/*Made several edits. Spelling mostly. Truly sorry for that.*/
-Subvert-
Qu angrily watched the sun climb up into the sky from behind the seas of Metro. He was in his control room in the central train station, and he had just gotten news that in his most recent broadcast to his people, the sound of a girl moaning had been superimposed over Qu's voice. Those citizens who had not been arrested in the riots were confused as to why it sounded like Qu was broadcasting from a brothel because of all the sex noises.
"Dammit. It's those ONI people I know it. I only recorded that early this morning how could they have changed it?"
Qu looked from the large window to the desks with his soldiers acting as engineers operating radios and wearing headsets, unsure as to what they were doing. Similarly, the soldiers operating the transmission devices were also wondering what they were doing. They figured that turning the knobs a few times gave Qu the impression that they were familiar with the technology.
"We aren't sure, sir," one of the engineers told Qu. "Somehow they must have intercepted it as it was…transmitted to the public radios." The other engineers looked at him with surprise as to how he came up with that good excuse.
Unheh laughed in her cell. She had always had that recording with her, knowing that at some point she could slip it into some audio transmission. The desired effect was nothing less than perfect. Qu's words, when they aired over the airways about the state of the union and the consequences of the riots, lost all of their gravity because of the constant female moaning in the background of the transmission.
"Idiots," she said to herself, as she knew the "engineers" under Qu would never be able to figure out that she did it, or that it was even her in the first place.
Qu paced in the control room before going to the next floor to check on the engineers who in charge of the radars and security cameras to see if they found anything suspicious.
"Well? Any trace of 'em?"
"No sir, all three tunnels have been completely empty. The soldiers have reported nothing from the trains. Our radars indicate no foreign ships nearby."
"You sure these cameras would pick them up? You sure you know what is a foreign ship and what is not on these radars?"
Pretty sure, the engineer thought. Qu's radio started to buzz.
"What is it?" he yelled.
"Sir, we've had a few more strays trying to get through the walls today. We still have them contained in the camps on the outskirts of town. Should we start moving them out?"
"No, they stay there. Everyone stays within the city. That is what the walls are there for. We can't risk it. I need them to stay here."
"Sir," said one of the men operating the cameras. "We are getting a lot of activity in the sea. It looks like a large mass of ships has suddenly appeared on the radar here. See those…red dots? Or rather the smear of red dots I think."
Qu examined the screen. "They are so close together and there are too many. That can't be possible. Are you sure this thing is working?"
"No."
"Damn thing is broken then. I'll find someone to fix it."
"Sir, what are we doing about the mess in Republic City?"
"There is no mess," Qu spat. "We are handling the situation that organization unleashed on those people and blamed onto us."
"Sir, I could have sworn it was us that released the Clasma? And that video clearly showed a wrecked city…"
"It'd be wise to get your memories straight, cadet, before I have them straightened out for you."
Qu was contacted again via radio.
"Sir," a voice spoke. "The records from our curfew patrols don't make sense today."
"What does that mean?"
"We have a third of the people as last night counted."
"Everyone is supposed to be in their homes," Qu yelled. "They checked all of them?"
"Yessir. The number of people missing are going up."
"Where the hell are they going!?" The channel became noisy. Qu listened as the voice on the other end became drowned in the static. He continued pressing the transmit button. "Hello? Hello? Damn thing…"
He adjusted the frequency dialer and was about to call for an engineer to fix it when the static cleared away and a new voice spoke. A very familiar voice.
"Hello, Chief Qu. Master in Command. Or Colonel Milan, as you were once known. Your radio is not broken, as you might think. And in any case, your so-called 'engineers' would not be able to do anything about it anyway."
"Who are you?" Qu said viciously, his mouth extremely close to the microphone.
