-Divine Intervention—
The air was thick with dust from the deaths of so many SPORE. Humid with ash. It was as if the dust would saturate the air, blinding the humans underneath the dark sky. Seeing and breathing nothing but the remains of the dead.
"So, what? Some girl is going to go in and settle this thing peacefully? The Spirits get off without losing anything, while we have to live with the death of our loved ones on our mind?"
The two soldiers stooped over the soulless bodies of their comrades. Their old friends.
"I'd tear down every inch of their world if I had the chance at this point."
The sky cackled violently. As more human souls were collected, the boundaries between the physical and Spirit World were starting to dissolve, just as Korra predicted.
"It's almost time. Almost time for me to finish this."
"Are you ready?"
"I don't think I'll ever be, but that is not going to hold me back."
"Be careful in there. Their world will be new. Be prepared for the worst."
"I will."
"I'm proud of you, Korra. I never imagined you would have to be in this position. I've watched you grow and learn and become the mature adult that you are now. With a resolve so much stronger than I could ever have. I can't tell you with words how happy I am to see what you have become, but at the same time, how sad it is to see you go."
A warm embrace. The last she would ever receive from him.
"Thank you for everything, Tenzin. Thank you so much."
Korra looked toward the bay. CHAOS reached the docks of the city from the water. Its first steps onto the land sent small-scale earthquakes through the streets of New Republic City.
Korra, a few blocks away sitting on an antenna, watched in horror as the beast made its way through the city toward the defending humans, all gradually retreating to the sanctuaries. Proceeding before CHAOS were dozens of the taller SPORE who would occasionally throw bundles of smaller grunts across the city, although they had restrained from doing this since Korra had made her way to them. She had fought through several waves and was getting exhausted.
There's too many, and even if I could stop them, what happens when I go inside CHAOS and these things just continue on and obliterate the rest of them?
More airships were on their way, but smaller grunts would just grow off the tops of the much larger SPORE whose heads reached the dark clouds. Despite the looks of things, Korra could feel CHAOS as it approached. It knew she was there, watching it. Transmitting cosmic energy, connecting with her. She felt it weakening as the humans made a strong stand against it. Soon, it would break down, to allow the stronger spirits a way through. The Spirits that would build the next world. If those actual Spirits got to this world, there would be no hope. Korra would have to stop this before that happened.
"Korra," Iroh's voice sounded on her radio. "What is the status in your area?"
"The airships are almost back…but the giant SPORE continue to advance through the city. I can't take them down myself, but I don't think it would be the best idea to send an army back out here. Just a few reinforcements, we only need to take down a few more SPORE. We only need to survive a little longer. The beast is weakening, I can feel it. It is going to open the channel soon, and when it does, I think it be best that everyone evacuate the city through the mountains in the East, at least until I get this done. The Spirits that may emerge…I don't think it would be anything less than a complete slaughter."
"Opening soon, you say?" a new voice said.
"Bumi?"
"When it opens, traffic is accessible both ways. Is that correct? For anyone?"
"That's right. That's how I get in," Korra said.
Bumi, who was standing next to Iroh, smiled at him. They were strategizing in a small tent near the wall to the Sanctuaries, having relocated there after hearing about the breach and fearlessly aiding the defense of the citizens. Gunfire still sounded around them at the few remaining SPORE grunts coming through the walls. Over the radio, they heard loud crashing sounds as well.
"Korra, you still there?" Iroh asked.
"General, the SPORE have attacked the ships. They are leaping off the taller SPORE into the sky. It doesn't look good."
"Right then," Bumi said. "We will send a small team out to help take down these giant SPORE. I will lead them out there myself. We will be there with tanks to assist you, Korra." Bumi said. "You better stay here, Iroh, 'case this place needs ya. Another wave could come at any minute."
"Sir, what are you…," Iroh said, but his radio interrupted him.
"General!" the radio sounded. "A wave of SPORE snuck past the lines and reached the Pratt Street Bridge!"
"Better tend to that, General," Bumi said, and was out of the tent and running before Iroh's could even say anything to him. The General rushed to the Pratt Street Bridge where he found nothing but a mess of shattered crystals and gusts of wind carrying black dust. The remnants of the SPORE that had attacked.
No. Too late. Iroh rushed to the other side of the bridge and was shocked to see that the town before him did not appear endangered at all. No panic or carcasses or evidence of struggle. He witnessed several people near the hospital.
