Eden

by jlthdprgy

A continuation of Legend of Korra in which Korra never received her bending after it was taken by Amon. Her friends have lost contact with each other and are scattered across the city now. Korra tries to cope with her situation and find her purpose, but as she faces a new evil in the city, an ancient one is awakening.

58. The Waves

/*As usual, the reviews are awesome. The SPORE I pictured a slightly modified version of those unnamed dark spirits I keep seeing pictures for in the second season of Korra. Anyway, writing a war chapter was a little hard. Hope you enjoy! */

-The Waves—

The autonomous guns surrounding the perimeter of the city could be heard from all ends, firing constantly as the SPORE rose from the waters and flowed onto the streets like waves. From the skies, gunfire rained down upon the bay as more SPORE moved in toward the city. With every hit, the crystals on the backs of the green-eyed goblins would shatter into millions of tiny shards and the entity would disintegrate into black dust.

The autonomous guns were trained to fire at anything with energy levels similar to those given off by the SPORE, since no human could emit that kind of energy. This was an attempt to preserve the population by placing machines at the frontlines instead of humans.

Two soldiers sat in their bunker set up on an outer wall guarding Narook, one of the military bases south of the police headquarters. Many of these bunkers were discretely placed on the contour of these walls guarding the city, towering over the streets before them. The two men were C\constantly cleaning and reloading their ONI-produced, super rifles, bullet strength enhanced tenfold, to satisfy their anxiety. They heard the gunfire cackling across the sky. Lighting up the dark clouds, knowing that down the streets before them, beyond the buildings, the inhuman race of killers was coming. Just for them. With no purpose but to end their existence.

"Feel like running? We pretty close."

"Not gonna lie, thought about it a few times." They aimed their guns over the barricade, making sure they weren't too shaky. Making sure they could pick of whatever was coming their way. The gun was heavy. "These guns really as powerful as they say?"

"Should be," the other soldier aimed his gun down the narrow street. "Ain't that much room for them to get through. We got the aerial support, too."

"Yeah…but there must be so many."

"If it was more than we could handle with these guns, then they'd send reinforcements. It's just one street out of many, and there aren't many soldiers to go around."

"You actually a soldier?" the man asked, looking at the other man's clothing. A few sweaters, a hat, old belts holding ammunition.

"Nope…just a pathetic waste of space. I spent my life living as the worst kind of person. I hope today I can redeem myself just a little." He loaded his gun. "What about you?"

"Nope. Just a store owner. But I'd do anything to protect those I love. I'm not going to stand around while this goes on around me."

"You have a family?"

"Yeah, a daughter. I'd do anything so that she can live a safe life. That is why I am here. Do you think…do you think we can really make a difference?"

"Who knows. These are Spirits. I've seen some strange things happen in the world so I can honestly say I have no idea what is going to happen."

"They say that someone has come to save us. A single person. To deliver us from this slaughter. There is so much skepticism…but I hope it's true," the storeowner said.

They both heard a noise ahead of them. A crash. The store owner looked worried. "Sounds like one of those guns or something broke."

"It is going to get rough, pal. Whatever happens, I'm going to make sure you get to see your family again. I've lived a terrible life, as a terrible person, and trust me when I say I don't deserve to come out of this alive, so don't feel bad or anything when I take the hit so that you can run. You have more to live for than I do. You promise me you will do that?"

"Ok…but why?" the store owner asked. At that, one of the autonomous mounted guns was thrown through the air and landed several feet in front of the soldiers. All the way from the waterfront. It had been no more than an hour since the SPORE arrived and they had already broken through the first layer of defenses.

"Because a long time ago I tore apart a family just like yours. There's no way to redeem myself for what I did to that family, but I can at least make sure someone else gets to keep theirs." The man raised his weapon.

The store owner dialed his radio. "One of the smartgunners is down. Landed right in front of us on block of 30th and North Ave, I repeat, the block of 30th and North Ave. The Narook base. SPORE have been spotted." Down the narrow street, small creatures rose out of the shadows, their green eyes indicating their position.

The first SPORE to appear looked like small animals. Quick like dogs, growling with nothing but instinct telling them to kill anything they saw. Multiple eyes scattered across their faces and short crystals protruding from their backs, connected through their bodies to their claws.

The two men fired their powerful, automatic rifles at the oncoming SPORE, bolting for them at full speed, ready to impale them with their claws and suck their souls out. The guns proved to be extremely effective. Just a single hit shattered the crystals and caused the creatures to disintegrate into dust.

But more were fast approaching. Endless amounts bearing down on the city's defenses. Behind the waves of smaller SPORE came different forms, more resistant to the humans' attacks. For a few hours, the human army was able to hold of the Spirit army at the forefront of the barricaded city at the Narook base. Stalemated around these second and third walls since the very first wall was manned only by automatic weaponry. The SPORE constantly changed in form, from weaker to stronger and bigger. The later waves of SPORE were more human-like. Tall, slender humans, able to weave in and out of the constant stream of gunfire raining down on them. SPORE grunts. The raw energy leaking off their arms. Their backs hunched and their eyes glowing green, locked on their targets. Sprinting through the streets, climbing the buildings and jumping through the air. Not only were they tougher, they were also smarter. Working together, these more sophisticated SPORE would combine together to form walls. Their defenses multiplied when bound together.

