AN: Quick disclaimer, this chapter may be a little bit more violent and graphic than the rest, particularly with the death of a certain main villain. I simply don't like the way he goes down in the movie and it would make absolutely no sense for him to exit this in the same way so be warned there. Also beware of some of the language I use with him. Since Zaheer is really unravelling at this stage in the narrative I took a more direct approach in his descriptions and imagery. Also I'll apologise right now there are two instances of swearing but again I only included them because I felt like they fit. With that out of the way, enjoy the penultimate chapter and I hope you guys enjoy one of the best sequences from the movie!
The Lost City of the South
Chapter 12 - The Volcano, She Awakes
The attack wing soared into the cave leading straight to the bowels of the volcano with such swiftness even fighter pilots would be envious of; Asami pulling and holding a determined face the entire time with her eyes focused on the light emanating from the end of the tunnel where Zaheer would be lingering, readying his escape to the surface. In many ways they were a fighter squadron now, their target being the damsel in distress who Asami could not resist thinking about as the cave descended into complete darkness save for the blue ice cold patterns glowing from the heads and mouths of the flying wing of fish, both tuna style and haddock as Bolin had pointed out. If the young and weary archaeologist said she wasn't completely terrified she'd be telling the biggest lie of her life and in complete honesty she still wasn't sure that it was the smartest idea she could have had but she was mid way through her hunch and she had the rest of her rag tag team behind her with more and more ranks of southerners on fish filing in as the cave began to expand wider and wider until they could see light again faintly at the end of the tunnel. Asami if you've ever had time to think about regrets now's the time girl. No? Good. She thought of her father, what he would say and then realised if he had said anything at all she would just be ignoring it completely to stop a madman hellbent on getting rich even if it meant killing innocents and to rescue a woman she had only known just over a day and who she loved regardless. It was as if the spirits had divinely intervened in some way she could not figure out, forcing her to act as she had never acted in her life. It was reckless and she didn't care.
Zaheer had the capsule carrying his southern prize attached and suspended in the air by the large dirigible coloured red and hazardous with four side inflatables to allow it to float slowly up the shaft of the volcano with himself and his right hand lady safely on the observation deck. He still had the large gun that could for all intensive purposes have been a portable anti aircraft gun. He was already ascending and had the biggest grin on his face that victory was so closely in his grasp. As a defiant and least effort to stroke his large ego he pulled in the sweaty and muscular woman at his side in for a long and abusive kiss, forcing his tongue into her mouth that in many ways wound her up and disgusted her all at once. It was pure adrenaline coursing through both of them, but mainly him, allowing him to get off on his score. He purely was a man of filth.
Asami finalised her plan of attack in her head and turned to the gang; P'Li and the Beifongs coming up right behind her in attack formation. They were all looking on edge, especially Opal who was, as Asami only now remembered, the youngest out of all them at just twenty; and now she was following Asami who was only five years her senior into battle.
"Okay guys here's the plan," she called to them with the wind blowing her crimson highlighted hair back passed her face. She was amazed Opal's engineer's cap was staying on. Even more so looking to spot Bumi's bowler hat staying on his head as loosely as it always was; he looked both menacing and laughable with his double barrelled shotgun in the one hand. "We're going to go in fast and low and hit them by surprise." It sounded much more tactical in her mind, as well as the best course of action but once the words left her lips she could tell they were fairly predictable. They were fighting in a rather small and confined space that was also a volcano, leaving them very little option to attack from above. Also as far as Asami knew the damn fish had no weapons to speak of and she didn't even have a pistol; the only weapons the wing had at all were the primal's bows, arrows and spears. Opal had a handgun she'd stowed away from her mother rebelliously. Bumi of course had his shotgun and Mrs Beifong had her camera, although Asami doubted that technically counted as a weapon. P'Li had what was left of her explosives stockpiled which now counted at about three sticks of dynamites and half a dozen road flares and then Suyin had her medical bag and hacksaw which, as the words had stuck with the archaeologist the entire trip, could 'cut through a femur in twenty eight seconds' but Suyin was sure she could also 'cut that time in half'.
