AUTHOR'S NOTES: The Finale continues. A few things go a bit differently than in the show, namely the way Korra fights back against Amon, as well as how successful he is with 'purifying certain individuals. Also, Kuvira joins Iroh, Bolin, and Asami, and that makes for an interesting show in this chapter and the next one.
Happy Reading!
BOOK TWO: CHANGE
CHAPTER EIGHTY-FIVE: ENDGAME, PART 2
"Tonight," Amon announced, "I rid the world of airbending forever."
"I'd like to see you try!" Korra challenged, "You want them, you're going to have to go through me first or so help me I will obliterate you!"
"All the more reason I stand by my assertion that benders must be purified," Amon sighed as if bored by the Avatar's threats, "Very well, little one. I accept your challenge. The first move to make is yours."
Korra paused for a moment, and Amon looked on with amusement from behind his mask. There were several seconds of awkward silence where neither party did anything.
"I bet you thought I was going to come screaming at you in a wall of flames, didn't you?" Korra jeered after another few moments of neither of them moving.
"If you do not wish to fight, you are more than welcome to watch my demonstration," Amon threatened, gesturing towards the captured airbenders, "After all, this is entertainment that… captures the whole family… you could say."
Amon moved as if to approach the airbenders, and immediately Korra squatted and swung her foot in an outward arc that sent a low wave of blue flame at Amon's feet. He flipped over it, but then zigzagged to avoid Korra's incoming barrage of air blasts as he tried to minimize the distance between himself and the Avatar, but Korra's fierce bending moves kept him at bay. She tried moving closer and closer towards Tenzin's family to put herself between them and Amon, but Amon was onto her tricks and retaliated with tricks of his own. He found that Korra hesitated any time he got too close to the airbender family, and so by sticking close to them, he knew that Korra would hold back her more devastating bending moves as to not accidentally catch one or more of them in the crossfire.
As such, with this realization it only took a few minutes for Amon to manipulate the circumstances in his favour. In a very subtle and very brief move, he bloodbent Korra for a split-second—just long enough to cause her to slip up, but not enough for the Equalist crowds in front of him to realize what he had done. In this brief moment, he seized Korra's neck with one hand, pulling her head back and placing his thumb on her forehead.
"KORRA!" Mako bellowed, but in a deft move, Amon had moved himself so that Tenzin and Korra were between him and Mako, as to avoid being on the receiving end of an attack.
Korra fell to the ground, weak and motionless, and in that moment of hesitation, a few bold Equalists jabbed at Mako to disable his bending. Fortunately for him, they stopped there, particularly after the Lieutenant commanded it, and Amon moved to gain his next prize.
"I told you I would destroy you, Avatar," he gloated before approaching Tenzin, "and now, I will remind you of the power I possess—and remain a man of my word as I cleanse this family of their… impurities.
"No…" Korra could only watch with a hopeless horror as Amon put his hands on Tenzin's forehead. She screamed as she heard him groan, and his children panicked. Meelo nearly went ballistic right then and there, and so Amon disrupted his order to subdue him next.
"To cleanse a child of impurity is to do them a favour they will thank you for once they are old enough to understand," Amon announced, now stepping towards Jinora. "And once I am finished here, they will be free to go, and can live the rest of their lives as you and I—as equals."
The words were appealing to the nonbender crowds, although whether or not Amon meant it or if he had more malevolent plans for them or not, remained to be seen.
Amon did not notice Korra's fists beginning to clench as she laid there listening to Jinora's helpless muffled scream. As Amon moved to Ikki, the youngster caused one final diversion by breathing hard enough through her nose to force her gag down, where she inhaled and then promptly exhaled a large burst of air in her own defense. It staggered Amon for only a second, and only because he had not expected it. He shifted his feet however and placed his hands on Ikki's forehead, where her breath grew weaker, much as Lightning Bolt Zolt's firebending had before it dissipated entirely. However, there was one more surprise waiting for him that caused the crowds to gasp a second too late.
Amon felt a heavy foot connect with the side of his face, knocking his focus off of Ikki and knocking him to the side as his mask fell off again. To his left stood a fuming Korra, who stomped towards him with a malevolent look of righteous fury plastered across her face. In that moment she seized him by the shoulders, and struck his forehead with her own with just enough force to block any sort of psychic bloodbending. How potent his bending with his hands was, however, remained to be seen.
"YOU…" she fumed, "You underestimated just how resilient I am… and more importantly, just how fucking ripshit pissed off I am at you right now! You can take my bending, but you can't bloodbend my strength away unless you want to admit you're a liar and a fraud!"
The realization that her bending was permanently gone as far as she knew had not quite dawned on Korra yet, and instead, she was fuelled by adrenaline and a lust for revenge—and revenge she planned on getting before the night was over.