"Ammo!" A soldier yelled into a radio from with his bunker on an outer wall north from the Narook base, just one or two layers outside of the police headquarters plaza. A large box was placed next to him with more ammo for his rifle as well as a missile launcher, delivered by another soldier. "What is this?"

"Got a big wave of 'em coming this way. You are gonna need this thing." The man picked up the bazooka and got it ready to fire when he saw the waves of SPORE consuming the buildings in front of him. He cursed to himself and fired the missiles directly at the wall along with a few other soldiers who did the same, tearing it down but not completely. The rest of this wall of SPORE was destroyed from the aerial defenses patrolling from the skies over the city.

The airships proved to be invaluable to the fight. Their powerful weapons and clear vantage points allowed them to easily take out massive groups of SPORE. Every few shots from above, the ground troops heard the loud crunching noises of the SPORE's crystals shattering and saw black clouds of dusk rising toward the dark clouds. Dozens of small turrets lined the airships, spinning around as those who controlled them tried to subdue every SPORE in sight.

The waves of the green-eyed shadows had all moved past the mechanical front lines of the battleground, ripping apart every gun and pushing into the city. From above, it looked like a black tsunami was gushing over the barriers and eroding everything in its path. The wave had pushed all the way to the soldiers near the police station, the second base in the series of checkpoints, north of Narook, who were successful in halting it from going any further.

"Lieutenant!" yelled a voice over the radio. A man with a long handlebar mustache picked the radio up. "How are things in your perimeter? More ammunition and reinforcements are on their way!"

"Everything seems okay for now. They've come in large numbers but we've greatly reduced them," the Lieutenant looked ahead of him at the scene from high up in his watchtower. He was just outside the third layer of walls guarding the police headquarters to the right and the courthouse a few blocks behind them, guarding the northern sector of the front line as the Narook base defended the city from the southern side. These places, like the the police headquarters, the bases, acted as safe havens holding wounded soldiers as well as ammunition. As the SPORE progressed through, these valuable things were gradually being moved out to other bases further back, the train station being the last checkpoint acting as the guard for the sanctuaries where the refugees stayed.

Tall bunkers and watchtowers lined the metal walls, the bright lights of gunfire emitting from each one. As time wore on, the gunners could see that the SPORE were gradually pushing closer. They eventually reached the metal walls and started to stack on top of each other, struggling to scale the blockade and tear apart the soldiers inside. Several bunkers were dangerously close to being completely overtaken as the SPORE nearly reached the mounted guns and tried to rip them off. The men and women operating the guns became scared, constantly yelling for ammo, knowing that if they were caught off-guard the SPORE would be upon them in a second.

However, these bunkers were reinforced by their guardian angels, the airships, that helped to prevent these close calls as much as possible. As airships blew up the large clusters of SPORE, those manning the mounted guns in the bunkers simply picked off the small and quick stragglers scurrying through the streets below them. But sometimes the creatures would build up unexpectedly. "Hah! D'you see that one? It just exploded when I got 'em!" yelled the soldier manning the gun in the watchtower that the Lieutenant was in.

"I've lost touch with the Narook base," the Lieutenant spoke into the radio a few minutes later. "It's just a few blocks south of this one. No one seems to have brought any of the ammunition from it. I haven't seen or heard from any soldiers since the message that they were being attacked," as he finished his transmission, the Lieutenant noticed several humans approaching among the straggling SPORE, injured, firing their weapons and gunning through the grunts to get to the wall. "Hold your fire, those are humans!"

The store owner struggled to make his way past the bunkers. The lieutenant climbed down the watchtower to meet the young man as he limped to safety, a few injured men following behind him.

"What has happened?" the Lieutenant asked.

"The Narook base was overtaken. They killed dozens of soldiers there, and now they are moving inward to the city and up here as well," the store owner answered, traumatized. "They were evolving, the SPORE. The grew from small animals to human-like creatures and now even larger, more hideous forms. They have helmets covering their eyes, made of that green substance from the Spirit World. Their crystals are shielded by a long tail-like thing that runs all the way down their backs, starting at the back of their heads."

"Are there any others wounded left behind?"

"No. They don't leave anything behind. I saw it. They grow these long claws and just stick them in your chest. I watched it happen! They were coming, a whole slew of them, like little grunts bounded together like a giant hand of SPORE about to just crush all of us. We ran for the base but we knew we weren't going to make it. The only way was to risk going back and doing something to hold them up, but that would most definitely cost a life. One of our soldiers, a man who only called himself Lightning, turned back to face the demons. He planted several bombs and just stood there, firing at them, keeping them back just long enough for us to get to the base. When we finally reached the base, he had run out of ammo. They were all upon him when he detonated the bombs, killing the whole wave as well as himself, but saving us."

"He knew it'd be better for that to happen than for them to get his soul," the Lieutenant regretfully stated. "Right then, we'll get you all to safety. The police headquarters is the closest place."

