AUTHOR'S NOTES: And here is the end of the 3-part finale! Similar to the finale of "Book 1: Power" there are a few extra wind-down chapters that kind of clear several things up, but for all intents and purposes, here's how Korra gives Amon the beatdown he's been asking for, and here's how her friends help thwart a great many of the Equalists and other efforts. The altercation between Hiroshi and Asami will have lasting consequences though, as we will see in a few future chapters. Also, Kuvira is one heck of a pilot and no one can tell me otherwise.
Happy Reading!
BOOK TWO: CHANGE
CHAPTER EIGHTY-SIX: ENDGAME, PART 3
Iroh was forced to bail from the plane, and while Kuvira shifted her plane into a dive to try and catch him, he launched himself up with firebending towards another plane, which he promptly hijacked and took control of. A moment later, his tail was hit and he spiralled from that plane towards the large statue of Aang, seizing the flag to stop from plunging into the water below. His plane hit the enormous Amon-mask that had been placed over the Aang statue's face, exploding and causing the mask to fall back off, leaving Aang's face unharmed.
"Whoo…" Iroh sighed with relief, "Thanks for watching out for me, Aang."
He was recovered a few moments later by one of the United Forces battleships, which in turn meant that they had arrived and had not been decimated the way Iroh's division had been. Kuvira meanwhile, remained an absolute menace in the skies, particularly after realizing that the airplanes were not made of platinum, and as such were bendable. She flew her own plane close to an Equalist plane before shifting her arms and clenching her fists. A few twisted wings and propellers later, and her target was downed without her even needing to do so much as touch it. This happened at least three more times, with the chain-clad metalbender smirking vindictively with each new notch on her belt. It wasn't long before many of the other pilots started avoiding her and staying out her range rather than trying to confront her.
While Bumi's fleet below had taken something of a beating, it was not debilitated and destroyed the way Iroh's was because this time they knew what to expect. They put their focus on the aerial raid above them, also watching out for which airplane was Kuvira's. Her erratic flight style and ruthless approach made her fairly easy to single out though, and thus her dogfight against the Equalists continued.
Meanwhile, Naga, Bolin and Asami were doing what they could to prevent any more Equalists from taking off. Bolin had been very effective in tearing up three of the five runways, and was halfway through tearing up the fourth one when three mecha tanks charged him. Before their cables could reach him, however, Naga intercepted them, using her strength to drag them to one side, toppling one into the other like dominos where they screeched to a halt just behind Bolin, who felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around and found himself face to face with the treads of one of the fallen tanks.
"Whoa!" his eyes widened, "thanks, Naga!"
Obviously Naga did not respond with any actual words, but barked and rushed towards the last intact runway as Bolin followed suit.
Asami meanwhile had gone in with the mecha tank and wreaked havoc on any and every machine she could reach, smashing things in such a manner that would have made Korra proud. She smiled briefly, both from the vindication of destroying her father's evil work, but also from thinking about Korra. Sure her girlfriend had some serious issues, but she knew that Korra was a good person at heart; and knew that she knew that as well.
Of course, her reign of destruction was inevitably short-lived, as Hiroshi arrived in the other formerly unoccupied mecha tank, his intent clear.
"Asami, what do you think you're doing!?" he called out, "you're aiding the very people who took your mother away—and not as indirectly as you like to think!"
"You don't feel love for mom anymore," Asami riposted, "you're too full of hatred."
"You ungrateful, insolent child!" Hiroshi growled as his mecha tank roared to life again, "you are so blinded from the truth by your obsession with the Avatar that you don't even realize that she's going down the same path her predecessors did—the ones who were struck. from. history."
Hiroshi pronounced each word with a swing from the mecha tank's arms. Asami managed to block the strikes from doing significant damage, but she was now on the defensive as Hiroshi gained territory. Her knowledge of the Avatar's past was not as vast as she wished it was, but even she realized Hiroshi was talking about the Interregnum Cycle. Had that been what had corrupted his view of Korra so brutally?