=The mountains above Republic City, around the same time…=
While Korra's situation had ultimately gone from bad to worse, Kwan's lead had served the other group well enough that they followed the road up and into the mountains, only to eventually go off-road and far away from the city. Korra had entrusted Naga in their care, and she accompanied Bolin and Kuvira in the back of the truck while Asami drove and Iroh sat in the passenger seat.
"So this is where Korra was all this time…" Asami mused to herself as she followed a vaguely-travelled path to nowhere. Passing a small turnoff, Asami continued up the road until they found their destination: a slightly weathered hangar and a large open patch of ground that had been converted into an airfield with runways and tarmacs.
"And here's our missing airfield," Iroh commented, before turning back and alerting Bolin and Kuvira of their arrival. "Bolin, once we get there I need you to tear up that airfield. Officer Kuvira, I know I have no place to give you orders…"
"But by all means, I will follow him as well," Kuvira completed his sentence, "I respect authority that proves effective, and despite your loss against the Equalists earlier, you have a great deal of merit under your belt. Worry not—you have my support, General."
"Aye, aye!" Bolin saluted before turning to Naga and Pabu (the latter of which was perched just behind the former's head). "So hey, you guys wait here until we get back, okay?"
Naga gave a disapproving growl and moved to follow him anyways.
"Hey now, what would Korra say if anything happened to you?" Bolin held up his hand, "stay—I'm sure you're smart enough to know if there's a problem."
There was definitely something to be said about the intelligence of Korra's trusted animal companion. Korra asserted to anyone who would listen that Naga had all but said "I told you so" to her on many occasions when one of her plans didn't quite pan out the way she had hoped. Naga whined, but conceded and slumped down as the four benders headed towards the base.
The border surrounding the perimeter had posts but no fence, which all of them found odd.
"Something's not right here," Kuvira stepped forward, analyzing the posts.
"Think bending them might disable whatever trap it is?" Asami suggested.
"That sounds as good an idea as any," Iroh nodded, "Kuvira?"
"The pleasure's mine," she licked her lips before metalbending one of the posts. This turned out to be a mistake, but also prevented them from walking haphazardly into a trap. Electricity surged from the post, and first connected with Kuvira's armour. She instinctively shed it with her bending, although this triggered two other nearby posts, which shocked Asami and Bolin, as well as Iroh before he could redirect the electricity.
"My… apologies…" Kuvira muttered, unsure if the others were even conscious, or what happened next because everything went dark.
Kuvira was unsure where she was or where the others were, but she had definitely been handled between the time she blacked out and the present. Her armour was gone, as were most of her clothes short of her breeches and tank top as if to ensure that she didn't have any extra metal on her. Like Korra, she was also bound with heavy chains on her wrists, which had to either be platinum or some other pure, heavy (and unbendable) metal, if such a thing existed.
"General?" She called out, "Ms. Sato? Bolin?" She was not sure where her accomplices had gone, or if anyone was in the area. It seemed she was alone for the moment, however, until she heard the sound of fast footsteps that she learned belonged to Naga.
"Ironic that you would come for me first," she hummed, and it seemed Naga knew exactly what to do, using brute force to smash the thick wooden confinements that kept Kuvira in place. The chains around her wrists were heavy, but that time spent on the Republic City police taught her 1001 ways to use metal cables, and so metal chains, even if they weren't bendable, couldn't be much different. At this point, however, it was time to find her friends.
While Iroh, Bolin, and Asami had only been bound with metal cords rather than heavy platinum chains, they were in a much better guarded area, and so even Kuvira had to go into stealth mode, which was made somewhat more difficult with Naga. Fortunately, Kuvira was cool and calculating, and would rather spend extra time making sure an operation went off without a hitch rather than barrel in as swift as possible and get busted.
This proved to work out in her favour; because at the moment, Hiroshi stood outside the cell, his eyes on his daughter.
"Asami," he got her attention, "I know I have hurt you, and I am sorry—but I believe that one day, you will come to your senses and we can be a family again."
"Are you insane!?" Asami snarled, "Mom would hate you for what you've become!" There was a brief moment when Tarrlok's words went through her mind, and it was both telling and infuriating when she realized that Tarrlok—the man who had actively assaulted and traumatized Asami's lover—had been more repentant than her own father had.
"How dare you!" Hiroshi growled, "I am avenging her death! Meanwhile you go carousing around with one of the most destructive women in the world, and add insult to injury by accepting that she holds no ill will towards your mother's murderer!"
"You leave Korra out of this!" Asami growled, "If you were even half the person she was, then maybe we could be a family again, but instead YOU cling to your old grudges and refuse to move on. If a kid half your age who has had multiple near-death experiences before even turning 18 can come to terms with what happened, then why can't you?"