"IT WAS CRAZY!" the young airbender yelled to everyone around her who was actually listening, which, at the moment, only appeared to be two young twin sisters and General Iroh, while her younger brother made loud noises, demonstrating just how crazy it was. "Those things didn't stand a chance! Mako just had his firebending and was like 'pshhhhh', and then Dad was like 'woooosh' with his airbending! And even Jinora! She saved a man's life, and was almost about to die, but then Aunt Lin just sliced away the rest of them and saved us!"
"Ikki, right? And Meelo?" Iroh said after she was done yelling him the story. They both shook their heads up and down, excitedly. Iroh looked to the two twin sisters standing next to them.
"Oh! These are our new friends, Ahna and Akna!" Ikki said. "I can't remember which is which. They both look the same. Almost identical. Their dad died. He is Korra's uncle, so that makes them her cousins. But they said it was going to end soon. This war! And all the survivors are going to be okay."
"It's true," said Ahna, while Akna completed with, "We can feel it in the air," they smiled up at him. Iroh was confused.
"Can you tell me where she is? Your Aunt Lin?"
"In the hospital! She was killed by the SPORE but then she came back to life."
"Unfortunately, she is going in and out of consciousness, but her vitals are stabilizing, so we think she will be okay," said one of ONI's doctors as Iroh walked to Lin and Tyko's room. "The other has suffered severe burns and broken bones, few concussions, but he is going to survive as well."
"Good to hear," Iroh said. Lin lied in the hospital bed, her face still caked with blood and dirt. A large bandage wrapped around her stomach. Tenzin, his wife, and Jinora stood around the bed, holding Lin's hands. Thankful for her continual sacrifices.
"She has always been there for us," Tenzin said. "She has served this family and saved us countess times. She has always helped us, served us, when we truly needed it, sacrificing everything, even herself, more than once so that we may live. Our well-being ad happiness matters to her more than anything. She is truly a guardian angel, and a best friend."
Iroh waited in silence as the family kept company the unconscious heroine. "I'm sorry for interrupting," he said after a few minutes. "I came as fast I heard."
"It was over in just a few minutes," Mako said, who had been standing near the window next to Tyko's bed. There were several other beds in the room as well as more wounded soldiers were brought back and treated. Sydney rushed in with trays of doctor's tools and placed them next to a patient while she started treating a wound on another patient's chest
"What are you doing?" Mako asked.
"Anything I can to help. There are only a few doctors around here. They asked me for my assistance, so I've just been preparing and moving people for surgery so they can get back on their feet faster. There's talk of evacuating the city."
"Yes, that is why I have come…," Iroh said.
"Bombs are in stock, again!" Yelled Bolin as he arrived in Lin's rooms with O-Ren. "Got a whole slew of weapons from the courthouse."
"How was it holding up?" Iroh asked.
"Doesn't matter," O-Ren said. "Everyone bailed when they saw the giant SPORE heading their way. Most of their turrets and bunkers had been wiped out anyway at that point, so they cut their losses and are coming back. The walls are nearly pointless now. It's happening. The final stand is going to be here, in the Sanctuaries, just like we said."
"Please," Iroh said, "I need to have a meeting with you all. Well, those who are able to, at least. Tenzin, Bolin, Mako, O-Ren," he said to the group, "I need to meet with you in the train station. We are nearing the end of this war, and I don't know who is going to come out on top. O-Ren is right. This is our last strategy. Our final stand."
Firelord Zuko's hand, stretched up into the sky, burned once again a bright orange flame, perfectly resting in his palm, cradling it as if he was carefully handing it back to the Spirits. Iroh looked at the lit statue through the window of the train station, unsure if he remembered the hand being on fire just earlier that day.
"What is the situation, Iroh?" Mako asked.
"Korra believes the beast is weakening and will open soon. She can't say when, but a small team with tanks and airships have been sent to kill whatever SPORE they can, hopefully lasting just as long as it takes, surviving just long enough, before the monster halts and lets Korra in, but there are a few things we should hammer out that are associated with this. First of all, once CHAOS opens the door to the Spirit World and Korra goes in to fight whatever is causing this, what happens here? I believe the SPORE will keep advancing, so we just need to survive until Korra completes her task. But who knows how long that will be? I think it is best that when she gets to the Spirit World, we begin evacuating people out of the city, eastward to the mountains, especially if opening a link to the Spirit World will halt CHAOS. Likewise, we will need some people to stay in the Sanctuaries and hold back the waves, delay them from getting anywhere else in the world or closer to our movement outward, do whatever until Korra comes back and we've won. I was wondering if you would be able to stay here in the city to help me do that?"