"The Avatar did not create the hate embedded in you… Mr. Sato." Asami moved the tank's arms outward and spun the body around in rapid succession like a dervish to break Hiroshi's offensive maneuver. "She simply revealed it!" Her choice of addressment towards her father was very deliberate—she did not want to admit any association with him at this point considering her fury towards him matched his towards her.
Hiroshi retreated for a moment before bringing the tank's arms up and opening the grappler claws. He yanked a lever, charging forward at considerable speed with the clear intent of ramming Asami. Asami responded by launching exploding bolas that would have accurately smashed through the glass of Hiroshi's faceplate, but the "anti-Avatar" shields that he had installed that had oft prevented Korra from combustion bending the cockpits saved face quite literally in this situation.
"I now see there is no chance to save you." he growled, firing an electrified claw in retaliation. However, Asami's timing was so perfect that when the metal panels swung into place they clenched the chain and snapped it, and the claw bounced harmlessly off the body just below the faceplate instead. She pivoted the arms and began shifting the panels up and down in what basically a karate-chopping motion, which kept Hiroshi from using any of the gadgets in his mecha tank's arms.
"Ironic that the measures against the Avatar are now measuring against you," She gave a vindictive retort as she forced her father onto the defensive.
"Such a shame that my greatest joy has become my greatest regret!" Hiroshi fumed before revving backwards, pivoting around in a full 360 and then charging Asami right as she let her guard down. One of the arms from his machine slammed into the faceplate of Asami's mecha, shattering it. "What did the Avatar have to do to you to twist you into the antithesis of everything you lived for?"
Asami was stunned from the smashed faceplate just long enough for Hiroshi to knock her mecha tank down and pin it as he approached her. It was clear that despite his harsh words that he was still hesitant in what he intended to do.
"Or perhaps Avatar Korra did not create your weakness…" he continued, winding back the arm of his mecha tank, his sights fixated on the cockpit where Asami was still reeling, shrapnel from the glass still embedded in her torso. "...perhaps she merely exposed it."
"How goddamned fucking DARE YOU!" Asami hissed through gritted teeth and laboured breaths, "Do it! Do it and then try to look mother in the eyes... as you realize... how consumed you are by this blind... irrational hatred... that YOU refuse to let go!"
Even as Asami watched the arm of her father's mecha tank that was aimed at her head start to crackle with electricity, she clutched the levers of her own machine as if in a last goodbye. If this was where it ended, she at least knew she would die with a clear conscience. It was clear, however, that there was no way she could remove herself from the cockpit in time.
Fortunately for her, it seemed her time to go was not now, because a massive slab of rock knocked the arm of Hiroshi's mecha tank off course and made the machine lose balance. Asami took advantage of the situation just long enough to prop her tank back up, and saw Bolin racing into the hangar atop Naga's back.
"Mr. Sato," he called out, flinging rocks at Hiroshi's mecha tank, "you are a horrible father!"
The rocks shook Hiroshi's mecha up enough to allow Asami's tank's arms to grip it and essentially perform what could only be described as a suplex in a mecha tank. It had enough force behind it that the faceplate of Hiroshi's mecha came off. Asami briefly hesitated, contemplating doing the same thing to him that he had nearly done to her, but instead she shot him a vile, contemptuous look. She would not sink to his level. In one last-ditch attempt, Hiroshi attempted to shoot the claw from the mecha tank's other arm, but Asami managed to block it before she hopped out, pulling out an electrified bola and taking aim.
"You really are a horrible father…" she sighed, before throwing it with such precision that it struck Hiroshi before he could flee too far, and electrocuted him into unconsciousness.
She turned to Bolin and approached him and Naga.
"It's time for us to go," she told them flatly. "I'm sure Iroh and Kuvira can manage themselves."
"Aye, aye!" Bolin gave her a salute nonetheless, not wanting to argue it. The runways were torn up, the remaining airplanes and mecha tanks were in ruins, and there was nothing of note worth salvaging from this place. At this point it was time to get out of there.
