I should have said this last chapter, but Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers. Thank you for enjoying the story!

Responses to Reviews:

Ronald40196867: Kuvira, the version of Kuvira in this story, is an amalgamation of many different historical dictators, from Sulla to the Kings of Ancient Assyria to Napoleon to Stalin and Galtieri, if not in ideology (because they all vary wildly in that) then definitely in methodology. And I think they should have introduced Kuvira as a more important character in Zaofu in Book 3 and spent more time that series building her up before Book 4, rather than one line that ham-fistedly screams "This character will be important!" In your face.

Zigzagdoublezee: Raiko doesn't want his city to burn; so he feels he has no choice but to pardon Varrick so he tells them how to stop it. That doesn't mean he has to like doing it.

As Always, Please Review!

Korra

Zaheer was not imprisoned in the usual Republic City Prison. His cell was deep underground in a facility a couple of miles outside the city. The United Republic was taking absolutely no chances this time.

Korra was stood in a lift with Asami and a guard as machinery whirred high above them, steadily lowering them further and further towards the cell. She was getting increasingly uneasy.

"Just for the record, I hate this," she grumbled.

"I do too," Asami took her hand and smiled reassuringly. "We'll just hear him out! Then it's straight back home, and you never need to think of him again."

She bumped Korra's shoulder gently.

"Plus, this way you can shut Jinora up."

Korra laughed, and just for a moment felt more at ease.

"I'm sure that's impossible."

Finally, the lift juddered to a halt. The door was slid open and the two of them stepped out. A narrow corridor stretched away ahead of them, with several metal doors that could drop down from the ceiling quickly in the event of Zaheer's escape. At the end of the corridor, an imposing door stood flanked by two more guards.

"This is it," Asami whispered. "Breathe, Korra. I'm here."

Korra took a step forward, and then another, and another, feeling slightly like she was outside her body, watching it take step after step towards the cell and being unable to stop it.

And then, all too quickly, she was stood in front of the door. One of the guards twisted a handle and pulled it open, and before Korra could change her mind or think about it too much, she stepped in.

It took her eyes a second to adjust to the dark, but as the room came into focus she saw a tall, round room with bare stone walls. In the middle of it, heavy chains had been set into the floor and the other end was attached to the wrists and ankles of a man suspended in mid-air. He had his legs crossed and his eyes closed, and Zaheer looked utterly serene for a moment.

Then his eyes opened.

"I'm so glad you accepted my invitation, Avatar," he greeted her. "It can get awfully dull in here sometimes."

"What is this?" Korra demanded. "What do you want?"

Zaheer rose a little higher in the air as he surveyed her.

"I hate you," he said.

"Wrong answer!" Korra snapped, turning to leave.

"As in the Avatar, not Korra the person," Zaheer called after her. "I was impressed with how you gave yourself up to save your friends."

Korra stopped, but did not say anything.

"Why should you be granted those powers?" Zaheer continued. "The Avatar can topple Kings, create new nations, influence government policy with just a word, and why? Because they just so happened to be born at the same time the last one died? It's an unfair system, one each avatar actively works to keep going."

"If I just came here for you to give me a lecture, save it," Korra whirled and jabbed a finger at him.

"That wasn't the main reason, no," Zaheer reassured her. "I need your help. If you insist on carrying on in your absurd role, I'd at least expect you to do it properly."

"Weird way of going about it," Asami called.

Zaheer ignored her.

"My body is imprisoned, but my mind is free," he said. "Do you know how I spend my time down here?"

"I don't know, I just assumed you lurked here being evil. I don't care about the specifics."

"Typical," Zaheer sighed. "You try to suffocate someone one time and they decide you're a bad person." He shrugged, and then zoomed towards her with a snarl on his face.

Korra reeled backwards in fright as Asami stepped in front of her with her electroglove sparking, but the chains pulled taut. Zaheer stopped in mid-air before he could reach her, chuckled to himself, and returned to where he was.

"Such bravado," he chided her. "So easily seen through."

"What did you expect," Korra asked miserably, standing up again. "After what you did?"

"Honestly?" Zaheer pondered. "I expected worse. Despite all I did, you still came."

