Responses to Reviews:

Zigzagdoublezee: The Battleship instead of the Mech was the first major change I wanted to make, everything else followed on from that.

RonaldM40196867: Jinora seems the most spiritually in-tune, while Ikki has inherited more of his sense of fun.

As Always, Please Review!

Bolin

Chao grinned.

"Nice and slowly, please. Wouldn't want anything unfortunate to happen."

"Mum?" Opal looked between Lin and Suyin, a look of confusion on her face. "What's going on?"

"Kuvira is good to us," Suyin replied robotically. "So we serve her so she might serve our country."

"Really? You didn't say that last time we met," Bolin narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"Kuvira opened my eyes."

"Something's wrong," Opal insisted. "She's done something, hasn't she? Oh spirits, what's she done?"

"You betrayed us, Opal," both sisters intoned at the same time.

"No! I was trying to rescue you!"

"We didn't need rescuing. We are already free."

"Are you trying to be creepy?" Bolin demanded.

"No."

"Enough of this!" Chao had grown impatient. "Take them! And send a message to the Great Uniter! I'm thinking simply, We Got Them. How does that sound?"

"I've got a better idea," Ganzorig piped up.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Chao turned to the two sandbenders.

"Doesn't matter. I was thinking more along the lines of this!"

And Ganzorig reached into his pocket, drew out what looked like a ball, and threw it on the ground. It burst upon impact, scattering sand. Next to him, Chimeg did the same, and as they raised their arms the tiny particles began to pick themselves up and swirl around them. Chao snarled and drew his hand back, but was launched off his feet by a gust of wind, and from there, absolute pandemonium broke loose.

Lin and Suyin growled and charged, only for Bolin to lightly tap his foot on the floor. A small ridge of earth popped up in front of the siblings, and they both tripped over it and came to a halt at his feet. Both recovered quickly, though, and shards of metal came whizzing straight towards Bolin's face. They only narrowly missed him because he reeled backwards, clattering into the bars of Varrick's cell.

"Neat trick," Varrick observed. "Five stars."

"Are you judging me?" Bolin asked incredulously.

"I need to make my own fun," Varrick shrugged.

Bolin couldn't answer because Lin was back on her feet, and her cable was slicing through the air towards him. A piece of earth burst out of the ground next to Bolin at his command and raced upwards, liquifying and cutting through the cable, which landed harmlessly at his feet.

Behind them, the corridor was filled with sand, which meant that Bolin could not really see much except the odd Imperial flying into a wall. In the confined space they were in, Opal's airbending was really coming into its own. He could see her, ducking and weaving in between strikes, making her way towards him as she blasted soldiers out of the way. She waved her hands and the sisters were pulled away from Bolin, back towards her.

"I know you haven't gone over to her willingly," she told them. "What's she done?"

"Saved us."

And then they were lunging at her. Bolin went to help, but suddenly the largest man he had ever seen detached himself from the melee and charged at him. Bolin only had a second to react, and the man grabbed him, picked him up, and slammed him against the bars of Varrick's cell. He felt a hand searching for his windpipe, and desperately tried to fight back, punching and kicking and pulling to no avail.

Varrick leaned nonchalantly on the bars next to him.

"Hey, Bolin?"

Bolin did not answer.

"Do you know what a bored millionaire genius does with his time in a place like this?"

"I haven't got time for this!" Bolin told him.

Varrick came closer, and began undoing the straps on Bolin's metal epaulettes.

"What are you doing?"

The epaulettes clattered to the floor, followed soon afterwards by Bolin's belt.

"Varrick, I swear-"

Varrick pulled out the ball he had been throwing up into the air earlier and pulled it into two pieces, one of which he attached to the bars.

"When I give the signal, you're going to want to get out of the way," he warned.

"How?" Bolin demanded, but Varrick was now fiddling with complex looking wiring and so did not answer. A moment later he nodded, stood up, picked up a trigger, and braced himself.

"What are you planning?" Bolin asked.

"I could tell you, but where would be the fun in that? Get out of the way!"

Bolin managed to rip a chunk of earth out of the floor and bring it hard up into the other man's stomach. It doubled the man over, and Bolin took the opportunity to push him out of the way just as Varrick pulled the trigger.

A buzzing noise filled the room. One moment a colossal fight was taking place, the next everyone except Bolin was pulled towards the bars with incredible force. They became a tangled mess of limbs and bodies struggling in vain to free themselves.

Varrick looked very proud of himself.

"What did you do?"

"Electromagnets!" Varrick crowed. "I've been stealing the right components ever since they first put me to work here."

"And they let you do it?"

"No, but I did it anyway," Varrick winked. "Now, I think I just saved your life. Would you be so kind as to let me out?"

Bolin looked around and sighed.

"I'll help you stop Kuvira's superweapon," Varrick added.

Bolin narrowed his eyes at him.

"You know what, fine," he said. "But no funny business."

"Why would I do that? Do you think any of these people will treat me well after this?"

"Good point," Bolin muttered. "Are there keys?"

"One of them probably has one," Varrick pointed out. "But you might want to let your friends out too."

"Of course," Bolin replied. "I'm not going to just leave them!"

He found Opal pressed against Lin, squishing her against the bars, both of them unable to move. He undid her epaulettes and her belt, and the airbender managed to slide her way free. The two sandbenders were inside the crush, so extracting them was more difficult, but they still managed it eventually.

"Which one of you has the keys?" Bolin demanded of the assembled Imperials. But Batzorig shook his head.

"We don't need them. Are you letting that mad scientist out?"

Bolin nodded. "We owe him, and it could be useful."

"So be it."

Sand swirled into his hand, and then entered the lock. Batzorig concentrated as he made a series of complex hand movements, until finally the door clicked and fell open. Varrick stepped out.

"Thanks!" He said. "Now can you do Zhu Li too?"

"Zhu Li's here?" Bolin asked, despairing. Sure enough, in the next cell over, Zhu Li waved at them shyly.

Ganzorig stomped over and repeated the trick. Meanwhile, the others turned to look at Lin and Suyin, who were struggling to free themselves.

"What are we going to do about them?"

"Whatever it is, you'll want to do it quickly," Varrick warned. "I don't know how long the battery lasts on my magnet."

"If they're going to keep trying to stop us, we can only knock them out or tie them up," Ganzorig shrugged. "I'm not going to let them get in the way of finding my wife."

"And how do we get out?" Chimeg asked.

Bolin looked around, at all the other cells. Suddenly, he had an idea.

"Who wants to start a riot?"