"At this point, that doesn't matter. Up until now we have done nothing more than toy with you and your silly regime. We have convinced the masses of the immorality and foolishness with which you run your government. They have used their brains and realized that staying with you will lead them to death while joining us will lead them to a new life. The last of your slaves which you call followers are locked in this city. Your system has survived because we have allowed it to, but today this ends. Today we take the last of your supporters, without which you have nothing, and your state will inevitably collapse onto itself. There is no point in stopping us. Our operation is already underway. We are already in the process of moving your citizens out and to safety," the man kept talking. Qu rushed to the cameras of the city. He saw no movement in the streets or buildings. He saw no signs of exile. How could this be true?
"You speak lies," Qu yelled.
"I have not contacted you to convince you of anything. I am merely stating the end of your rule over anyone. If your soldiers have any common sense, they will leave you as well. For you see, you are all in grave danger. The city of Metro will soon be leveled the same way that Republic City was."
"By you!" Qu accused.
"Believe in your own lies, Qu. Leave if you wish to live. Aid us if you desire to see your people survive. Otherwise, stay out of our way, and await the slaughter by the beast that will destroy your city with a single swipe of its fist."
Qu smiled, thinking he had the organization figured out as he looked at the screens. The radars depicting the sea. "I see your navy, my good sir. On our seas right now. They are on our own radar."
"I trust that you know how to read that radar. We have not a single ship on your seas."
Qu was stubbornly skeptical, but his soldiers began to develop a fear that what the man on the radio was saying was true.
"We are currently leading your people out of the city. You have no chance at stopping us. Aid us, or stay out of our way. The choice is yours, but if you wish to survive at all, I would suggest you follow suit, and leave immediately."
The static returned. "It's impossible," he squeezed the radio and metal bent the inner pieces of silicone so that the device shattered.
"Sir!" the soldiers watching the radar yelled. "The red on the ocean. It's coming closer to us."
"Their army is moving." One of the other engineers looked at the screen.
"Sir, I think these readings are generated using infrared."
"So?"
"So…this red isn't a ship on the ocean, or a whole mass of ships. I think it measures sources of heat…and this is just a smear of red, extremely red. The levels reach the maximum, no ship can reach that value. And the smear moves at once. I think we are looking at one…big thing. Not a bunch of smaller things"
"It's bullshit. That big thing spans the entire city almost. They've fooled us before they won't do it this time." Qu started to walk toward the temporary holding cells. "Besides, we have something they need. One of their own. They most certainly wouldn't leave one of their own behind."
Qu stepped down into the hallway which led to the cells. The lights were shut off. He began to talking to the prisoners. "You probably all think that someone is coming to save you. You are all probably aware of the plan that ONI has come up with to fool me into thinking we are all in danger of some spiritual monster. But you all, you are the key to getting them to confess their crimes, for they certainly would not continue their mission if it meant your life!" He flicked the switch that controlled the lights of the holding cells. Every single one was empty, the cell doors opened and creaking as they swiveled back and forth with the air. Qu began to shake with rage. The slight noise behind him caught his attention, and he turned to see Unheh, the former prisoner, and a girl with a hood veiling her face.
Without words, Qu bent his coiled metal wires to try and subdue the two fugitives. The hooded girl drew a long blade, sliced the end of one of the wires and wrapped the other around her sword, taking control of it. Unheh pulled out a small device with a clamp on it. She attached the device to the metal wires, pressed a button and the two ran off as the small pod discharged a wave of static electricity which traveled up Qu's wires and electrocuted him. Qu fell to the ground, slightly unconscious as the two girls escaped.
Korra removed her hood and let Unheh lead them out the way that the other prisoners had escaped. Unfortunately, Qu had contacted his guards, and one of them blocked the exit to the buildings. Unheh instinctively jumped right and ran down another hallway. Korra followed. The guards chased them down and soon the girls found themselves in a room filled with soldiers watching cameras and radars. Two large windows on the opposite side of the room showed the ocean. The soldiers reacted at the sight of the two girls. They prepared their metal wires to suppress them. The guard chasing the girls ran into the room, but Korra apprehended him and put her sword to his neck. Taking him hostage. Unheh pulled out one ONI's super pistols and aimed it at the doorway, ensuring no more soldiers would interrupt them.