"I gotta warn ya Asami, Zaheer's never surprised when he has a lot of guns" Opal countered. Then it dawned on Asami that Zaheer did have a lot of guns. She remembered all the men he had not to mention the rigs that were left standing after two days ago and then the contents of the trucks and then all the guns she saw on the sub. Her heart sank and she felt sick but she was so done with melodrama it only fueled her determination. There truly was no turning back now and carrying on was better than sitting around and waiting to die. She had to do something.
She slammed her palms on the stone dashboard of the impossible vehicle being careful not to his the control panel and then wiped her hair back with sweat already forming on her brow. "Great, you got any suggestions?!" She called back completely fed up the the day she was having. She was already exhausted.
"Yeah!" She heard P'Li call from the side. "Don't. Get. Shot!" She yelled sarcastically with her three eyes practically popping out of her skull.
They cleared the large hail of stalactites and came into the bowels of the volcano as the dirigible cleared the floor with Zaheer standing proud on the deck. She eyes him straight away in the gleam of her lenses. He had lit up the entire arena with spotlights to make it feel like a show.
"There they are!" She called, pointing at the madman while the rest of his operation leaped to life and got to battle stations; they manned the stationary machine gun turrets and all grabbed rifles. some even manning one manned stunt planes with built in weaponry, which completely stunned Asami already.
Before anyone could alter the plan the base of the volcano turned into a war zone with flying fish and smaller one manned planes soaring through the small space of the volcano with machines letting rip and bullets flying through the air. The primal southerners fought back with hurls of arrows from their wooden bows, managing to rip through the cloth coverings of the enemy soldiers in gas masks and long trench coats but doing nothing the gatling gun batteries or the massive anti aircraft encampments. Asami wondered why the hell Zaheer had seen fit to bring all of this destructive equipment but then she remembered that now he had shown his true colours he was a desperate man who would take every step to ensure he got his prize and therefore his cash. Everything that was not money meant nothing to him and once he had his prize only his escape was a priority.
Now the men below had set up mortar tubes and were hurling explosive shells high into the air. She could only dodge and weave through the hail-fire of them and watch as the occasional unlucky pilot flew into one of them and crash landed on the odd truck or a group of Zaheer's men and women, taking them with him or her.
"Holy shit!" She cursed, forming up with Suyin and Opal as the matriarch flew carefully and cautiously through the barrage of death with their tuna with no guns. She begged the question had she flown before? Asami thought for a split second and came up with the conclusion that she would never know the full story behind any of her teammates, least of all for the secretive and yet still attractive Kuvira; Asami couldn't help but think the woman was still smoking, even if she was only interested in money. Once the archaeologist decided she liked the look of someone that was that, no matter how much she hated them. "You told me he only had guns!" Asami shouted to Opal after dodging another mortar shell.
The engineer was shaking her head in the distance as her mother began to squirm as she weaved through the damage zone. "What I said was he's never surprised!" She called through the air through her thick lips.
One lucky man on a gatling gun encampment found the main attack wave of flying fish and the helm was P'Li when he began to fire. He found her fast through the recoil and peppered at her haddock vehicle, trying to shoot her right off in order to kill her. She squirmed, even she was terrified when being shot at fifty times in a few seconds. She couldn't control her reflexes as her hand landed on the control panel of the fish in a certain way, finding the main and only weapon systems as she closed her eyes and flew right over the gunner trying her best not to die in any of the plethora of ways possible.
The mouth glowed a spectacular and fatal blue before charging up and firing and massive spike of electrical energy that arced over the earth and magma before finding its way to the truck, blasting right through the radiator and blowing it up with the three gunners along with it. P'Li smiled as the bullets stopped and she turned to the two southerners forming up on her wings. She chuckled. "Okay, now things are getting good" she muttered to her wingmates at the sudden release of seeing something other than stone fish blow up in a flurry of orange and white and blue. She was such a pyromaniac at heart and now she could satisfy herself with the new toy.
Asami flew up on her wing as the two southerners soared on ahead to attack the gunning trucks. The young and yet exhilarated archaeologist was completely disheveled but still in fighting shape with the adrenaline and bodily chems coursing through her veins. "P'Li, heads up!" She called from across the way to grab the anarchist's attention. Suyin and Opal came up behind both of them and together they set their sights on the large red dirigible in the center of the arena which was still slowly heading upwards with Korra hovering the capsule at the bottom. "You and me we're gonna be decoys," she turned to Su and her daughter as P'Li nodded briskly and flew on ahead at Zaheer, figuring out what Asami was getting at. "Opal, Suyin, fly up underneath the thing, and cut our girl loose" Asami instructed and looked back at the red.