"Sir, Korra has said the beast is weakening?" Mako asked. Iroh nodded. Mako hesitated before speaking again, remembering what Asami had said. Realizing what he had to do. "I think there should be a third party to help Korra. The faster she gets things done inside CHAOS the sooner this fight may end. If she has help…"
"Who would go and help her?" Iroh asked.
"I would. I would go with her," Mako said. He looked at Bolin.
"Me too," Bolin said. "I'll go with her. Mako is right. Any help we can give her will be invaluable. We can stop this thing sooner, and if the two worlds are colliding, then the rules of the physical world may have bled into the Spirit World."
"So?" Mako asked.
"So we might still be able to bend in there. Might as well act like a Spirit if we are in their world, right?" Mako agreed that it could be true. He looked at O-Ren.
"I think I'll stay here and defend the Sanctuaries," O-Ren said. "The explosive earth walls techinique that Bolin and I have been using seems to work well in holding back the SPORE waves. I've always wanted to fight to protect something important, so I feel like this is my duty, today."
"Good to hear," Iroh said, smiling.
"I will stay as well," Tenzin said. "It doesn't take many more people to go with Korra before it becomes a chore for her. It's better for me to stay here, with my family, with Lin and with all the other civilians, and help lead everyone out of the city when the time comes."
"Cool," Bolin said. "New Team Avatar, the original four, back together again! Except, you know, without the Avatar, or Asami. Speaking of which, has anyone heard from her?"
"She's ahead of you two," Tenzin said. "Asami's gone back for Korra. When we met up with her, Jinora and Tyko at one of the outer walls, we armed her with some guns and she separated from us to go back for Korra."
"Her mind is already made up," Mako said, remembering Asami's certainty in her decision to go to the Spirit World with Korra. To be with her through it all. It started to dawn on Mako what might have existed between Asami and Korra. "She is ruthless, and she will not hesitate to do what she thinks is right. Nothing scares her when it comes to the ones she loves."
Suddenly, there was a loud, irregular sounding explosion coming from the skies. Iroh looked in the direction of the airships and saw the tops of the giant SPORE even across the city. All the ships veiled by the sky. He got on his radio.
"Airship captains: Can anyone hear me? Hello? Captain Nagano? Captain Morimoto? What is going on? What is the situation?"
There was no reply from any of the airships.
Damn. They waited in silence for a few moments until..
"Sir! They've come for us!" yelled Iroh's radio.
"Hello? Who is this?"
"This is captain Jing-jing, sir. Our airship has been rescued."
"What are you talking about?"
"We were hit badly. The skies are infested with grunts. We had a breach in our ship in the engine room. SPORE were pouring in. We thought it was the end. I grabbed my gun and went down to kill them off when but something crazy happened. We held them back as long as we could, and my men and I were nearly done for as the SPORE encroached but they were stopped. By a waterbender, it seems. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was an angel, they said. We must have been right in the middle of that dark cloud, but somehow a bright light shined through the holes in the ship walls. And she stood there, this angel, and bent all these ice crystals at the SPORE. The grunts that were dangerously close to us she would freeze instead, just using the moisture in the air, and then they were destroyed by some kind of weapon. Like a boomerang that just swept through and took the SPORE out! Every single one. Then, these saviors were gone, out the way they came, but the light still shined through."
"Sir," another radio in the annex sounded off, "Something is out here. Not a SPORE but not one of us. Protecting our airships with firebending. It's the most powerful firebending I've ever seen. I didn't think it is human."
"What did this firebender look like?"
"He was dressed like a firelord."
Iroh moved away from his radio and looked out the window. "What is going on out there?
"Whatever it is, sounds like things are starting to go in our favor," Mako said, tightening his gloves. "Bolin, let's go. If SPORE are starting to fall, it might be a matter of minutes before CHAOS opens up. We are going to be there for Korra."
"There is one last thing you should know before leaving here," Iroh said, looking at Tenzin as Mako and Bolin were getting ready to leave. "Your brother is the one leading this small team of soldiers out toward CHAOS. Soldiers who are very angry at the Spirits, angry because they've lost loved ones today. Frankly, I don't blame them for being angry."