Qu's men hesitated to attack with fear of hurting their own man. Korra made eye contact with each of them, silently sending the message containing the seriousness with which she was operating.
"You all have a choice at this juncture," Korra said. "If you attempt to kill us, then we will presume that you have given up your humanity, and we will have no
hesitation to kill you."
The men felt the threat from Korra's eyes more than from her words. Korra kept making eye contact with each of them. Cycling through. Unheh began to walk out of the room. Before Korra released her hostage, she saw through the large windows. The sea beyond the city was slowly rising. Like a tsunami, only instead of flowing toward the town, it flowed upwards. Something enormous rising out of the water, sending tital wave ripples toward the banks of the city in the process. The rising sun was eclipsed by the wave forming in the ocean.
Korra, filled with fear and an urge to run, pushed the guard away and the two ran for the nearest exit.
"No time for the normal way, Unheh." The two escaped through a window and landed on a ledge on the station tower. They could suddenly see the length of the wave just beyond the docks of the city. The stationary crest.
"What is that?" Unheh asked in disbelief.
"CHOAS," Korra whispered.
The water continued to ascend upwards as the beast rose from the ocean. Its presence blackened the sky above it. Its skin burned with the intensity of a sun, and its green eyes beamed through the falling waters. Daya's eyes. They struck Korra's insides and turned them.
Korra pulled out her radio and tried to contact General Hou. "Sir, this is Korra. We need those walls taken down immediately."
The two looked down to see civilians rushing through the streets, screaming, scared, running for the walls to get away from the sea monster. Police officers were pushed aside as they did not know how to respond to this threat.
"There won't be enough time to squeeze all these people out through the underground tunnels," Korra continued. "They'll need to escape now. CHAOS has come for us."
Qu attempted to stand where he had been electrocuted. He held on to the cell bars as he made his way back to the control room.
"I hope that you all apprehended those damn two…" Qu walked into his control room to find it empty. All of his soldiers abandoned him. Not a single person left in the station but him. "Scared you that much did they? Now I know the boys from the men, heh." Qu walked to the windows and saw CHAOS rising from the ocean, the water being bent by the monster, revolving around it as a shield for the guns being fired at it by Qu's men on the shores.
"You won't fool me. I am not going to go down easily like that." Qu ascended to the top of the building, to his office, where, in a large chest in the back of his closet, the remaining vials of Graft's Clasma were stored. "Now we'll see the true power of bending, the true power of a god."
Outside, the citizens of Metro fled with fear, running for the metal walls which kept them from freedom. They clawed at them, unable to bypass them or do any damage. The sentinels patrolling, uncertain whether to open them, receiving no signal from Qu.
From high up, Korra and Unheh watched the massacre, ready to descend and help. Below them, a few guards began to harass and beat some civilians trying to escape. Unheh blasted them in the kneecaps with her pistol.
"I'm going to help them. Come on." Unheh leaped off and made her way to ground level. Many members of ONI appeared from the depths of the secret train tunnels below, helping to direct people out of the city toward the sections of the walls with holes in them, as well as fend off any assaults from guards.
Korra prepared to join Unheh when a familiar feeling overcame her. The feeling of great power concentrated in one person. The feeling that she had been spotted by those treacherous, green eyes.
The monster reached the shores of the city. The buildings dissolved as it passed over them. Vaporized in the intense energy leaking from the beast. It slapped its paw onto the surface, and the earthquake nearly sent the buildings around it tumbling down. Just below the head of CHAOS, the man in the white overcoat stood, protected from the beast's energy in his chamber, staring at Korra with eyes of hate. His hands glowed green. Korra shrieked and jumped from the ledge just as an energy beam blasted the very spot at which she was just standing. Vaporizing it completely. She landed on a smaller building below and didn't think, didn't hesitate, just ran as fast as she could. She knew Solomon had just leaped from the monster and was trying to follow her.
Korra whistled loudly and leaped forward as Solomon directed another energy blast at her. The shot dissolved the roof of the building she was running across. Before it was completely gone, she jumped over the edge. in her landing, Korra slipped and fell on her back. Solomon was soon upon her. Before Korra could back away he sent one of his vine-like energy beams into her chest, holding her in place.