"You got it!" Suyin shouted and deviated from her course, heading to the bottom of the spinning blades right where Korra was contained.
P'Li formed with Bumi as the planes began to clean up the rest of the southerners with Bolin doing his best to guard them in a mad frenzy of energy blasts from the mouth of his fish. Bumi suddenly became an expert marksman, shooting two pilots dead from their planes while Mrs Beifong took snapshots of random areas in her blindness. No matter how she could see before surely there was too much sound and noise for her to figure out where anything was now. She did however help Bumi reload as P'Li charges head first through an exploding plane she shot ten seconds prior. She racked up another two demolitions in as many minutes while Su and Opal approached the bottom of Zaheer's balloon relatively undetected; Asami drew the rest of the fire from the man with the massive gun as Kuvira shot seemingly aimlessly with her smaller magnum.
Disembarking from their fish Suyin handed her daughter the hacksaw to cut at the chains, knowing she could certainly cut faster and stronger than her mother being the engineer that she was.
"You told me this thing could cut through a femur in twenty eight seconds!" Opal yelled as she cut and cut at the chains to no fruition. She had no idea what they were made out of but the saw was not cutting through the metal at all and they were rapidly running out of time Asami and P'Li could maintain Kuvira and Zaheer.
"Less talk more saw!" Suyin roared quickly, encouraging Opal to cut for her damn life, for everyone's damn lives.
Zaheer caught Asami in his raging eyes and brought around his massive cannon to blast her puny target out of the sky with his teeth gritted. The sound of the weapon tore through sky as he trailed her tail while she maneuvered around the balloon. P'Li saw the size of his rounds and decided the gun needed to go. She slammed down her open palm and send a blast of blue lightning at him, ripping the gun in half in has hands and scorching his palms. He looked furious and she rubbed salt in the wounds with a quick and spiteful salute to her former commander.
He quickly spotted the mother and daughter attempting to sabotage his victory down below and smiled, tossing his personal woman another mag from her pistol and taking out his own. "Looks like somebody's working overtime!" He mockingly called out, giving a signal for his sidekick to target them and leave the two flying fish.
As a team they began to pepper Opal's position with smaller bullets, making it impossible to cut through the chains. Kuvira caught her in the arm with a stray round, ripping right through her bicep and making the young girl wince in pain. Suyin gasped and grabbed her daughter, hurling her back into the fish. "Come on Opal time's up" she muttered and exited the kill box before Zaheer or Kuvira could do anymore damage to her little warrior.
Asami watched as her plan fell to pieces at the hands of Zaheer once again and suddenly another one popped into her manic mind that was surely unravelling due to the stress; she could not tell anymore if she was having repetitive strokes of genius, dumb luck or complete insanity. Okay Asami any least regrets? She really did not like the thought she was having but it was the only thing left to try in the time frame remaining to them. It was now or never if they were going to free Korra. Yeah I really wish I had a better idea than this!
She slammed down her hand on the control panel and aimed straight for the closest side balloon of the dirigible; she hoped by slamming the fish right into it and grabbing a tray rope in time she could halt the ascension of the balloon if not stop it all together and then formulate another plan to neutralise Zaheer by herself. Not likely Sato! The stone fish collided with the fabric of the balloon and Asami ejected herself as fast as she could, grabbing hold tightly of one of the fleeing ropes as the aid let all of its air go.
Zaheer checked the state of his ascension as the side balloon fell to the ground. "We're losing altitude!" He turned to Kuvira who was already doing her best to shed the rest of the weight off of the dirigible. "Lighten the load!" He called.
She tossed out the last barrel something and wiped back her matte black hair, grunting at the workout. "That's it unless someone wants to jump" she huffed sarcastically while sweating and grabbing for extra breath to cool herself. He crept up behind her with another arrogant smile on his ape like face before suddenly picking her up by her tight hips.
"Ladies first!"