"We're going to have to move farther back, Lieutenant. It won't be safe here for long," said one of the men who had come with the store owner. He wore the uniform of a pilot.

"As long as we have our airships taking out large numbers, we should be fine. They are guarding the southern perimeters as well so once we get more ground troops we can clear out the SPORE down there and reuse the base. I'll radio to the airships to…"

"That is the problem. They've gotten to them."

"We made it to the base but were unable to retrieve anything," said one of the other men, serving as a captain for the Narook base. "Just as we got to the building holding our supplies, one of our airships crashed into it from above. There were SPORE still on board. They had completely destroyed the engine from the inside. These few men were able to escape but..."

"We saw it up close," the store owner said. "The SPORE just stabbed the crewmembers with their claws. I watched the green substance flow out of the body and into those crystals. Their tangible souls being drained. The humans grew pale, extremely pale and almost gray. I just watched the life get drained from them and blacken their eyes. It looked horrible."

"How did the SPORE get up to the ship?"

"They just jumped. From the bay. They formed this catapult thing that is throwing all of them into the air. They just launched into the air at our ship," the pilot said."They keep changing and getting better."

They heard a loud bang. In the distance, south and toward the water, a large chunk of metal, orange with flames fell from the skies and crashed into nearby buildings. The Lieutenant saw the dwindling numbers of SPORE and took it as a warning that more waves were coming.

"Alright, move the ammo out. To the courthouse, our next base. Radio them to get ready. As for this place, it's going sky-high. We've planted bombs all around the perimeter. We get back and detonate those, it should buy us time and kill off this wave." Before the soldiers could even receive his transmission, a new wave was at the wall, tearing it apart. These new creatures just as the store owner described. Grunt SPORE. They stood on their hind legs, large green eyes which left smears of green as they moved up the walls and toward the bunkers, scaling them on all fours. Their long tails shielding their collection of crystals protruding from their dark bodies with which to store souls. They quickly scaled the walls before the soldiers in the bunkers could get to their guns. Many of them were overtaken, infested with SPORE. The gunners suddenly found themselves on the ground, looking up at the large green eyes of the creature, hearing nothing but its screams. In the next instant, the creature's claws were impaling them in the chest. They watched as the green substance flowed out of their bodies and up the arms of the SPORE. Soon, one of the crystals on the grunt's back lit up and the gunners felt completely taken apart, every part of them, their identity, their memories, leaving their bodies in a disorganized mess, maintaining no composition, no trace of the soul it once was. Just raw Clasma. The victim, completely gone, taken completely out of existence as his soul, his definition, was disassembled into nothing but energy, no longer giving him a purpose. No longer giving him anything. Just a lifeless vessel. No memories. No life.

Each victim felt the same way as their souls were taken. The desire to keep themselves together, feelings themselves leave their bodies and rising, but gradually forgetting everything about their existence, struggling to maintain their composition, struggling to remember who they were, the ones they loved, their purpose in life. Their reason for being here, but soon their idea of themselves disintegrated into its component energy stored within the beasts. These humans becoming nothing but power that would be used to create another. The Clasma behaving only remotely similar to the way it once did when acting as the souls for some human. When it was shaped by that human. When it defined that human.

"They've taken to the skies! They've taken to the skies!"

The Lieutenant escaped with many of his soldiers, mourning the loss of those whose souls were wrongfully abducted.

"Their souls might be nothing but energy now, without any trace of what they once were. But to us, those men and women will live on as long as we remember what they did for us. As long as we remember who they were. If we do, their souls are never really gone. They live in us." The Lieutenant pressed the button on a small switch.

Lin watched from the outer wall surrounding the train station farther back as the explosives detonated around the police headquarters building. Knowing that it was necessary, but hoping that her the building, that her mother's statue, was still standing after this was all over. Even from there, she could see the darkness, mixed with the green speckles, flowing through the streets, being held up at the walls surrounding the courthouse. Tanks rolling through the streets keeping the SPORE from getting from one wall to the next. Trying to ease the tasks of the gunners in the bunkers and the airships.

With more airships being taken down, Iroh was sending more to fill in for them. Atop one of the airships, Korra rose to the skies, deciding that the state of the airships would be the most important. The point of this war was not to win this. As long as the humans successfully held of the SPORE for a at least a short amount of time, then retreated safely to the next checkpoint, CHAOS would soon force itself to open and allow the powerful Spirits to come through and help wipe out the human defenses. But the SPORE were pushing through quickly, and preserving the airships would be the most significant factor in delaying the SPORE as they collected souls moving farther. She saw below her as more and more humans were falling at the claws of the green-eyed monsters. Korra pulled out her radio.

"Asami, how is the reconstruction going?"

Asami, on ground level, was helping to rebuild the broken down automatic gunning systems, branded smartgunner , and quickly reinstall it on the walls closer to the city.

"Got it working again. Wasn't much damage at least to this one. We've got about three set up around the park and they said a few more were put up near the actual train station."

"Awesome. Good work." She switched her dialer. "O-Ren and Bolin, you guys getting those walls up?"