"Impressive, Avatar Korra. I don't know how you are able to be here, but you've fooled even me with your fake death, a death that I was supposed to bring to you. No matter, now I will make sure there will be nothing left of you."
In Solomon's hubris due to his triumph over Korra, he failed to sense the great white beast charging at him from behind. As his prepared his energy blast to kill Korra, Naga sunk her teeth into Solomon's leg and sent him flying backwards into the street. She then picked up Korra, who was instantly on her friend's back.
"Thanks girl, let's get out of here."
More people continued to run for the metal walls as their town slowly disintegrated into the skin of the beast coming their way. Korra rode Naga up to a ledge of a dismantled building which acted as a good vantage point for the scene. Her radio began vibrating.
"Avatar Korra," General Hou said, "our devices worked. Our explosives were a huge success. Many of the walls have been taken down. We have vehicles taking people out now." Korra scanned the length of the walls and noticed on the southern side of the city, many of the walls had holes in them, very small cracks big enough for a car, maybe a truck. "I'll send Asami your way with more explosives for the northern side."
Korra looked behind her. "There is no time, the monster will wipe us out before she gets here for sure. We only have a matter of minutes to get these people out."
"How many are there where you are?" General Hou asked.
"Quite a lot," Korra watched the scene. Hundreds of civilians packed before the walls. Families with children. Few police members attempted to subdue the parents trying to get their families to safety per Qu's orders. Korra saw these parents hold nothing back and fight against the guards to defend their children. Several helicopters belonging to ONI descended from the skies but could only hold a few people. These same parents, fighting to defend their families, chose not to save themselves but gave up their children to the soldiers in the helicopters to be saved instead. People who were fighting for another, willing to die for the ones they cared for and loved unconditionally.
"The tunnels are filled with people, Korra," Hou yelled. "There is no way to get them all out."
"I'll do it," a voice said over the radio, which Korra recognized as O-Ren.
"O-Ren…" Before Korra could say anything, O-Ren materialized out of the masses and was in front of the wall. "O-Ren wait."
"There is no time to wait, Korra. These people need to get to safety now." O-Ren placed his hands on the walls. Everyone stood back as he bent the metal, slowly, crumpling it up, making small tears in the structure. The metal blockade gradually ripping apart, but not fast enough. O-Ren increased his strength, but knew that soon he would not be able to do anything at all for these people.
If it means at least one person can get out…
The pain began to build in his arms. The feeling like shards of glass flowing through his veins as his Chi began to boil. He fought through the pain, trying to find his strength and tear the wall down. His skin on his arms began tearing apart as well. Burning up from the boiling Chi within him. His thoughts becoming fuzzy. His memories blending together. He told himself to ignore it. To put it out of his mind. But soon the pain would be too overwhelming. His eyes lost focus, he became nauseous, he couldn't look straight and his strength was diminishing.
Suddenly, the wall was coming down much faster. The metal split apart with such ease to O-Ren. He was confused, until he looked around and saw the metal benders, Qu's soldiers, helping him bring the wall down. Finally helping the citizens to escape. His knees wobbled and he fell to the ground, but the wall was torn apart, and the people were able to escape through it.
Korra witnessed O-Ren and another soldier fall to the ground during the ordeal. She raced toward them, the only two left after all the civilians had escaped.
"They are out. Flee, Hou. Get out now," She yelled. Korra, on Naga's back, sped down the street, CHAOS on her tail, sending blasts of energy and debris everywhere. Naga zig-zagged to dodge it. Korra saw the two before her, O-Ren, and Rong, the soldier whose life was almost lost after attacking their Team on the highway. Korra flew past them, picking them off the ground and placing them onto Naga's back. CHAOS took what was left of the city and lifted off the ground, flying into the air, into the sky.