He threw her off, causing her gasp and then yell, almost squeal. Luckily for the woman she grabbed the railing and pulled herself back on board with a tug, flying into a kick right at Zaheer's face. He squirmed, hurt and off balance as he fell to get up stunned. She was huffing again, exhausted from all the moving and now furious at him.
"You said we were in this together!" She yelled before kicking him again in the face, earning another grunt from his lungs. "You promised me a percentage!" She was about to land another kick in his cheek but he grabbed her foot in mid air with a crazed look of mania and ecstasy in his eyes and he swung her foot around.
"Next time get it in writing!"
Before she could blink he flung her leg to the left and away from the balloon, off the deck and towards the floor after a fatal drop and with it her entire body followed, followed to her death. "Zaheer!" She let rip into the sky as she fell to her demise.
He was still smiling however with no remorse in his expression while watching her fall and die. "Nothing personal!"
Asami crept up on him, jumping from rope to rope until she was in the perfect spot to repeat his own process and kick him to a death via gravity; she had to or he was without a doubt going to kill her in a far more gruesome way seconds later. She loosened a clump of rope and swung at him like in the jungle, like an ape woman with her legs out extended. Her feet collided with his face but she couldn't stop and as she couldn't he grabbed both her legs as he crashed through the railing and around and down to the bottom ring holding the chains that were in turn holding the capsule with Korra inside. Zaheer slammed her into the foundations and together they both fell onto the lower deck of the balloon bruised and a little beaten but more so was Asami, completely disheveled and unkempt and also overcome by the exhaustion. Zaheer was well more trained for this.
He stood up well before her as she began to cough from landing on her stomach, a little blood coming out over her full and split lips. "Well I've got to hand it to you you're a bigger pain in the neck than I would have ever given you credit for Miss Sato" he mocked as she slowly got to her feet.
She was delirious, almost hallucinating from the soreness and bruising all over but she flipped, charging at the beefcake looming over her and going for a punch to the face. He grabbed her fist as it came at him and sent it back to her own face with his much more bigger and tougher fist following for a punch. As she staggered back he kicked her in the chest, just below her bust and sent her falling backward through the flimsy safety rail and down. She held on for dear life and the rail got caught in the rotors, stopping them and all sources of ascension with them. She was really coughing up blood now, feeling a sharp pain from her lower abdomen and struggling for breath as she retreated onto the top of the capsule to escape the man hell bent on murdering her now. If not for the natural cocktail of stims and drugs coursing through her system she would either already be dead or completely petrified. Asami could almost feel Korra underneath her however, feel her warmth and affection. Still Zaheer came after her, pulling a fire axe from the deck.
"I consider myself an even tempered man, it takes a lot to get under my skin. But congratulations. You just won the solid gold Kewpie doll" he blundered on, clambering down to the chains holding up the capsule with the look of blood in his eyes.
Kuvira, completely broken in several places, grunted and stirred. She was still alive on the floor of the volcano but only just, just enough to pull her flare pistol from her belt and roll over onto her broken back. She didn't care she was dying, and that what she planned would certainly finish her off, either way it was better than waiting on the floor for the internal bleeding and broken bones to slowly sap the life from her. At least this way she could take the bastard who killed her with her to the grave. She aimed high, higher than the balloon itself to make sure it was finished and she cocked back the pin, her eyes barely open and her body in so much pain she could barely feel anything her nerves were so overloaded with signals from everywhere.
"Nothing, personal" she muttered to herself and pulled the heavy trigger, sending the molten flare high in the sky.
It hit a rock on the side of the volcano shaft and blew up the three remaining side balloons on the mind dirigible, making sure it fell but slowly enough to make sure Zaheer's defeat was all the more spiteful and stressing, forcing him to watch but unable to win now at all.
He snapped, grabbing at the axe with all his strength as he moved down more after Asami. He took a swing at her, a heavy swipe to the side forcing her to duck with such fear it nearly made her fall. She scrambled to go lower, onto the door of the capsule as he brought down the fire axe again on the port hole window and into the capsule itself. "I'm just getting warmed up!" He yelled.