"You think my brother will follow Korra into the beast, don't you?" Tenzin asked. "What has gotten into him, lately?"
"He's seeing the same slaughter that you and I have been seeing. He's witnessed the loss of human life. Death because the Spirits deem us a failure. I don't know what he is going to do once he gets across, or what he should do…"
"You, too, aren't thinking about justifying his plans, are you?" Tenzin asked.
Iroh didn't say anything. Before he could, Korra came on the radio.
"General, something is happening."
The giants approached the building on which Korra was standing, resting as she had just expended a lot of energy bringing down one of the other SPORE giants, but simultaneously trying ot conserve her strength for her inevitable face-off with Daya. She looked onward, disheartened, at the number of remaining giants approaching, even with the help of the airships and the small battle tanks that had just arrived.
Korra had notified the general after seeing the giant SPORE suddenly becoming subdued. Metal wires wrapped tightly around its arms, pulling it to the ground, completely overpowering it. Once the giant got close to the ground, bursts of flame shot through the creature's back, turning it all to black dust. The wires and fire were being emitted from some source occluded by the buildings and debris in front of Korra. This pattern continued.
"I can't see who it is but whoever they are, they sure can bend and they are taking these things down one-by-one." The metal wires shot up and through the giant SPORE this time rather than wrapping around it and pulling it wires simply crashed through the monster's back, destroying all of its crystals and bringing it down easily before Korra even saw any fire shoot at it. She heard a loud laugh and saw a shiny body move through the street.
"Lin?"
Snow started falling from the skies, mixed with the black dust of dead SPORE. Crystal shards raining with the snow. Death from above. Korra couldn't do more but watch in awe as SPORE were being taken down by a powerful force around. The gang of giants Korra had just seen had all fallen to their extinction.
"They are gone…did you send…?" Korra stopped talking when she saw the familiar face fall from the sky and land before her. Her back facing Korra. She was younger, more agile and powerful, but the beauty that her face now possessed was the same beauty Korra had always seen in her waterbending master.
"Katara?"
Katara turned around, slightly surprised, not realizing she had landed so close to Korra. She smiled. Korra blinked several times, wondering if she had already crossed into the Spirit World without knowing it.
"How is this possible?"
The metal wire flew across the air right in front of Korra's face with a woosh, hitting the wall next to her, allowing the blind metalbending master to easily pull herself up to the rooftop.
"You think being dead keeps us from fighting?" Toph said with a cocky grin.
Propelling himself upward, the once-again young Fire Lord used his firebending to join the crew, his left eye red and scarred.
"Feels good to get out again," Zuko said in a very low voice.
Korra heard the sound of a young man struggling to climb up to their level. An arm wrapped around the ledge accompanied by the sound of quick breathing. Another arm swung around, holding a boomerang that grappled the edge of the building. The Water Tribe warrior rose to his feet, wobbling, exhausted from his climb.
"You guys and your bending getting up here so easily…" Sokka said with frustration.
"Hello, Avatar," Katara said, smiling. "It's good to see you again."
Each member of the Old Team Avatar stood before Korra, looking like they did in their prime. Even Katara, the last of this group to pass away, looking like she did when she was in her twenties.
"I don't understand," Korra said. "Am I in the Spirit World or am I dead…?"
"Neither," Zuko said. "You are still in the physical world, but the worlds are colliding."
"Yeah, this is what happens when SPORE start collecting souls to get rid of the boundary between the two worlds, but what these dumb Spirits didn't realize was how connected we all are to this world," Toph said. "They forgot that when the boundaries dissolved, that meant we could come back too."
"When we died, our souls returned to the Spirit World as Clasma," Katara said. "But even when we had been reduced to just raw energy, the pain of this world, the pain of the ones we loved was able to reach us, to revive the bonds that held us together. We were ourselves again, reconstructed by our ties to this world. We felt a need to return when the chance presented itself, the rules were broken, allowing us come back. You see? Even death cannot take apart the bonds we develop in this world. They are what keep us alive throughout all time."
"I didn't think that was possible…just by…"
"What we lived for is more powerful than anything the Spirits could understand," Zuko said.
"What about the Avatar? What about Aang?"
The four members looked at Korra. "He is here. With us right now. He is you."