Korra continued to ride Naga out of the city. She raced through the brush of the woods, and although midday, the darkness of CHAOS made the woods extremely dark. Korra swiped sticks and branches out of her face and repeatedly looked back to make sure both Rong and O-Ren were still with her. They were nearly unconscious, barely breathing. She headed for Misty Grove.
"Hold on, you two."
When she came to a clearing in the brush, Korra looked up and saw that the monster had ascended above the clouds. CHAOS's trail was easy to follow. The blackened sky constructed a path right to the beast. Elsewhere the sky remained blue and unchanged. The path of the monster indicated that it was moving extremely fast, toward the secret city run by ONI. Toward Misty Grove. Korra brought Naga to a stop on the edge of the woods.
"Oh no," she shrieked. "It's heading right for them."
She quickly pulled her radio out and fumbled with it, trying to get Hou or Susumu or Asami on the line, when the darkness around her was suddenly and quickly illuminated. Behind her, like a bullet fired from the direction of where Metro once stood, a bright orange flame was coming right at them. At the forefront of this giant flame that was consuming every tree that it passed, a demented Qu emitted the fire from his fist, propelling himself with the thrust of his own newly acquired and mastered fire bending. His eyes glowed green, as did his skin. The sight of the fire scared Naga, who threw Korra, O-Ren and Rong off of her back.
Qu put his brakes on and brought a wall of fire down on the four. Korra grabbed her two injured soldiers and jumped out of the way, opposite the direction in which Naga fled. Korra looked over the fire to see Naga, standing still, watching her loving owner, but frightened by the flames.
"Now!" Qu yelled, but it was no longer only his voice. Many were superimposed with his. He was no longer a single person, now he had the powers, the memories, the identities, of many. "Now you will see the true power of my regime. The true power that I have, that I will use to lead the people of this world as their god! Feel my god-like power!" He raised the earth around Korra's feet, causing her to fall to her hands. He compacted the earth around her hands, trapping her. Qu charged a lightning bolt with his two hands.
Korra looked up at his inhuman eyes, helpless, unable to move, cemented to the earth, she saw death in those eyes, her death. He extended his arm, allowing the charged lighting bolt to be discharged from his body, the bolt zigzagging across its trajectory toward Korra, who had no way of stopping it.
The end…this is the end…
A great force suddenly rammed into Korra's side, forcing her from her earth bondage to the ground, throwing her off the path of the lightning bolt. Naga, Korra's lifelong, loving, best friend, had bravely jumped through the fires to push her out of death's way..
…Naga! Korra thought with extreme gratefulness, but in that same instant, she realized what it had meant for Naga to do what she did.
The lightning bolt continued through the air, and where Korra had been trapped, Naga now stood. The bolt passed through the polar bear dog's chest, and from her body it was discharged in all directions. A lightning storm in the woods, in the small area around the polar bear dog. Korra looked in horror as she saw her best friend fall to the ground. No more breathing. No more life.
O-Ren watched as Korra's most dearest was killed by the sadistic Colonel Milan. Korra couldn't move. Her brain refused to process any thought, issue any command to her body. Just like the death of Naga, something within Korra died as well.
Qu did not think twice. He redirected his aim for Korra, but before he could charge another bolt, he screamed in agony as the metal of his armor around his sleeve was slowly being bent inward. Into his own flesh, drawing blood from his wrist.
O-Ren, with the little consciousness he had left, was bending the Colonel's armor into him.
"Agh! What are you doing to me!"
The Colonel dropped to his knees, trying to remove the armor from his arms but realizing that since the metal was pierced into his flesh, he would risk an enormous gash in his arms, possibly killing him.
"Korra! Korra!" O-Ren yelled, but it was initially a faint mumble to her as she stared at her friend, now a lifeless vessel lying dead before her. Her friend who fought through her fears and gave her own life so that Korra could live.
"Korra!"
Korra looked up to see the Qu on the ground, suffering from the pain O-Ren was bringing him. She rose and approached him.
"Son," Qu pleaded, "Son please, why would you do this to your own father?"