She saw Korra in the box. Her eyes were still wide open and white but she was alive and as Asami saw her and felt her, remembering the entire day they spent in that split second she had to think she went straight back to the kiss under the ground in the cavern with nothing but the water around them. She remembered all of it, the feeling, the coolness but not the chill for there was none; the water had been just refreshing and unable to prune her skin as the got closer to the beautiful southern Princess. She remembered Korra's lips, their texture; they were so plump and full, like making out with a pillow of pure and unadulterated attractive flesh that was sweet to the taste and electric to everything else. She had to save Korra and that now meant only one thing.
Asami Sato grabbed a piece of the destroyed glass with her right hand and braced herself as Zaheer grabbed her by the neck of her bowel neck tank top, lifting her up and above him, ready to shove the axe right into her body. She closed her eyes and held her breath. She didn't want to do it but there was no other way now.
She lunged forward, shoving the spike of broken glass deep into his veiny and tense neck, breaking his stature immediately and forcing him to his knees; Asami landed on her feet and kicked the axe from his grip as he squirmed with blood shooting and dripping from the cut the glass had punctured into his skin.
Next she had her eyes open and was standing over him unafraid anymore as she saw how beaten he was. She looked him in the eyes and only saw the madness mixed with the shame and humiliation. She had won. "Get. Away. From. Her" she said to him before pulling the glass back out from his neck and letting the gush of blood shoot out until he was completely lifeless on the top of the capsule. Now she had to hurry. She quickly grabbed the axe as the balloon began to buckle and fire from the side balloons spread to the main floatation device. With a mighty swing she cut the chains and rode the capsule as it crashed to the ground, Asami falling away from it and landing with a thud to her back and head just as she had done before. Her vision was blurred and she was dizzy bit from her position she could see the whole dirigible was already coming down on top of her like a meteor.
Asami stood up ragged and almost broken and with all her strength she pushed the whole heavy capsule away from the crash site of the balloon and leaped with it, hoping Korra was safe inside under Raava's protection.
The whole mess of mangled metal crashed to the ground with a mighty big bang as the team and the least of the surviving southerners found Asami and the capsule. The ground began to shake suddenly with the force of a terrifying tremor. Bolin was shaken, completely terrified all of a sudden.
"The volcano" he yelled, putting his hands to his head in worry. "She awakes!"
P'Li had her least stick of dynamite in her hand for some unknown and probably stupid or sadistic reason. Worse so it was actually lit. "Hey. I had nothing to do with it" she assured them all before noticing her explosive was still lit and with a quick reaction she stuck her thumb and index finger over the wick to extinguish it.
"This here would be a good place not to be" Bumi called.
Asami wasn't done. They simply could not leave Korra here now without getting her out and there was no time at all for that. They would have to tow her by chain and flying fish. She scrambled to grab some chain from the crashed dirigible and hooked it to the top of the capsule. "We can't leave her here or the whole city will die!" She yelled.
The rest of the team quickly returned to their vehicles. "And we don't get out of here we'll die!" Opal argued. Asami was having nothing of it now. Hell she had literally killed a man.
"It's the only way to reverse this!" She yelled, tossing the other end of the chain to Suyin in her tuna. "Just do it!" The whole ground was crumbling, letting loose a flurry of steam vents and outbursts of heat while Opal and Asami climbed on board P'Li's fish with Korra and her box safely secured.
They took off quickly, perhaps too quickly because as soon as they cleared the land the end of the capsule broke off, leaving Korra to the lava spewing from the crumbling earth. Asami sighed and took a gulp. I am not leaving you here Korra.
She leaped from the fish and grabbed the chain, running swiftly and with an exhausted limp back to her Princess in the box with the chain. "Asami no!" She heard Opal call out but she wouldn't listen. She got to Korra in seconds and wrapped the chain around the box, fastening it as tight as she could with the awful sound of the magma seeping in all around her, making her heart race.
The capsule was secure. "Go!" She roared and P'Li kicked the whole fish into overdrive. The capsule soon took off and with it Asami leaped on and held onto the metal bulkhead for dear life, knowing that if she let go of anything at this speed she would fall and be nothing but less than ash in the wave of lava coming at them and almost the same speed.
They blitzed through the tunnel and out of the volcano completely in less than two minutes and then covered the lava moat and soon arrived back at the city with the horde of civilians waiting for them. The King's honour guard cleared the main square for them quickly and P'Li carefully lowered Asami and the capsule while the rest of the team disembarked again from their fish, the lava hitting the wall of the volcano tunnel and threatening to exit any second.