"The Old Team Avatar, back together again at last, after being dead and resting in peace for so long," Sokka exclaimed.
They all heard a loud roar coming from CHAOS, who had made its way inward toward the city. The mass of saturated cosmic energy suddenly stopped and yelled out, Korra feeling the pain in its screams as it realized the resistance it was facing. It burned her insides.
"It's happening," Korra uttered. Around CHAOS, the bolts of purple lightning discharged in all directions, cracking the road underneath its feet, pieces being uplifted into the air, revolving around the monster. Chunks revolving like planets around this sun of a beast. Water rose into the air from the bay and followed this revolving pattern around the beast as well. Accelerating in angular velocity as the beast growled louder and louder.
From ground level, Bumi, within his tank, put on a huge smile as he saw what was happening. The combination of water, earth, air, and fire caused by the energy of the beast swirled around its gigantic body, speeding up until it was so thick and fast that only the bright green eyes of the beast could be seen from outside the sphere of elemental destruction. Like an Avatar State.
Katara watched the scene in horror, thinking of the many times she had seen Aang become this same weapon when he angrily went into the Avatar State. Within the storm of revolving earth and air and water, a bright light suddenly glowed from CHAOS's body, consuming its whole frame. At that instant, the swirling mass of elements around it slowed to nearly a complete stop. What revolved around the beast no longer had any resemblance to its components. It looked almost like water in texture, a sphere of water surrounding the beast, but held a greenish-blue color, glowing from the eyes of the beast still piercing through, its low growls travelling from within the bubble it was in to the outside world, anything that had existed near this bubble's boundary reduced to nothing.
"That's it!" Korra and Bumie yelled simultaneously.
The light emitted by CHAOS lit the bubble in which it rested. The beast unleashing the Spirit World for which it had been a vessel. Becoming Transparent. A screen into another world. Korra looked at the glowing sphere where CHAOS had been, the portal to the Spirit World now open, CHAOS's structure, its green eyes, fading away, making room for the Spirits that would soon pass through. The Spirits that would destroy everything left and rebuild the world.
"That's how I get in. That's the portal. It's open," Korra got on her radio, "General Iroh, the portal is open. I have to go in now. I won't have a lot of time."
"Not alone you aren't," said a voice behind Korra. She looked to see Asami, guns in hand, ready to join her.
"You're damn right not alone," Mako and Bolin said, revealing themselves behind the Old Team Avatar.
"Yeah, we're coming with…" Bolin said, before he noticed the faces of the dead standing next to him. "What the…?"
"What are you looking at, pretty boy?" Toph asked.
Bolin stood up straight, terrified. "Me?"
"What are you guys doing here?" Korra asked.
"We are in this with you, Korra," Mako said. He turned to Asami and smiled, making her smile as well. Showing her that she was right in what she said.
"Yeah. Team Avatar stays together," Asami said.
"You're the new Team Avatar?" Sokka asked, looking the members up and down. "Not exactly what I was expecting. Maybe I'm just not used to this new clothing."
"I like them," Zuko said sincerely.
"Yeah, me too," replied Katara.
"Nah, Sokka is right, they look like a bunch of sissies," Toph said.
"Hey, we ain't no sissies, uhm, Ms. Bei Fong, ma'am," Bolin said with little force or confidence.
"Oh yeah? Toughen up and prove me wrong then, why don't ya."
"Well, I can see where Lin gets her...personality from," Mako said.
Korra started to approach her friends but then saw the tanks below continuing toward the portal into the Spirit World.
"Wait, what are they doing?"
Bumi grinned as he got closer to the spherical portal, ready to give his life to deliver to the other world a taste of his army's fury.
"Commander Bumi," Korra's voice came over his radio. "Fall back! Do not advance. It is a portal to the Spirit World!"
"Exactly, Korra. And I have an army here ready to tear that Spirit World apart."
"No, you don't understand. It isn't like this world. You don't know what you are getting into. You could lose all of your men for nothing."
"This isn't for nothing, my friend. This is for you and your friends and everyone you love."
"Commander," a new voice came on, "This is General Iroh. I order you to stop. Do not proceed with this mission. I believe Korra when she says it is suicide. Listen to her and how strongly she feels about this. I beg you, please do not go through with this."
