. Kya and Katara hop off of Naga at this point and start to help protect Korra and Asami. Tonraq and Senna are slowly weakened as other, older Water Benders and Non-Benders fall around them. Katara tries to draw some of the Strikers off, effectively leading half of them away from Korra, Asami, and Kya - Warship included. Kya tries to protect Korra and Asami, but her left arm is chi blocked in the process of her distraction. She Bends them onto an ice platform, but the Strikers blow it away with explosives. Kya uses her good arm to send Korra and Asami on a wave away while she crashes to the ground, injuring her good arm. The Strikers move in, and although she is able to defend them for a while, she succumbs to their attacks and is chi blocked. Her arms are bound behind her back and she is taken away. Senna and Tonraq end up in a similar fate. The Strikers lure Tonraq away from Senna and chi block her. Tonraq charges at them in a blind rage and ends up chi blocked and restrained as well. He's forced to watch the Strikers run towards Korra to attack her, unable to do a damn thing to protect his family.