Never Ever Lonely
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masquerade
[ mas-kuh-reyd ] / [ maskəˈreɪd ]
noun • a party, dance, or other festive gathering of persons wearing masks and other disguises, along with often elegant, historical, or fantastical costumes.
verb • to go about under false pretenses or a false character; assume the trait(s) of a different entity; appear as something you are not...
MONDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 2nd 189 AG
UNITED REPUBLIC OF NATIONS, REPUBLIC CITY...
This? Yeah, this was definitely it.
Korra was bloody, beaten and exhausted. Even more so than the last time Asami wanted to have an 'experimental' night. And strikingly similar to that night with Asami, she had found herself helplessly panting on all fours. Her red hands and shaky knees pressed against the ground, loose gravel stabbing her bruised skin, her eyes flickering like poorly wired lights between the hot white luminescence of the Avatar State and the warm water-blue irises that she usually donned.
When her eyes glowed, she could still see the lively heart of Republic City. Downtown, where the establishments around the portal had observed rocketing growth, where lovers took their partners on romantic evenings out, a backpacking adventurer's last stop before delving into the unknown realm of the Spirit World, the city she'd arrived at to face head on and conquer all those decades ago, the peace of the past that they'd managed to somehow keep over and over again against all odds, the peace that they were so desperately fighting for one last time...
But when her eyes went dark again, she could see the stray fragments of concrete, exposed lengths of bent iron rebar, scattered bricks of once strong walls, and chunks of asphalt surrounding her. Sights of crumbled buildings among dismembered limbs gradually morphed into twisted normality. Meanwhile the alarms of wrecked cars and the crackling of unattended fires provided discouraging ambience in the background. All the signatures of chaos were here, mixed into one bleak melding pot. Gazing regretfully at the ruins of Republic City, the place she'd called home for almost two decades, she knew that the end was near…
...And ever so slowly...
…Quiet started to creep in, the distant explosions and sounds of battle starting to fade. The quiet spared only the silent ringing in Korra's ears, alongside her unnerving rasping breaths, until she gradually transitioned to the ground and rolled over on her back. The last thing she saw was the smog-filled sky before her eyelids relaxed for a moment...
A long moment...
On Wednesday, the biggest challenge she faced was assuring Asami that her wrinkles didn't bother her and that she didn't need to wear so much makeup. On Thursday, it was some favor that President Lee of the United Earth States wanted to cash in on. Korra couldn't even remember what it was, something about calling Firelord Iroh to convince him to escort trade ships south of his borders? Or was it cargoplanes? It was easier to recall what Iroh's plans were for that upcoming weekend; him and the wife had wanted to visit Koshe Peak for the longest time and they'd finally found a free weekend in their schedule. It was where they'd conceived their eldest some decades ago, the old man had unabashedly revealed to Korra over the phone. Why, exactly, she needed to know that, she didn't know, but for the rest of that day it made her smile whenever she thought about it for some reason. Of course, they never got to go... Friday was when the world grinded to a complete halt at the news that Master Rohan, the most spiritually apt man on the planet, had gone missing in the Spirit World as the spirits ominously chattered of a grand catastrophe to come about from the tragedy. Within hours, the uniquely terrifying creatures invaded from the North Pole's portal. Saturday marked the beginning of Korra's journey to close the Northern Portal. By Sunday, she'd closed the one at the South Pole too. And now...
In the midst of her darkness, she heard a familiar inwardly voice manifesting its sound from within her very soul. "Is this the limit of your vigor?" she inquired Korra, as if she was genuinely curious. Korra had almost dozed off, she realized, surrounded by an uncountable horde of flesh-eating creatures that descended from the portal and spread forth in all directions from the center of the city. Many of them had flown with wings. Others had possessed size and strength and mass and hooves. Some had horns growing from their skulls. A portion even wielded the large bones of their fallen peers as makeshift clubs. The one thing that this pile of bodies had had in common, however, was that this group that chose to stay here and test themselves against the bridge between worlds herself had all had their deaths sentenced to them by the bare hands of the Avatar.
Korra reawakened, rocking to her side to use her forearm for support, allowing herself a moment to spit blood along with teeth before she then dryly chuckled in reply to the spirit residing within, telling her "I don't have limits. You should know that by now, Raava." The fallen masses of beasts surrounding her were a testament to that. The veiled spirit of light smiled invisibly. Even in the face of death, the Avatar was still the same person: Korra, the first of her cycle, the people's hope, a prime example of what an Avatar should be. So Raava pushed her as such.