"I'm not solely depending on one person like we always have. Looking to one Avatar to save us all. Repeating history and showing that we cannot defend ourselves," Bumi said. "That we need someone like her with her superhuman abilities to protect us. Well, we don't. We are human, dammit. We are more powerful than any cosmic energy."
"I know, Commander," Korra pleaded. "I know. I know this world wants to relinquish their dependence on an Avatar. That is exactly what I want to do, as well. So please, let me do that. I am the Avatar. Let me relinquish myself. Let me do this one last thing for this world, so that you can be free. So that you will never need me again. So that you will never have a reason to need someone like me to bridge the Spirit World. You'll be free from your eternal rulers who threaten your potential when you choose to follow it, who threaten your life when they decide it has no value, and tell you that you must depend on one person to live." Bumi halted from advancing any further at this. Korra's words struck him. His tank continued forward, but slowly.
Tenzin's voice came on the radio now.
"Bumi, brother, why has it come to this?"
"I have seen so many deaths today. Deaths brought about by our supposed 'rulers', those who were supposed to watch over us, not control us. Not punish us like this for no reason. They'll soon see that they've bred a race stronger than them."
"Yes, they have. Show them that they have. Show them they are wrong about us, and that they have created a race of humans, not of monsters. Do not choose vengeance. Korra is right, there will be no room for peace if you go through with this. You have seen so much death, why would you lead your own men into a place where they would not return?"
"Why should we give ourselves up to one person, Tenzin? Why is she the one who decides whether we live or die as a race? Why don't we decide that, ourselves?"
"She decides because that is how our creators intended it to be. But does that really matter when she is here, fighting to change that? Fighting so that we will be the ones who decide? Fighting for us, even over her own well-being? Does that really matter when Korra would stand up to the Spirits to free us from their rule, knowing that she, too, would be separated from this Earth, from everything she loves, never come back, if she stands up for us against them?"
Bumi's tank was completely stopped now. He had to turn over what his brother had told him for a solid minute. Asami, too, was puzzled by what she heard over her radio, trying to put it out of her mind, hoping she had simply misheard Tenzin.
"You're telling the truth, aren't you," Bumi said, sadly. He looked up at the portal before him, a swirling ball of cosmic energy consuming the roads, ready to spit out the nastiest Spirits he would ever see.
"Brother, please…"
"Fine. The mission is off," Bumi said into his radio, ordering his small team to retreat. "No one goes in there unless it is Korra. I give my trust to her, this once." Bumi began to turn his tank around when he noticed some of his soldiers had done so. They still faced the Spirit World portal. "Men! Are you deaf? The mission is off. Return to base at once. Our next priority is to protect the Sanctuaries from whatever comes out of that portal.
"Not gonna happen, boss," Bumi heard.
"What? I am your Commander. This is for your own safety, men. Do as I say."
"I'm so sorry, but not this time," he heard. Bumi recognized the voices of the two men refusing his orders.
"My friends, please..." Bumi said depressingly, realizing that these two men had both lost several family members to the SPORE that day. "Please, don't go and kill yourselves as well. You are truly my friends. Listen to Korra. That place is dangerous. Unknown. You don't know what you will face. You don't know what is going to happen."
"Oh I know what is going to happen," the two men shut their radios off and put their tanks into gear. "I'm going to tear this place to the ground." The pressed on their gas and went full speed toward the portal, hitting the outer boundary of the bubble and disappearing into the void within.
"No!" Korra yelled. The tanks had plunged into the Spirit World before she could even act. "Bumi! What the hell!? What was that…?"
"Hey, you heard me! I called the operation off, just like you said. Now what is going to happen to my men? Am I going to have to go in there and get those two out?" Bumi turned his tank around toward the portal, but waited for Korra's word.
Korra grabbed her head and fell to her knees, confused, frustrated and panicking at the situation. Trying to find a quick solution but realizing her head was cluttered with thoughts. It was hard enough coming to the conclusion that she would have to go in that Spirit World at all, now several humans were trapped in there. She didn't want these two men to lose their lives, but even more so, she did not want the relationship between human and Spirit to be damaged beyond repair by the two soldiers trying to burn their world down.
Katara brought Korra into a hug, attempting to calm her down. Korra felt safe against her old master. The feel of Katara's clothes reminded her of the South Pole. Of her home. Of her own Mother.
"Avatar, we are here to help. You have called us here. You are in control. Tell us what to do. Finish this battle."