Hiroshi put his thumb and two fingers on his chin for a moment before sneering.
"Perhaps I should instruct Amon to murder the Avatar," he glared right into Asami's eyes, "just to watch your righteous fury as you pit yourself against him and every Equalist in Republic City to sate your lust for vengeance. Tell me—would you be so quick to forgive them if they took the love of your life, Asami?"
Asami was granted a reprieve which was a double-edged sword. On one hand she was flustered and did not have a refute for Hiroshi's comeback, but on the other, the diversion was an Equalist informing her father that their airplanes were ready for takeoff.
"Good," Hiroshi gave a subtle smirk, "Annihilate the fleet."
Bolin and Iroh both gasped, much to Hiroshi's delight.
"That's right, General," he turned to Iroh, "I intercepted your message to Commander Bumi. I know exactly where they're hiding, and they won't live to see the hour."
Iroh glared daggers at Hiroshi, whose vindicated expression told them everything they needed to know about how he felt about this situation as he left the room and thus left Bolin, Iroh, and Asami in silence for a moment.
"I don't suppose you know how to metalbend?" Iroh turned to Bolin.
"That's a negative sir," Bolin frowned, "if only Kuvira were here—she's a pro!"
Almost as if this was a cue of sorts, suddenly there was a very loud commotion from somewhere behind the door opposite the one Hiroshi had left from. It went on for several minutes, with the sounds of people getting slammed up against the walls being very noticeable, as well as the clinking of heavy metal chains. Their faces lit up when they heard a familiar-sounding growl, and only moments later, Naga smashed through the door and came barrelling into the room, stopping in front of the cell.
"Naga! Over here!" Bolin called out. Naga howled for a moment before rearing up and slamming her paws against the metal bars with enough force to break them.
"Who needs a metalbender when we've got Naga?" Bolin grinned, only for Kuvira to show up a few moments later, still dragging her heavy chains behind her wrists.
"I resent that statement, you know." she quipped, before clenching her fists, bending the metal cables off from around Iroh, Bolin, and Asami's wrists. "Now let's get out of here. I don't imagine the Equalists in there are too happy about what happened."
"What happened to you?" Asami raised her eyebrow, "where's your armour?"
"They're not about to lock up a metalbender with any kind of metal," Kuvira replied, "that's just elementary logic. Now come on; we've got an airfield to rip up."
"I'm going after those airplanes," Iroh commented as they zigzagged through the compound to make their way back outside.
"I'll tear up the runway," Bolin reassured the others that he was still up for their plan.
"I'll assist where I'm needed," Kuvira nodded, as she started deftly wrapping the recovered metal cables around the chains on her wrists, clearly devising a scheme with them.
For a moment after they found the exit, everyone looked around. There were planes starting to take off, and Bolin wasted no time grunting as he started to tear up the runways. Naga charged and kept several Equalists out of the way while Bolin worked, while Iroh launched himself into the sky in a similar fashion to how Korra often did. Kuvira tore a straight line after one of the other planes, and it became clear moments later why she had kept the metal cables. Her metalbending applied more kinetic force to the chains, and so despite them being unbendable, wrapping them in the bendable metal cords had effectively transformed them into the metal cables she had used as a police officer, only much heavier and more durable. She lassoed the tailwing of one of the planes before it took off with her trailing behind it. She used her momentum to kick herself back and forth before landing on the body of the craft and reaching the pilot moments later, commandeering control of the aircraft as she threw the man out.
Kuvira and Iroh weren't the only ones commandeering Equalist vehicles though. A wry smirk appeared on Asami's face as she noticed a pair of open mecha tanks, and scampered over to them before clambering into the cockpit and strapping herself in.
"It can't be that hard if Kwan can do it so easily..." she glanced around at the various controls, and similar to Kwan, her knowledge of driving other vehicles came in handy to the point where operating this large machine was a cinch.
Soon she, Naga, and Bolin were wreaking havoc on anything that had not taken to the skies, while Iroh and Kuvira were dogfighting with the Equalist planes that had already taken off.
Kuvira had considerable luck despite this being the first time she had piloted anything of this sort. Her unorthodox movements made her a difficult target to pin down or disable, and so many of them moved their focus to Iroh, whose attempts at being more cunning and calculative had unintentionally made him an easier target. As such, when an exploding bola struck one of his propellers and promptly disabled it, he knew that he was in serious trouble.
AFTERTHOUGHTS: The way I see it, Amon's bending-removal isn't just an instant thing. Given that Lightning Bolt Zolt saw his own abilities gradually diminished before being finally removed, I assume that the chi paths are blocked gradually rather than all at once, which is why Ikki's bending was not fully removed. More on how that issue gets resolved in a future chapter though. Feedback about this or any other part(s) of the story is always welcomed though.
Thanks for reading!