"Then stand!" the Spirit of Light commanded her, intensely boisterous. "Stand and triumph! You've not died and become Legend yet, Avatar!" Raava boomed.
Korra responded to the rally only in loud eruption. Every muscle in her body screamed to the sky as she shakily pushed herself up from her knee and steadied, fixing her ever luminous eyes to the only remaining door to the other side that was left in the physical plane, what used to be the Republic City Spirit Portal.
The ghouls' march had expanded outwards from the portal in every direction, towards the rest of the world. Korra would have to rely on everyone else; her allies, her family, her closest friends, and her companions to make sure that none of these monstrous things were allowed to leave the city. What she had to do was seal the portal to prevent more from emerging. Closing this one won't be as easy as the other two she had closed. If only she knew that those attacks only served as preludes to the viciousness of this final push. Perhaps she could've prepared a more organized defense force. But what happened, happened. The insurmountable army she had just taken down was only a fraction of what had poured out into the Republic and would keep coming in droves. She had to close it, and she had to do it before the next wave.
. . .
Republic City was once overrun by spirits, decades ago, but it wasn't like this. Those spirits back then weren't completely unhinged and tameless. These ugly things ravaged entire boroughs, hungry for the flesh of anyone within range of their claws. Republic police officers were the first responders to the crisis. Sparks still flew well into the night as metal cables thrust out in the hastily brought-about ruin, lashing outwards at leathery skin, gripping tightly around veiny necks, pulling throbbing limbs apart resulting in animalistic shouts of pain from the throats of these otherworldly creatures. The RCPD had put up their best fight but in only a few hours, more than half of the front line had fallen. The ones who had remained were desperately whipping their wires out to keep predatory claws and teeth from devouring the bodies of their recently deceased comrades.
. . .
Three caped siblings with mournful faces led the largest formation of airbenders the world had seen for centuries. They flew over the statue of Aang that had yet to be toppled, and were heading to the ruins of the eastern part of the city, where the diverse cultures of the Republic once clashed. Now it was mankind and spirits who clashed.
"They bleed slime." Captain Meelo, leader of Meelo Squadron, tried to wipe the ooze from the lengthy tangles of his beard. "These evil spirits aren't like any I've seen."
His sister, Vice Chairwoman of the Central Air Temple, Ikki, noticed a blotch of the tar-like substance clinging onto her cape and decided not to bother getting her fingers covered in the stuff. "I thought there were no evil spirits?"
"They're not spirits," Chairwoman Jinora reminded her siblings as the both of them offered her their immediate attention. "I don't know what they are, but they're definitely not spirits," she repeated quietly, almost a comfort to herself. The Chairwoman was usually a fearless and confident leader, but then again, she usually had her most reliable aide beside her, today marks the first time she flies out without him. Without Rohan.
"Over there!" Ikki suddenly pointed towards the west. "It's Korra..."
Jinora's heart sank at the sight of her closest friend lugging towards the spirit portal. She knew what it meant. Korra had already destroyed her portion of fiends and was on her way to terminate the final passage between this world and the other. And the process, she knew, would ultimately kill her. They used to spend hours talking under the pagoda of her grandfather's garden in the capital. Blabbering meaninglessly about anything and everything. Sometimes important things of ruling and how rulers should rule. And other things that they were at opposite ends of, topics argued in heated debate until the sun sailed west to get away from their bickering. Sometimes things that shaped the very path of the Air Nation, for better or for worse. Sometimes personal things.
The Chairwoman was a relatively transparent leader, her family knew her as such, but no one knew Jinora more intimately than the Avatar did. And now, would she never be consoled by her again? Would she never see that smug face proving her arguments wrong or her proud smile every time she visits the Central Air Temple after it had achieved a milestone? She won't even have the privilege of hearing her vent and complain about the other world leaders? Jinora had saved her twice before, was there really no way to save her this time? Is this really the end? Had they already had their last conversation?
Korra... Why do you have to leave?
Meelo grabbed his older sister's shoulder as they soared on, bringing her back from wherever her mind wandered. "Focus," he urged her. "For Rohan, remember?"