Korra looked to the portal as more SPORE were emerging. Bumi realized the odds against his smaller group of tanks and started to fall back.
"Korra!?" Bumi yelled in the radio. "What is the plan, huh?"
It was up to her to figure this out. She had even convinced the great Commander Bumi to be subject to her orders. She turned to look at the ghosts of the old Team Avatar, as well as the members of the New Team Avatar, looking strangely at their predecessors back from the grave.
"I have to go in there. I have to rescue those men before they get hurt or they make things worse. Old team Avatar: Katara, Toph, Sokka, Zuko…you have returned to this world for a reason. The cries of your people. I would not doubt that your souls, which have been able to reconstruct themselves just out of your love for these people, can be nearly immune to any attack by these SPORE. That is why I think you should stay here and help the humans guard the Sanctuaries. That is most important right now if this world wants any chance of continuing its existence, while I take care of things in the Spirit World."
Toph made a fist and punched her open palm. "You got it, Aang. We'll show these SPORE the worst time of their lives before they even get close to the humans."
"You can count on us, Aang," Zuko said. "We won't let you down."
Korra looked away from Aang's team as they left, and looked at her own members. "You guys really came here to help me? You realize how dangerous this operation is going to be? Going in to the Spirit World…it is unpredictable what we will encounter in there. Life-threatening…"
"Korra," Asami said. "We're a team, remember? Since the beginning of all of this we've been a team. We aren't just going to let you go alone. We promised to see this through with you until the end. And that is exactly what we are here to do."
"Once you find her, it will be your fight, but until then, we are all going to be there alongside of you and help in any way we can," Mako said.
"Yeah, because really, we are like a family," Bolin said.
Korra smiled and nearly cried. Seeing her friends put aside all fear and accompany her on this mission touched her. "Yeah, we are. I wouldn't have expected anything different, but still…thanks guys," she felt the water start filling up in her eyes, doing everything she could to hold them back. "I love you all."
Korra hugged Mako and Bolin tightly as they stepped to the edge, ready to jump off the ledge of the building and descend into the bubble before them. Into the Spirit World.
"See you girls on the other side," they said, and jumped in together.
"Asami," Korra said. "I wanted to ask you something."
"What is it?"
"Whatever happens in here, if I'm not able to make it back, can you promise to try and do something for me?"
Asami hesitated to answer, not wanting to think about what Tenzin had said earlier. "Anything."
"I just want a message to reach my parents. It doesn't have to be from you, but I just want the words to reach them. My own words"
"What is the message, Korra?"
"That I love them. That I am grateful for everything they did, and that I am sorry that I had to do what I had to do to save them." Korra grabbed Asami's hand tightly and looked her in the eyes.
"I'm not going to leave this Spirit World without you, Korra. I'll make sure that you come back. I'll make sure you see the beautiful new world that will be here when this ends. Your beautiful world" Asami looked into the blurry globe of the Spirit World before her. "But yes…I promise. I would promise you anything Korra."
"I know," Korra said. "Thank you."
The two girls jumped hand-in-hand off the ledge of the building and plummeted down the rabbit into the other world. The admittance of the Avatar into the Spirit World emitted a bright blue light into the sky. Tenzin saw this light and knew what it meant. The Avatar returning to the place in which she was created.
"Never com back?" Iroh asked, back at the train station.
Tenzin nodded slowly. "The Spirit Korra must suppress is the very Spirit holding her together as a human. The Spirit responsible for her own creation and continued existence throughout all time."
"The Avatar cycle?" Iroh asked.
"Yes. It will be broken. Korra...knows this. And yet, it did not stop her. She has struggled with this destiny, but she knows that it is the only way. She has accepted it. Everything that Korra has seen during this ordeal- this beautiful world, her family, the ones she loves-it will be the last time she will ever see them again. But Korra presses on...for us."
Our protector. A guardian angel. A best friend.
The bright light faded.
"It's time we go, Iroh. We have a call to answer. The future of these people rests with us."
/*This chapter was tough. The old team coming back to help I thought was cool and made sense since the worlds are combining, and the old and new series comes together for an ultimate battle of survival. They call her Aang on purpose because she is the embodiment of of all the avatars, and aang was the one they all knew so they see him. I also want Lin and Korra to be paralleled. Korra fights for the humans as a Spirit, but Lin is almost her reflection and fights as a human, but sacrifices the same thing so that the humans can live.*/