Asami grabbed a guard's spear and lodged it deep into the side of the capsule like a crowbar, tugging on it with all the strength she had left inside of her.
Bolin was going completely crazy as he gawked at the volcano in the distance, the wall of earth gradually glowing until it was no longer brown and green but yellow and orange and the gradients in between. "The fissure is about to eject its pyroplasmic fury!" He yelled while jumping up and down in his tank top and slacks.
"Asami! Bolin said the wall's gonna blow!" Suyin reiterated in a louder and more basic vocabulary so Asami could clearly understand.
The archaeologist made another large tug and the box finally split open to reveal the glowing and angelic Avatar Korra. She was floating, a small tornado of light air under her feet just like the legends had told Asami. She knew Korra could bend all four elements but as the Avatar, and in what appeared to be the fabled 'Avatar State' she wielded enough power to moves tectonic plates or move the world into a new kind of orbit if pushed far enough. Asami crumbled to her knees before the Avatar in awe and Korra, or rather Raava, gazed upon her saviour, smiling almost. Then Avatar Korra looked at the lava now spewing out of the volcano tunnel.
Truly like an angel she began to rise high into the air, to the top of the city orbit and just above the tall spiral tower both Korra and Asami had climbed just yesterday. She held out her palms and like an act of all of the spirits that once lived the waves of lava, magma, earth and water rose from below the city to create a dome of protection made up of the elements with a thin layer of air at the base to cool them all down and make an unbreakable barrier.
The wave of lava washed over Raava's barrier of protection slowly, getting trapped in the mixture of the elements as if it were tires against a layer of tar until the flow completely stopped and the lava snapped with a gleam. It was solid in a second, a layer of earth above the dome of the city.
Again in a snap second the earth began to move, vibrate as the same patterns Asami had seen all around the entrance to and the city itself etched themselves all over the earthy roof of the city. They extended from the top all the way down until they reached the bottom and then the whole thing began to crumble away slowly, running down the sides of the barrier. After several seconds the whole system crumbled, even Raava's barrier now that the lava was gone and all had slowly returned to normal, leaving only a layer of steam and gas moisture around.
Asami coughed a little, looking around for any sign of life and finding her team. They were alright; Opal first being spotted with her mother Suyin, then Bolin and P'Li. She found Bumi and Mrs Beifong. They were all fine and alive and so was Asami. But where was Korra? The young and racing archaeologist could not spot her as the steam cleared, not nowhere and now her chest was heaving her, her heart racing. Please tell me she's alive Raava. I rescued you and her. Tell me she's alive unlike Aang. She had the awful feeling in her gut and tears began to form in her eyes from the lack of Korra.
Please Raava. I love her.
She felt a sudden chill around her shoulders, as if time was standing still and she was no longer on the world; like she was dead. There was a breeze coming from behind her and as she looked up she could see a ray of light come down from the steam, floating gracefully down it's chamber was her; Princess and Avatar Korra. She was normal, no white eyes, no celestial aura just Korra, completely and utterly alive.
She floated down into Asami's arms peacefully, slowly opening her eyes to reveal the same sapphires Asami had fallen in love with the day before. "Asami?"
Asami Sato was almost balling with tears as she looked deeply into Korra's eyes, so grateful to have her back and to have her alive, all of her without the spirit. Without thinking she brought he in for a deep and loving kiss.
In the middle of the embrace Asami winced, a sudden rush and surge of pain taking her over, coming from where she could not pinpoint. She withdrew from Korra and sunk to one knee in the pain. The Princess looked to her love, scanning for something anything that would tell her why Asami was suddenly crippled with pain. Eventually she found it just as Suyin made her way towards Asami. It was so simple. When had it happened? No one knew and it didn't matter, maybe it was Zaheer lingering on for a least second of revenge. Whatever it was it was taking Asami into a state of shock.
She had been shot, right in the lower gut just like Tonraq and she was bleeding profusely.
AN: Mwahaha! Bet you guys didn't see that coming right? Like I said at the beginning this story was not going to be exactly like the movie, so I planned this little spin for the end. Sorry if it kind of ruins the vibe but I couldn't help but put in a twist. Will Korra and Asami live happily ever after like Milo and Kida? We'll find out next chapter.