"For Rohan," Ikki echoed, clearly aching at his memory.
Meelo's diplomatic silver tongue always spat out the right words. "Right." Jinora nodded, her eyes becoming resolute. "For Rohan. Korra has her fight. We have ours."
After another nod from Meelo, he began to stray to the left, leading his squadron along. "With me!" Meelo Squadron was comprised of nineteen tattooed airbenders, mostly teens as were the bulk of all Air Nation forces. They darted past the esteemed daughters of Tenzin to follow their Captain.
"Jinora?" Ikki waited for her plan of action. "Chairwoman," she said formally, correcting herself before being scolded.
"I'm going to help the others," Jinora said, eyeing the fray near the front. "I'm taking Rohan Squadron in with me."
Ikki: "What about the rest of us? What are your orders?"
Jinora held down her earpiece so that everyone could hear, {Ikki Squadron: Assist RCPD reinforcements; stay clear of the front line; when clear, prioritize evacuation of children; if you lose comms regroup here above Yue Bay... And don't die.} The Chairwoman braced herself and flew towards the front lines where her oldest friends braved the storm.
Ikki waved the group to follow her and began to depart to the right, holding her own earpiece. {Ikki Squadron, you heard her!}
A hand tugged at Ikki's wings. "Where should I go?" Ikki looked behind her. It was Rem, the blue ink fresh on his head.
Ikki: "I thought I told you to stay home and protect your little sister!"
Rem: "This is protecting her. And Dad said I could come."
Ikki looked away and shook her head. So that asshole that was shooting away in the trail behind Meelo was responsible for this. {Rabuum! You let Rem come with us!?}
Rabuum: {Ah- ahah- well- he really wanted to. How could I refuse?}
Ikki: {He's just a child!}
Ikki recoiled when Meelo screamed through the line {HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU TWO!? THE COMMS ARE NOT FOR SPOUSAL BICKERING!}
"Mom," the young boy said, "Let me do this. Please. I'm ready."
Ikki huffed. "Fine. Stay close. And don't try to be a hero."
. . .
Also in the air was the Fire Nation. Firelord Iroh stood behind the pilot of his airship, teeth gritted. The sun was already on its way down and here he was, uselessly hovering in the clouds. He could see his allies engaged in the distant battle below as he audibly squeezed the backrest of the pilot's chair, the pilot uneasy. "Get this thing on the ground as soon as you can." He touched his earpiece to speak on the comms, {Why haven't the fighter ships started firing yet!?-} he barked at the rest of the fleet.
An inhuman shriek stole his command. The pilot looked around nervously. "What was that!?"
*Smack!* The flying beast planted itself onto the surface of the glass, right in front of the pilot, causing him to scream as he fell out of his chair.
Iroh dragged the pilot up and shook him frantically before slapping him across the face. "Get it together, man!" He commanded.
"NO WAY I DON'T GET PAID ENOUGH FOR THIS SHIT" and he escaped the Firelord's grasp to run out of the cockpit door.
"Goddammit, now look what you did you ugly spirit!" Iroh yelled at the monster on the other side of the glass, "You scared my pilot away!" He stared it down as it swung loose its bony jaws and opened its cloudy mouth for another chilling cry, fogging the screen. The red froth in its teeth was new, from freshly torn-apart meat. Iroh grimaced. Renewing his wit about him, the Firelord placed himself in the now absent pilot's seat and assumed control. It didn't last long, however. Numbers more of the winged leathery nightmares plastered onto the airship one by one, blotting out a piece of his vision with every loud impact, until he could see nothing at all. A noise that sounded like a hundred violin strings being grated with sandpaper resonated from their throats and vibrated through the hull as they all recklessly struck it with their foreheads and elbows and fists and feet, until-
*Thud!* Iroh saw a small crack form in the glass.
"That... can't be good," the Firelord deduced. He turned back to look at the door the pilot had just ran through. Maybe he should have followed?
. . .
RCPD gun-fitted choppers loudly buzzed above and around Jinora. The air jetting down from her fists would have been strong enough to crush entire rows of houses let alone what she perceived to be mere scuttling insects. Her breath blew them into groups and her formidable blades of wind tore through their flesh like swords. Then, she dove and swooped about them, blowing them into a massive herd more easily slain. "Mako!" she bellowed to the Republic's Head Detective. "A little help!?"