"Yes, ma'am!" Bolin yelled, from the park in a region closer to where the warfare was taking place.. "Got our walls of earth all set up. Sydney is coming with the explosives, soon so we will have those set up in no time."

"Good to hear. What's Mako doing?"

"Mako is joining Lin. I think they said they were going to protect the gates of the Sanctuaries, where most of our citizens are residing, so the SPORE don't get a huge collection of souls from them. They've had a few encounters but I guess those two were able to handle it pretty well."

"Okay, sounds good. I'll take care of the ones up here."

"What does that mean?" Bolin asked, but Korra put away her radio and cracked her knuckles. As she did this, they began to glow a familiar green color. The ship reached the threshold of the darkness. Korra extended the energy from her hands into the clouds, trying use it to see where each ship was, the energy returning information – objects and their positions, presence of life, and sources of extremely high energy – the last of these coming right for her at that moment.

Korra stopped and drew her sword as the dark Spirit grunt materialized out of the clouds, claws first for Korra's neck. She easily cut through the creature, shattering its crystals and rendering it nonexistent.

More

Korra felt powerful. She could see every SPORE so easily, even in the darkness. Her cosmic energy senses had become even more sensitive than they had been before. She leaped into the darkness, closing her eyes, letting her energybending see for her. She used her airbending to make long jumps, hopping from airship to airships, slicing through every SPORE trying to tear down the ships. Simply by clenching her fist, large bolts of energy emitted from her hands and obliterated groups of SPORE rising through the air toward the ships. As the ships descended slightly, Korra saw the surface below. The bases that had been completely destroyed, nothing but SPORE flowing through the street like a river in certain parts of the city. She pinpointed the place where the creatures attacking the ships were coming from. Just as they rose from the water they would form a tower out of themselves and launch each one up into the sky.

Korra jumped down from the ship and landed on the tip of an antenna, standing above this SPORE tower. She once again charged her energy and sent it zigzagging to this tower, and in the next instant, after the green explosion, it was nothing but black dust. She did this again several times more before the airships seemed to regain a slightly upper hand on the infinite army.

Perfect. Korra grinned as she saw the streets clearing up again as the airships rained bullets on the SPORE below, no longer having to worry about SPORE taking them down. The power she held felt good. She airbended herself up onto the airship and prepared to make her way back, seeing the streets become unsaturated. Farther back, the stalemate between the humans and the SPORE at the walls appeared to diminish as there was no longer as constant an influx of grunts tearing at the walls. The airships once again instantiated control over the battle, filtering the horde so that the large waves of SPORE would be reduced to lone grunts by the time they reached the walls, easy for the gunners to take out. Korra looked at the scene and smiled. "Iroh, the airship conflict was averted for now. Tell them to keep an eye on SPORE towers launching grunts into the skies…" Korra turned around to see, in horror, the sky lit up once again, energy like meteors soaring toward the city. A bright sky of death. The same energy rain as before.

NO

Korra rushed to the edge of the ship and concentrated her energy back into her fingers again, ready to suppress the attack just like she had done earlier. But the rain of energy was much closer. Her time was cut short and soon the energy beams began colliding against the airships, completely destroying the motors and propellers keeping the hunk of metal in the air. It plummeted.

Several of the other ships went down as well, and the energy reached several parts of the city, bringing down certain sections of the walls, stopping tanks and disassembling bunkers and watchtowers. Its range thankfully did not reach into the spaces near the train station where the refugees resided, however, the outer layer walls had been severely damaged.

Korra jumped from the ship and landed hard down on top of an old building. She watched the smoking ship crash near the water, thankful since most of the SPORE had been cleared from this area, but as she started to run toward the ship to help the survivors, the massive green eyes of CHAOS rose of the water, roaring as it revealed itself, causing no waves this time as the strength of the energy emitted from its body simply boiled away all the water it touched, turning to vapor before it even hit the ground. From its chest, what looked like a massive SPORE grunt crawled out, materializing from the energy. So big that it simply wrapped its hand around the airship. Each of its fingers extended into the ship and extracted the souls of each member. The scene horrified Korra, but more horrifying was that more of these hideous, bigger SPORE were crawling out of CHAOS.

These newer forms stood and demonstrated that they were around the size of a small building, but gradually growing as well. It raised its hand and made them into fists. The SPORE giant then swung its arms, and this fist it had made became detached from its body, flying across the sky. When it landed, it decomposed into thousands of SPORE grunts.

"Iroh, the ships are going down! It was another energy rain. New SPORE have arrived and they are big. They're actually throwing armies of SPORE across the city. Over the walls. Get more troops to the train station so the citizens are safe. Have them join up with Lin and Mako. Warn the guards, and see if anyone is willing to come out here where I am. There are several fallen ships near the abandoned police headquarters. The SPORE will be on them any second I need some help rescuing these people, over and out!" Korra leaped across the rooftops to get to the places where the ships had crashed, hoping to find survivors and lead them safely back to the train station.

After about an hour, Korra successfully aided the survivors of one of the crashes going in the direction of the sanctuaries, setting them on their way toward the courtyard where they would be able to attack the SPORE from the other side of the courthouse walls. She was flustered when she saw how many other ships were in danger's way. As she reached the fallen airship in front of the police headquarters, she saw that there were people already helping the survivors to safety.