He shook his head.

"But that's not the point."

"You were telling us about your hobbies," Asami prompted, watching him carefully, one hand still clutching the leather strap that activated her glove's ranged attack.

"So I was," Zaheer confirmed. "I am not confined here. My mind isn't, anyway. I have a way of escape, into the Spirit World."

"Good for you," Korra sighed. "So do you just meditate in or is there a hidden portal in here?"

"I meditate in," Zaheer replied. "But recently something changed. It's no longer the paradise I have grown familiar with. Something dark has happened to it."

"What?" Korra felt a growing sense of dread, and not of Zaheer. "What happened?"

"I'll show you," Zaheer floated down, crossed his legs and assumed a meditative stance floating two feet off the ground. He gestured to the space in front of him.

"Please, meditate with me."

Korra hesitated.

"How do I know this isn't a trick?" She demanded. Zaheer just laughed.

"If this was a trick, how could I even hurt you?" He asked. "I can't bend in the Spirit World, and if I tried anything you could come back to this plane and have your friend here use that glove. I'm not going to hurt you, but I think you have to see this."

Korra scowled.

"Fine," she managed, moving to sit down opposite him.

"Remember," Zaheer intoned,'"empty your mind. Think only of where you want to go."

"I know how to meditate, thanks," Korra snapped.

"Not with that attitude," Zaheer momentarily snapped out of his serene mood to scowl at her, and then closed his eyes again and breathed deeply. Korra did the same, knowing that Asami was watching over her.

A short while of concentration later, the air around Korra changed- to become noticeably hotter. She opened her eyes and gasped at the apocalyptic scenes in front of her.

She was in the middle of a forest fire!

The usually serene spirit forest was ablaze with purple flames that raged through the trees, sending branches crashing to the ground. Spirits fled in terror from the ethereal fire, scattering in panic again and again as it advanced.

"What's happening?" She demanded of Zaheer, who was stood next to her watching all of this with a sad expression.

"I don't know," Zaheer replied. "I was rather hoping you could tell me. This is my home now, Avatar. I need your help to stop this."

"How?" Korra gestured to it. I don't even know what's going on!"

Then she stopped. A horrifying possibility popped into her mind.

"Actually, I think I have an idea."

"Go on?" Zaheer prompted.

"Mako said that Kuvira used a bomb," she remembered. "A spirit bomb, made by passing energy through spirit vines. The Republic wanted to build their own but I said no, I thought it would be damaging. Clearly, it is."

"So this is Kuvira's doing?" Zaheer clenched a fist.

"Probably not intentionally," Korra told him, "but I'm not sure she'd care even if she knew."

"Has she used this weapon since?" Zaheer looked at her urgently.

"I don't know," Korra had to admit, "but I wouldn't rule it out. She knows the power of those things, of course she's not going to give it up easily."

She narrowed her eyes, realising something.

"This is all your fault!" She whirled on him. "You killed the Earth Queen!"

"She was a tyrant! Of course I did! She had it coming!"

"You plunged the Earth Kingdom into chaos. That led to the rise of Kuvira. You caused an even worse tyranny than you removed and you also did this!"

She gestured angrily at the inferno spread before them.

Zaheer looked taken aback by her outburst, and then a look of- was that shame?- spread over his features.

"What?" He asked quietly. "Is this true?"

"Of course it's true!"

"I didn't know," he almost whispered. "I thought- I thought it would be better. I wanted it to be better."

"And it can be," Korra pressed home her advantage. "But you need to have a plan for these things, not trust it to luck. Otherwise you just enable the next tyrant."

Zaheer nodded, taking in her words.

"Then stop her, Avatar," he said. "Save the Earth Nation, and save the Spirit World. I know you can."

"How?"

"Because you came here," Zaheer said frankly. "I almost killed you, in what must have been a very painful way. And yet, when you thought the fate of the world may rest on seeing me again, you came. You have a strength, Avatar Korra, a strength that I must respect, however grudgingly."

Korra frowned at the sudden change in tone.

"If there must be an Avatar, then I am glad that it's you," Zaheer turned away to look out over the flames.

"Now go and do what you must."