Silent, inhaling, calm, focused, arm extended... You'd think the Chairwoman of the Air Nation would have a little more patience, he thought as he exhaled. And Mako conducted his lightning like an orchestra, zigzagging at every note until the bright chord struck its marks with devastating shocks of zapping arcs. A horde of advancing spirits burned and keeled over, their leathery skin steaming the air. But it was most definitely not the last of them. Mako spun around to his lavabending brother. "Is it ready yet!?"
A bulky figure threw out his limbs in tensing locks and strong angles, the remains of a renowned black RCDP coat barely hugging onto his torso, battle-worn and tattered yet still recognizably prestigious and decorated. Daring lime-colored eyes never shifted from the incalculable amount of enemies dead ahead as a confident gravelly voice bellowed out. "Don't worry, it's cookin'!" Bolin calmly assured his brother with the unsteady beginnings of smugness tugging at his lips. "Evil spirit soup coming right up!" He lifted his arms up and a geyser made of fire and rock shot out the ground, rising for heights and heights, until for a few moments it had even blocked the sun out, replacing the daylight with its own pulsing hot glow. The hearty soup of flames poured over a hundred marching beasts, hissing. The force of the impact alone might've immobilized the lot of them even if they hadn't been melted down to scorching glue. Yet there were more still. Bolin called "Asa-!"
His "-mi" wasn't audible over the heavy clank of the woman's twenty-foot mechsuit landing on the rubble. Her impact seemed to shake the entire continent. "You called? I couldn't really hear, y'know, because of my awesome giant mech?" her loudspeaker echoed.
Bolin noticed the demons starting to repopulate the area he'd just cleared and began backing up. "Just shoot them already!"
Asami heaved her robotic arm up and uncovered the mounted machine gun, its barrel already spinning, building RPM and giving off the sound of a giant vacuum cleaner progressively being overclocked. Except this machine didn't suck or swallow, it spat. "Say 'hello,'" she said, "to my little friend." The gun whirring, solid lead cores encased in hardened steel sprayed out in flocks with deafening hammering metallic beats, brutalizing the many lines of monsters until they were ripped and torn away by her heartless hollow-point rounds.
. . .
Desna: "How much longer?" The Twin Chiefs' southward leading ship cut blades over the water. They stood in the command room.
Captain: "We're not going to be able to make it in time."
Desna: "Our cousin needs us, Captain! Your Avatar needs us!"
Captain: "I'm sorry, Chief Desna, but even if we get there in the next hour the Republic would already be completely-"
Desna: "There has to be a way to get there quicker!"
"Desna." The voice was his sister's. He paused. Eska spoke softly to him. "We are not going to make it." When she stood before him, he broke and sobbed into her arms. He'd only ever shed tears for Eska, and here he was, reduced to a child for Korra's sake. The twins heard a beep and looked to the Captain, who'd put the mic to his mouth, making unsure eye contact with the two Chiefs while he spoke. "All cruisers:... Release cargo bay doors and unload non-critical weight into the water. That's an order. Over."
. . .
The brothers momentarily regrouped under the mech's constant cover fire. Bolin nudged Mako and threw his eyes towards Asami's giant pilotable robot. "Overcompensating much?" he joked.
Mako snorted. Suddenly the bullets sounded like they were getting a lot closer, too close even, until Bolin had to duck to avoid getting his head blown off by them. Now it was Asami that was cackling.
"HEY!" Bolin screamed. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?"
Mako pointed to where Asami should have been shooting, "Look out!" The horde had gotten bigger on that side.
She wiped the grin off her face and rotated her aim, "Shit, shit, shit," Her rate of fire slowed until the attachment overheated and broke out with white columns of puffing steam. The raven-haired pilot cursed and detached the clunking weapon, discarding the heavygun onto the mud. "I'm out of ammo, there's too many!"
Bolin: "OH REALLY?"
Asami ignored him, calling "Opal! Kai!" for help.
The two zoomed horizontally across the battlefield together to deliver wind splitting front flip kicks, mirror images of each other. The gust caused by the couple's conjoined attack cracked the ever multiplying sea of spirits down the middle, two halves, one for each to delve into and annihilate from within. A massive flock of airbenders followed their lead shortly after.
Meelo lead his fighters down, condensing volumes of air into crystals so dense, they could be lobbed into the masses of beasts where they'd explode, ejecting body parts, organs and blood.