"Asami! Sydney! You guys came," Korra said.

"Iroh informed us. We and a lot of other people rushed out here to help," Asami said. The survivors escaped the ship and left in several military vehicles to get back. "We brought our own transportation.

"Korra!" Sydney yelled, pointing upwards. Korra looked up and saw another airship catch fire, almost directly above them.

Asami got on her radio. "Tell the airships to retreat. We are losing too many. These bigger SPORE are throwing smaller ones at them. We will get as many survivors as we can." She put her radio away and looked at Korra. "There are some grunts coming for this place. One of our smartgunners is being installed on the roof of the station."

Asami's radio sounded, and she picked it up, telling the person on the other end how to arrange the wires. "Yeah, you've got it. Perfect, come on back down."

"Who was that?" Korra asked. Asami looked to the doors of the station. They opened and the young ex-airbending teenager ran out to them.

"Jinora!? Does Tenzin know you are here?" Korra said, gasping.

"Well, not exactly, but…whoa", Jinora looked up at the ball of fire that was now falling to the ground beyond the station.

"Come on, let's get to that one before that fire burns everyone up. This one is all clear. It's on the way back, and there are more coming for us," Korra yelled. They started to run and heard the sound of the smartgunner begin firing, indicating that the SPORE grunts were near.

Jinora started to cry as they approached the burning fallen ship a few blocks down. "Jinora what is it?" Sydney asked her.

"I knew people on that ship," Jinora said, tears streaming down her face. "My old teacher, Tyko, was operating it. He said he would do it to keep an eye on me so I didn't get hurt while I was out here," Jinora cried a little in her hands. The fire was consuming the ship, disallowing the girls to approach or look inside for survivors.

Korra hugged Jinora, trying to comfort her in the middle of all this war. "I'm sorry, dear. I'm sorry this happened."

"It's true," Asami said. "He did watch over us. A massive army of SPORE greeted us and he took them out. We would have been dead without him, there. Without all of them."

"He was a great person," Jinora said.

"Jinora," Korra said, "I know this isn't easy, but we have to keep moving. He did what he did so you could live. Okay? Now, let's go." Jinora agreed and followed Korra as they made their way to the next ship, but kept looking back. As she did, she saw the burned body of a man crawling out of the wreckage.

"Tyko!" Jinora yelled. She turned to start running for him when she saw the wave of SPORE not far behind him. "No!"

"Jinora don't go back there!" Korra yelled, but Jinora didn't listen. She ran to her burned and battered friend and helped him to his feet.

"Jinora," he struggled to say. "No, please, don't do this. We will never make it."

Jinora stopped and realized the truth in his words, only until she remembered what she had packed in her bag. "You're right. We won't, unless I do something about it." She pulled one of ONI's explosives out of her bag and planted it next to the motor of the burning ship, hoping the explosion would be multiplied when combined with the motor already about to combust. She started to lift Tyko off the ground, hoping she would be able to act as crutch for him to walk but finding him much heavier than she anticipated. Korra and Sydney ran over and helped Jinora and Tyko get away from the wave just as it breached the fallen ship, triggering the bomb and blowing up the grunts in an explosion of crystal shards, metal, and black ash, the green of the SPORE's eyes causing the inferno to turn green as well.

Tyko merely dragged his feet agains the ground, gashes in his legs disallowing them to function at all. His long hair singed and his glasses cracked, he struggled to speak. "Thank you…"

"Keep moving. There is a car nearby. Asami has gone to get it," Sydney said. "We can drive it to the nearest base where there are soldiers. All these places were abandoned when the SPORE overran them." They ran through the streets now cleared since Korra's aid allowed the airships disintegrate the massive influx of SPORE. But now they had a new tactic.

"There are more of them coming for us. They aren't just going through the streets from the water like before. They are almost being thrown across the city. Over the walls!" Korra yelled. Behind them, the group heard a sounds like thousands of human bodies hitting the ground. Korra knew what that meant. "C'mon. We gotta get out of here."

"But now they are all over the city. Where do we go?" Jinora asked. Asami flew around a corner in a top-of-the-line Satomobile. From full speed, she screeched to a stop before them.

"Let's go," Asami said. "The SPORE are being held up, just up ahead but they are going for the sanctuaries. All of the refugees are there! "

"Mako and Lin can hold them off until the airships come for them," Korra said. "Those people need to get out of the city, though. Or at least get as far back from the walls. Tell them to move east, toward the mountains. Away from the war. Jinora, you go with Asami and Sydney. Take Tyko with you and meet up with your father. I'll call him to notify him. He should be patrolling one of the walls nearby. I'm going back to see if I can hold this next wave back and take out the SPORE that are throwing the smaller grunts at us." Asami agreed, trusting that Korra knew what she was getting into.

"Fine, but please, call me and if you run into trouble." Korra turned back toward the next wave coming for her as Asami sped across the city toward the inner layers where the refugees were residing, taking caution and avoiding the more dangerous, high-activity regions where most of the warfare was occurring. Tyko was going in and out of consciousness.