It was Qu's last ditch effort, and it was able to hold O-Ren back, in his confusion he stopped, but Korra was already upon Qu. Korra placed her hand on his face and pushed it to the ground. He continued his grunts of pain as she wrapped her hands around his neck.
She wanted to kill him. But now that she saw him, in pain, hopeless, she no longer felt that it was worth it.
"Getting revenge on you would mean nothing to me. You don't even know what you have taken from me. You have not the slightest idea of what love is, so you feel nothing when you take that from others. It is sad. Sad that you have even given up your own identity to overpower others. Your own humanity. You have nothing left. You have spent your life relying on your bending, on this power, the Clasma, all of it. You've surrendered your own self to it. There will be nothing left of you anyway…What I do to you now, you have already done to yourself."
Korra placed her fingers over his forehead and the process was done. Qu no longer looked around. No longer grunted. No longer breathed. The draining had killed him. A man who gives his life for that kind of power, has nothing left, no identity, no life, no soul of his own, when that power is gone.
O-Ren reached for his radio. Asami answered promptly.
"We've escaped…" O-Ren said. He watched Korra return to her lost loved one. Tears silently streamed down her face as she put her head against her deceased friend. She made no sound. Silent in her intense, deep sadness.
"O-Ren, we can't reach ONI. We don't know what has happened. We think it might have been CHAOS…"
"What about Lin and Tenzin."
"I think they got out, but we can't reach them either. What could have happened to them?"
O-Ren didn't answer. His heavy breathing warned Asami.
"O-Ren, is everything okay?"
"We've lost someone, Asami."
Korra rested her head against the empty void, the lifeless vessel that was once Naga. Hoping she would stand, growl, lick her face. Something. Anything. Korra would give anything to see that happen. But as much as she could dream, she knew it was final. Absolute. Naga's soul had returned to the Spirit World.
Korra couldn't control the tears coming down her face. A hole formed within her, sucking away any emotion, intensifying every memory of Naga that Korra had. She was transported to different parts of her life, growing up in the Southern Water Tribe. The difficult life of the Avatar. The endless training with the older masters, the lack of a normal life with friends. She remembered when Tonraq and Senna introduced her to the little white pup only a few weeks after the polar bear dog was born. Korra was not more than five.
Naga
No friendship developed faster than theirs did. They grew together. Felt confused together, scared together. Happy. Sad. Complete. The white creature which filled Korra with a special warmth. A feeling of truly being home. She was the only friend Korra had had growing up. Alone in the South Pole. Naga never left her side. Naga never judged her as the Avatar, as a bender. Naga only saw Korra, and she was one of the few that ever did. One of the few that never abandoned her, that never would let a single thing come between their love for each other.
Korra was lost in this memory that she did not realize who had come. Asami, Mako, Bolin, Sydney. O-Ren stood to join them, carrying the unconscious Rong. The only others in her life who could fully understand her pain. Bolin prepared to make a burial ground in the clearing.
"No," Korra said.
"I just thought she deserved a proper burial," Bolin said, sincerely.
Korra saw a nearby military station, abandoned. "She does. I will do it myself. I was her owner, but she may as well have been mine. She gave her life for me. I owe this to her. I will not bury her with bending. I will do it myself by hand. As a human would."
Korra retrieved a shovel from the military station and started to dig.
"Korra," Asami said, "let us help, you'll be out here all night. We all loved Naga, too."
"Not like I did!" Korra yelled. She dug faster. After a few hours, the hole was nearly deep enough for Naga. Korra put her hands against her friends lifeless body in an attempt to push her into the hole, but with every attempt Korra couldn't bear to do it herself. She lost her strength. It was too much for her. She broke down, crying, but her Team was there for her. Asami caught her in her arms, and Korra let her grief out, sobbing over the loss of her friend, releasing every emotion built up within her.
Together, the team sadly laid Naga's body to rest in the hole. Until nightfall, they filled the hole back up, manually, and atop the grave, a small stone was placed with an engraving:
Naga. Hero. Martyr. Best Friend.
/*Allusoin to Harry Potter yis*/