Of the grounded, Asami was the first to brave the storm again, her giant brushed-platinum feet clanging forward forming craters as she stepped, punching her way through the demons. "GET! OUT! OF! OUR! CITY!" she cried the words with each blow. Soon, everyone who was left standing joined the fray, moving past the corpses of the brave who died defending the Physical World so righteously.
{Little help here?} requested Ikki on the radio. {It's getting a little sticky back here! Literally…}
Jinora: {I'm on my way!} the Chairwoman responded.
. . .
The Avatar's bright eyes stared the green column down like a nemesis.
Raava: "I have not regretted fusing with you, not once since your birth. Up to this point in time, I have not thought of a better claimant of my spirit than you for this era, living or dead. You have far exceeded my expectations, Avatar Korra."
"It's been an honor, Raava." The veins in her eyelids cast branching shadows from the light within when she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She put her hand inside the raw energy of the portal and opened her eyes screaming.
"I-… am the bridge-... between two worlds," the Avatar strained. "Now-… I will-... become-... the wall!" Every fiber of her physical being begged her to stop, every pain receptor ordered her to fall back and away but she didn't listen. Not for a second.
. . .
When it was distant, it sounded like putting an ear to a seashell. As it closed in, it was obvious that more help had arrived, and they'd brought the ocean with them. *SSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH!* It rolled through and made the devils struggle and gargle and drown. The twins that emerged from behind made heavy frozen boulders from the excess of it, lobbing them synchronously. The ones behind them shot out piercing darts and needles of ice. When it levelled, a gray haired battle-hardened veteran entered the madness wielding a titanium tomahawk and the element of water. A dark swipe made him duck and swivel, coming back with a countering slice to the screaming fiend's legs, cutting through them in one motion. He continued running towards more as if he hadn't been interrupted at all. Countless men and women, covered from head to toe in blue, ran behind him.
Asami cranked her speakers to the max. "Eska is here! Desna is here! Tonraq is here! Forward!" Mako loosed fire, fury, and crackling electricity from his fingertips as he ran back to the mech, shouting Asami's name. With only eye contact, she understood his intention, and when Mako hopped onto her metal arm she flung him into the sky. He soared over the scene and when he reached his apex, slowed his descent to a foot a second with the fire jetting out of his feet. The view gave him a good idea of ten scattered locations to aim the bolts of his ten fingers. Letting a breath go, the god of thunder's bright branches of lightning found earth.
Bolin was half expecting his brother's eyes to glimmer with sparks, he knew his own were glimmering with pride. Don't lose to him! he ordered himself, spreading his arms as the ground opened itself. The bubbling pool of lava at the bottom of the canyon swallowed another batch of shrieking creatures with heavy gulps. But when he turned around, he realized that he was being overrun from behind. Nimble flicking motions desperately threw up rock walls that were just as quickly knocked down by the horde. The horde was a wall itself. He couldn't risk melting himself with point blank lavabending. Bolin's legs ran him between his deep trench and the clawing, gnashing monsters before his mind had time to think. Desperately trying to bend them away, he looked for a way out. There seemed to be none, but he hadn't glanced up... from where the Firelord was falling to the earth like a meteor. "Iroh!"
The Firelord's top half unclothed and shaved hairless by fire, his skin reeking of burnt flesh, his wounded bleeding head maddened by injury, Iroh opened his arms and screamed pure fire before his feet had even touched the ground, roaring out a passionate display of dragon's breath so wild, prolonged and untamed-
-FFFFFFFFWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW-
-that it began charring his own lips black. Bolin could only attempt to shield himself from the intense heat and brightness. Countless bodies fell around them by the time Iroh's soul-filled fire had worn, but Bolin didn't let Iroh get whisked away as easily as the wings of his flames. "Iroh!" Bolin fell to catch the Firelord in his arms.
"Bolin!" a voice exasperated nearby. The voice was Eska's, punctuated by volleys of ice that had hit the devils left standing.
"Eska!" Bolin exclaimed when he saw her. He hadn't seen her for months. "You made it! You came to help!"
The Chief ran and crouched to his embrace. "I am glad you are still alive," she said, pulling away to look into his soft eyes before joining her lips to his.
"Chief Eska!" a waterbender yelled, coming in and uppercutting spikes from the ground at the ghouls from behind her.