"Hang in there, friend," Jinora told him. The car soon reached the inner layers of the city. The statue of Firelord Zuko, the symbol of safety now, was in sight beyond another wall. In the next instant, the view was completely blocked when a SPORE grunt landed on the hood of the vehicle and stuck its claws through the windshield, shattering the glass.

"Shit!" Asami yelled. She swerved the car around, trying to loosen the grunt's grip on the car. Sydney kicked at the arm of the Spirit as it tried to impale her. Asami drew a pistol from dashboard and shot the creature several times, breaking a fraction of its crystal and rendering its left arm useless by shattering its claws. From the backseat, Jinora unleashed a strong gust of wind with her airbending, launching the creature of the car and completely ruining Asami and Sydney's hair. Asami did not hesitate to floor it and eradicate whatever was left keeping the grunt in existence.

The joy of victory was short-lived. In their mirrors, they saw dozens of SPORE running after their car. As they approached the next wall, a large pileup of destroyed military vehicles and upturned tanks blocked their way. On the wall, an abandoned bunker, a big hole in it, still smoking.

"What happened here?" Sydney asked in horror.

"Must have been hit by the energy rain," Asami said. She looked behind her at the SPORE. "Well, at least it isn't a whole wave of them this time. Come on, we got to go on foot. Quickly!"

They got out and ran for the pileup. Asami stayed toward the back of the group, holding back the grunts with her enhanced ONI pistol, prepared with a surplus of extra rounds. She reloaded and upon looking up, saw the car they were just in uplifted by the SPORE and soaring through the air, landing just in front of her.

Jinora and Sydney climbed up the roadblock of broken down cars, then Jinora used her airbending to lift Tyko up to them. Asami continued shooting at the SPORE as they closed in on her. The thought of using her stored Clasma crossed her mind, but soon a storm of bullets zoomed past her, killing the grunts. She looked up to the wall to see that several soldiers now occupied it, the tall bearded airbender standing with them.

They made their way up the wall to greet him. Tenzin hugged Jinora. "You deliberately disobeyed me Jinora…but, you helped do a great thing. Those crewmembers on those ships are very thankful for your help out there. You were very brave to do what you did."

Asami climbed up. "What are you doing out here?" she asked.

"Korra informed us you were returning. She led me right here to you guys. I don't know how she knows these kinds of things. But look, it's getting worse. The airships are falling, our defenses are dwindling and now the SPORE are closing in on our refugees. We have our most powerful arsenal defending it under the command of Lin. But I'm not sure how long they can hold out.

"Korra's gone to kill the SPORE that has been launching the…other SPORE over the walls," Asami said. "I hope she can handle it, but I doubt she would go if it was too much for her. I'm going back to find her in case she needs a way out…I just need a car now."

The sky burned orange again as another airship fell from the sky, and what looked like a black hole fell through the clouds and landed just before the walls to the sanctuary. The soldiers and gunmen within the bunkers attached to these walls fired nonstop as the black hole just seemed to unravel into a swarm of SPORE grunts, scraping at the walls trying to climb up and subdue the soldiers shooting at them. Beyond this wall, the sanctuaries –blocks of tenements, inns, hospitals – safe havens for those not fighting in the war. Stretching all the way from the train station to the city limits. To the roads going up into the mountains. The most protected place of the city. The wounded soldiers were brought here for medical assistance, and all those who retreated back through the city would finally end up in these sanctuaries. From the beginning, it was planned to be the final standoff point, where the last remaining humans would fight until the death.

Lin watched the sky burn as airships continued to be shot down. Many more were still in flight, but the numbers were dropping at an alarming rate. "Alright Mako, things are getting worse around here. I hope Korra was right about CHAOS opening up because it better happen soon. I got word from Tenzin that she is taking out the source of this influx coming our way. Tenzin said he would be returning soon via airship with more survivors. The airships will be invaluable at this point. We need to get these folks out of here, though. The refugees need to be evacuated from this part of town, moved back where it safer. Where they are further from the battleground. Their lives determine whether or not we win this thing. Seriously. Their deaths will lose us this war just as much as the death of our soldiers."

"How is the wall holding up?" Mako asked.

"Not good. We are keeping them back for now, but they are slowly encroaching, as always. We have tanks on every street if they get through but we can't be taking risks. I want these people as far away from this as possible. At least until we defeat this wave of SPORE. After that we will see where we are, if you and I are still here."

Mako listened and began informing the residents to evacuate the areas closest to the wall over the radio. As he started directing scared citizens out of their homes and down the streets, the tanks nearby began firing at a slew of SPORE pouring over the wall. One of the bunkers had been consumed by them, and there were hundreds now making their way into the sanctuaries.

"Dammit," Lin said, picking up her radio. "Tenzin, we've had a small breach. A bunker has been taken down and the SPORE are moving in. We are doing everything we can to hold them back with the tanks. Get those airships here as soon as possible," Lin put the radio down, spotting a few SPORE that had pushed past the tanks. Lin drew her sword and easily sliced through the grunts, reducing them to dust. She continued to take down more grunts as they wiped out the front line of tanks, but soon the airships had retreated all the way back and were unloading their powerful guns on the invading SPORE, blasting them to bits. Lin, upon seeing the significant difference the airships made in the battle, turned and headed east, catching up with Mako. She ran down the streets as more tanks drove the opposite way to help destroy the wave. She stopped at the hotel where Tenzin's family had been staying. The last few residents were just leaving.

"Mako," she radioed, "Hotel is empty."

"Yeah," he replied. "I cleared them out. Tenzin's family is here with me. We are near the Pratt Street bridge."

"Good. I'm on my way there, now. There are a lot of tanks around me, too, so that should buy you a lot of time as they hold back this wave. Take shelter in some of the abandoned buildings on Pratt Street…" Lin stopped talking when she saw the green speckles on top of a nearby building, behind the lines of tanks, unnoticed. "Shit. Mako, prepare yourself. A small wave of SPORE seems to have spotted the mass of citizens you are leading. They are coming. I'll get there as fast as I can." Lin ran for the bridge, on a few blocks away.

"Lin!" Tenzin's voice said over the radio. "Lin, where are you? I've returned."

"Pratt Street. I told Mako to evacuate. Your family is with them. The SPORE were closing in, and I didn't know what to do. A small group of them slipped underneath the heavy fire of our tanks and are headed for Pratt Street. I'm going to hold them off."

Within minutes, Lin was at the Pratt Street Bridge just as the last of the citizens were crossing. A grunt jumped off a nearby building right for them. Lin raised her arm, carefully aimed and fired her mechanical, spring loaded wire at it, the metal claw on the end of the wire breaking through the crystals sticking out of the creature's back. It fell to the ground, allowing Mako to easily burn away the rest of it with his firebending.

"The airships and tanks are taking care of the infestation," Lin yelled at Mako. "We just got to take out these few SPORE that got through this far. I don't think there are that many."

"Are you sure it is a few?" he asked, looking at the small horde coming for them.

"It's a few for warriors like us, Mako." The horde approached. Lin and Mako fearlessly faced them head-on, knowing that if they got through them and reached Pratt Street, the result would be complete chaos as citizens ran for their lives. Their defenses were strengthened when Tenzin arrived with Jinora during a break in the oncoming SPORE.

"Jinora, bring Tyko to your mother on the other side of the bridge. There are people who can help him," Tenzin said as he prepared to help defend the citizens with Lin and Mako.

"Dad! Are you going to be okay?" Jinora asked, starting to cry.

"Jinora, I will. I'll be okay. Please, just go." Jinora listened and struggled to bring the unconscious Tyko across the bridge. More SPORE began to appear. The trio were successful in keeping them back, but any more grunts attacking at once would be too much for them to handle.

"There aren't much more," Tenzin said. "Most of the wave has be eliminated. We just have to take care of these ones until the airships and tanks kill the ones coming through the wall."

"You mean like that tank?" Mako said, pointing to the tank falling from the sky toward them. They sprinted backwards, running for the bridge as the tank exploded upon hitting the ground. They stopped at the top of the bridge's arc right in the center, where they had the best viewpoints of both sides of the train tracks going underneath the bridge.

"Shit," Lin said. Beyond the buildings they saw orange and black, no longer sure if the dark clouds above them were the same as the ones from before or if it was just smoke from all the destruction at the wall. Fortunately, Lin saw that the SPORE coming for the bridge was finite in number. There was still a good amount, but the green eyes didn't stretch back for miles.

"It looks like we are winning. There aren't any more after this small wave," Mako said.

"Let's stay in this you guys," Lin said, looking at Tenzin. "Just like old times, right? Got each other's backs?" Tenzin nodded. The SPORE ran up the bridge. Tenzin reduced their speed with his airbending and blinded them with his wind as Mako and Lin took them out one by one. Lin hacked and slashed at every pair of green eyes she saw while Mako shot flames of fire, hoping to get as many as possible in single blows.

They strategy seemed to be working, but soon the grunts farther back were able to get around Tenzin's force by crawling underneath the bridge. The grunts swung back over the side of the bridge, behind the trio, and ran straight for the other side. Straight for Jinora as she carried Tyko to her home. Tenzin heard the grunts land in the street and looked behind him in horror to see his daughter right in their line of attack.

"No!" he screamed, and stopped his air resistance involuntarily. Lin saw this coming a second beforehand and jumped back as the SPORE were no longer being slowed down by the wind. She fired her rubber wire as she jumped back to grab Mako and pull him back as well since the SPORE approached quicker now without Tenzin's airbending.

"Tenzin, go! Save her! We can handle this." Lin yelled. Tenzin did not hesitate to soar down the bridge on a gust of air and trap the two grunts in a powerful tornado, stopping them from killing his daughter by flinging them into the street, smashing their crystals to pieces. The force of the tornado got the attention of every citizens that had retreated to Pratt Street, who now looked back at the battle on the bridge, amazed at the determination of the three heroes.

Tenzin sighed in relief, joyful that the wave was nearly depleted now, that his daughter was safe, only to look back to see the scene on the bridge which stopped his heart.