"Bolin!" one of the RCPD yelled, still busy with the monster he was barely staving off.
When they saw the two of them, they both yelled in unison, "NOW IS NOT THE TIME!"
Eska reluctantly repelled from Bolin, settling to hold his hand instead as her waterbenders flowed into the riot of bodies, managing to fight away more of them while the three leaders took refuge in the middle.
"Eska," Bolin whimpered. "I would've been a goner if it wasn't for Iroh. He's hurt." The aged Firelord lay on his lap, critically scorched and unresponsive. It looked like he had burned his own face with his dragon breath. The Northern Chief immediately retrieved the healing water she kept in her pouch and got to work.
. . .
Both feet of Asami's mech left the ground as she hit several demons with a powerful landing punch, sending them flying backwards. Low-aimed hooks and splattering hammerfists followed, rupturing the mass of bodies even further. She was a few hundred yards away from the portal now. From her cockpit, Asami's wife looked like a speck on the glass, but she knew it was her, and she knew she was sealing the portal. The portal they'd once ventured into together hand-in-hand, where they'd first allowed their romantic relationship to flourish.
And now her love was braving it all alone.
Asami: "KORRAAAAAAA!"
. . .
After an eon of intense pain, Korra's body began to fail, decaying from inside out. Her very skin was the first to start deteriorating from the incredible spirit energy. "Raava! It's not working!" The force moved on to eat away at the muscles attached to her frame next, before targeting her skeletal structure. "There's too much energy! We won't be able to close it!"
? ? ?: "Don't give up, Korra."
A rush of vitality entered her as easily as a breath of fresh Air.
"Aang? Aang! It's you! But you're supposed to be- Agghh!"
Another surge of power sparked the life into her body, burning like Fire.
"Roku!"
Another rigidly held her, bracing her like the unshakable minerals of the Earth.
"Kyoshi!"
Another healed her, soothed her, stripped her of her pain and gave her momentary rest, like she was floating in a tranquil pool of Water.
"Kuruk!" Soon, she was gifted a thousand boons. Tears emerged from the blinding light of Korra's eyes as she whispered, "Guys. I missed you so much, all of you."
"We missed you too, Korra," they all replied in chorus. "We will never leave you again."
And with her body reconstructed anew, she would sacrifice it a second time to absorb the raw flowing power of the portal into her soul. Her skin deteriorated all over again, the raw energy ate away at her muscles and bones once more, and now it had even advanced through to the depths of her innards, crushing her slowly. But this time, she had a big messy smile on her face.
Roku's voice emanated, "If you're experiencing even half the pain I'm feeling, Korra, you shouldn't be very happy right now."
Kuruk: "Enjoying this, Korra? I didn't take you for a masochist."
Kyoshi: "Are you kidding? Have you seen what she gets up to with Asami?"
Korra: "It's just-... you guys-... came back... And even though my- internal organs are literally being shredded to pieces-... I'm glad I could see you all one last time! Let's- seal this portal! T- together!"
? ? ?: "I'm sorry, Korra..." spoke yet another familiar voice. This one, however, originated from beyond the portal, and was void of any human warmth whatsoever. "...But I don't think you will."
Korra stopped. The light in her eyes immediately died at once... "...Oh my god..." How could it be? Did her ears fail her? It must be some trick, some kind of near-death hallucination. "No..." That voice made her more frail than the overwhelming spiritual energy of the portal did. In just an instant, she was reduced to no more than a trembling teary-eyed child.
. . .
The madness was disorienting. A good portion of the demons were winged, leaving the airbenders tussling with the large majority of them, outnumbered though they had bought their entire capable population. They flew right at you, and there were so many that collisions were unavoidable. Once you were hit, it was one close quarter struggle after the next, tumbling and turning this way and the other. Motion sickness was as much an adversary as the beasts themselves. Through all of this, despite what she had said, Jinora had remained vigilant of Korra's end… And something was wrong. "I'll be back!" The cape of the Chairwoman fluttered away towards the portal. Towards Korra.
Ikki: "No!" They were barely scraping by as it was, losing their most powerful airbender wasn't an option. "Jinora! Come back!" But she was already too far to hear, and one of the monsters had already set their hungry eyes on Ikki's son before she could do anything else. "Rem!"
. . .