Mako had fallen to the ground, the sharp claws of a SPORE grunt inches from his neck, holding it back with his hands, struggling to overpower the creature. Lin saw her partner in trouble and swung her blade through the beast, killing it. But in the act of checking whether or not Mako was still alive, for that brief second, Lin was overpowered by two grunts. The creatures cut her arms, forcing her to drop her sword, and pinned her arms to the ground, subduing her. She struggled to move them, knowing what these things were going to do to her. Mako started to get up, but a grunt, moving much quicker than he was, jumped over his body and landed in front of Lin. The sharp claws extended from its hand, and the grunt drove them into Lin's chest.

The last thing Lin heard were Tenzin and Mako's screams, then time seemed to slow down, and her environment became hazy. Disintegrating around her. She saw the glowing green substance flowing up the creature's arm, eventually leading to the crystals on its back. She struggled to breath, but the concept of breathing soon became foreign to her. The concept of being alive became foreign. She no longer felt her arms or her legs, feeling as though they were stretching out infinitely. Her vision blurred, and everything she saw, that last glimpse of the SPORE, became nothing but a blur of colors swirling around her, flickering quickly.

Lin was decomposing into her components. Her body leaving her. Her memories flickering before her. Her mind. All of her parts, given life by her soul. Her lost soul. Lin felt herself sinking in what seemed like water. Endless water. She felt as if the water was filling up inside her head, clogging her memories, her personality, her identity, and soon it would just flow outward and become part of this endless void she was falling into.

Soon, I will be nothing.

"Hey."

The voice was so familiar. She hadn't heard it in years. She attributed this to be one of her old memories of this voice, flowing out of her once concrete head and now encircling her in this void. But it spoke words she had never heard before, as if it was right there with her at that moment.

"Mother?" Lin said.

And suddenly, the darkness around her started shimmering. Like light reflecting off of metal. Moving metal. Walking toward her.

"I didn't want to have to see you like this. Not this way. So I came to stop it from happening."

"Stop what?" Lin said, her voice echoing all around her. "Am I dead?"

"Not yet. You aren't dying today, girl."

"Mother, they got me. I'm done."

"No, not my daughter."

Lin heard sadness in this voice now. A voice struggling to speak over its tears. Crying.

"Is it really you? Are you really here with me?"

"I've always been with you. As long as you remember, no matter what my soul decays into, we live one through the ones we have touched in this world."

"Now I know you aren't really my mother."

"I know…I know I'm not the person you wanted to hear from now. But I'm not going to let you die this way. I won't let them take you, so I'm coming to snap you out of this nonsense."

"To snap me out of death? What makes you think that is going to happen."

"Because you are my daughter. You have struggled through the darkness of your life, you have been burned and beaten and spit on and tortured but you have endured the pain and overcame the temptation to turn on the world. To turn against even the ones you hate. You must live to show the world that what you have become, that the strength you possess, the love you have for these people and this life, stretched beyond the hand of the Spirits. That such a soul can withstand anything the Spirits try to throw at it," Toph was quiet for a few seconds. Lin suddenly saw her mother's face appear out of the darkness. "I am sorry that I never told you these things while I was your mother. I am sorry I did not show my love the way I should have. The way you deserved. I am sorry…I was not the mother you deserved. I failed, Lin. I loved you so much and I was so proud of you. I still am. No matter what, Lin."

"Don't apologize," Lin said. She felt her legs again. Felt her arms regain feeling. She rose, looking at her mother eye to eye. "You did not fail. You were and always will be my role model. How could you have failed, if you raised a daughter like me? A daughter who isn't taking this shit any longer." Toph smiled and faded away. Lin saw the world materialize around her again. Time starting back up. She spoke to herself, watching the green substance, her soul, stop as it travelled up the arm of the SPORE. "A daughter who won't stop even when she's been touched by the hand of death. I've seen the darkest evil of this world. My soul is rock hard. My will to live is too strong for you to overcome, beast." Mako watched, stunned, not knowing how to proceed. Lin looked at the grunt, struggling to pull her soul out, but the green substance began flowing backward toward Lin. "I'm not dying today."

Lin pushed the grunt off of her and freed herself from the two holding her down. She grabbed her sword and easily killed all three of them. Lin breathed heavily as she fell back to the ground, bloody dripping from her chest. Tenzin and Mako ran up to her.

"Are you okay?" Tenzin asked.

"I think I will be," she said. "It still stabbed me in the chest though. So that hurts."

"We'll get you to the hospital," Mako said. "I just got word from Bolin and O-Ren. They are returning here with some cargo from the courthouse base, but the sanctuaries are safe."

"For now," Lin said. They helped her up and proceeded to traverse into Pratt Street when they saw the mass of people gathered in the streets. Ready to help Lin to safety in any way they could. Completely silent. Awe struck at seeing Lin rise from the dead. Inspired by her determination to live and protect them that she was able to take back her soul from the SPORE. To return from the afterlife. The refugees cheered, in thanks, that the three heroes had saved them. That they fought with their lives. The even the Spirits, even death, was not strong enough to break the power of the human.