As Jinora sped closer and closer, she saw a hand emerging from the other side of the portal. What appeared to be a human hand. And it had Korra's collar in its grip. "No!" The pressure didn't allow Jinora the wind to gasp. She tried to slow down but was moving too fast already. In the end, she crashed and fell inside the portal along with Korra.
. . .
Opal: {Everyone! Mom's sending in the poison! Repeat: Zaofu poison gas cargoplanes inbound!}
"Now!?," Ikki put a finger to her earpiece while using her free hand to hold back a monster screaming in her face. {Isn't it too early for that!?}
Suyin: {Chairwoman?}
Ikki: {Vice.}
Suyin: {We're being overrun, Ikki. There's more than we were prepared for.}
{Wait, Su!} Ikki struggled to yell while Rem came, cutting the monster in half with his wind, {There're still civilians on the ground!}
Suyin: {I'm truly sorry, but unless Jinora has a problem with it, we have to go ahead with the gas. Over.}
The static cut out, signaling the finality of Suyin's decision. Ikki wondered how the people below would survive. She stared at the portal. Jinora, where did you go?
. . .
They landed in the spirit world, hard, on the otherworldly ground. Jinora, thrown the farthest, immediately got up to tend to Korra, holding her. "Korra! I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"
She wasn't, she looked petrified, staring beyond her friend's caring arms at the person who they'd just knocked themselves into. He had been shot away by the impact of the two women flying into him, but he had regained balance and aligned himself upright without even touching the oddly-colored soil of the spirit world. He had done it by using an airbending technique that Jinora herself had taught him many years ago.
The man was very calm, and wore the simplest clothes. Covered from head to toe in worn out cloth. "Korra. Jinora."
That voice.
The Chairwoman refused to believe her ears. Her eyes went wide as she turned around with Korra still on her lap. Her mouth hung open, searching, stammering, until she could finally utter the man's name…
"…R-... Rohan...?"
. . .
Looming in the sky, an army of dark green zeppelins adorned with steel accents made their appearance through the smog.
"Drop now," Suyin ordered from within the frontal craft. "Rescue anyone breathing."
Zaofu's soldiers, already clad in gas masks, descended into the fray from stainless ropes. Su had noticed that a lot of the young airbenders were inexperienced, too eager to help, leading them to bite off more than they could chew. Even their airborne abilities didn't stop them getting overrun when they were diving head-first into large crowds of demonic beings unprepared.
Dammit. Poison was the only way to get rid of this infestation.
Suyin: {Opal, how does it look down there?}
...
Suyin: {Opal!}
Opal: {"I'm here!... ...Uh, I don't think there's any casualties on our side... But we're on the ropes."}
Suyin: {Opal, you need to mask whoever you can. I need to deploy the poison gas. If we don't, we won't just lose the Republic. Do you understand?}
Opal: {…Okay.}
. . .
By now, the Fire Nation planes were starting to carpet bomb strips of the city.
Meelo, huffing and puffing, asked on the comms, {Ikki, where's Jinora?}
Last she saw her she was heading towards the portal. Ikki took a breath and clenched her fist. {Air Nation! The Chairwoman is MIA, anyone without gas masks get as far away from the Republic as is possible. Everyone who does have a mask, put it on and evacuate as many children as you can.}
Meelo: {Copy.}
Opal: {On it.}
Kai: {Roger that.}
. . .
{Poison gas inbound, sixty seconds.}
Warnings by Zaofu were broadcast through thick radio static.
{Put on your gas masks now.}
Families who'd shut themselves in their homes on the outskirts of the Republic heard the instructions relayed through their TVs and obeyed.
{Mask up or get out of there.}
The rural homes that hadn't been supplied with any respiratory equipment had towels haphazardly stuffed under doors. Loose clothes were held on the small anxious faces of infants.
{Poison gas incoming.}
The unlucky few who were left still braving the outside world scuttled for the gas masks being dropped onto the streets from the cargoplanes above.
{Gas. ETA fifteen seconds. Masks strongly advised.}
Some, injured and unable to move, laid unattended and unmasked. They saw the vast plumes of smoke descend from Zaofu aircraft. They saw it working. They saw winged devils lose their breath and fall out of the sky.
But the poison was indiscriminate, and they could only hold their breaths for so long...
.
. . . . .
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. . . . .
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