=Probending Arena/Equalist Rally Center, around the same time…=
Korra might have had her bending blocked, but so fast was she with her fists and feet that Amon was put on the defensive.
"Sooner or later…" she had that off-key hungry tone in her voice that she had had when she had fought off Tarrlok's police force in defense of her friends, "you'll have to give… when are you going to bloodbend me, hmm?"
While Amon was on the defensive, he wasn't necessarily taking a beating from Korra. He stepped backwards and blocked her moves, almost as if he was trying to lead her away from the awestruck crowds, many of which were not sure who to believe anymore. Fortunately, none of them tried to intervene, which worked more in Korra's favour than Amon's considering Korra was much more averse to harming innocents than Amon would be, despite his facade.
"MAKO," Korra called out, "Get them to safety!" It went without saying who she was talking about, and since Mako still had his bending and Amon was too focused on Korra, he was able to disperse most of the other Equalists with no trouble as he moved to help evacuate Tenzin and his family, all of whom had been severely weakened by the loss of their bending. Whether this was Korra's attempt to enter the Avatar State despite her chi being permanently blocked or if it was just a powerful surge of her brute strength was unclear, but the pressure she put on Amon caused him to flee. His lieutenant ran after him, as did Korra. The former did not attack the latter just yet, however, because there were suddenly doubts in his mind, as well as a chance that the Avatar was telling the truth.
Korra's force proved overwhelming enough that Amon actually did resort to bloodbending at this moment, forcing Korra against a wall, where she was briefly stunned. As she crumpled a moment later, Amon came face to face with his lieutenant, who had seen everything.
"Amon!" he roared, ripping off his own mask, "Everything the Avatar said was true, wasn't it? I just saw you bloodbend her! YOU TRAITOR! I dedicated my LIFE to you!"
He whipped out his kali sticks and charged Amon, who turned to him.
"You've served me well, Lieutenant," he sighed, before a flick of his arm flung the angered man into a pile of crates with enough force to shatter them. However, his mistake in this regard was removing his focus from Korra, who resumed her ruthless onslaught through the hall.
"Oh no you DON'T!" she gritted her teeth, mustering sheer willpower to prevent herself from succumbing to Amon's control. She lunged forward feet first, slamming into Amon with enough force to knock him out of a window at the end of the hall. He spiralled through the air as Korra clung to the shattered window frame with a single hand. Amon plunged below the waves, much to the shock of the crowds below.
"Oy!" Korra heard a familiar voice, and out of the corner of her eye realized it was Dennis. If she had had her bending still, she would have likely airbent him just for spite, but it was not to be. "Oy did you see that!? The Avatar just chucked the glorious Amon out the window like a ragdoll! Ay now, that bending tyrant!"
"Evil Avatar!" some of the other citizens chanted.
However, even when unmasked, Noatak was still sinking beneath the waves, and since the water had washed away his scar, he knew his jig was up. Not wanting to succumb to the watery depths in what would easily be the most ironic and pathetic way for a master waterbender to die, Noatak erupted from the bay in a towering waterspout.
"He's waterbending!" someone in the crowds gasped. "The Avatar was telling the truth!" Other whispers and exclamations echoed through the crowds, including pointing out that Amon's scar was fake, or that he was in fact a bender, and thus a liar and a fraud.
Of course, as Noatak made his escape, there was another sign of commotion. The Equalists out front had not gotten the memo about Amon, and it seemed that one of their mecha tanks had gone renegade again based on the loud clanging and banging that was going on and growing louder by the second.
Sure enough, crowds of panicked people cleared the area as a mecha tank came whizzing into the scene, spinning around to fire an electrified claw right into the circuitry of what appeared to be the last Equalist mecha tank, promptly disabling it. No one dared get in the way of the renegade tank, and so its path was clear and wide open.
"Oy, Korra," it was Kwan. "Get down here!"
She shot one of the claws from the mecha tank at Korra's window, where she used her free hand to remove the wrap from around her neck, sliding down the cable like a zipline until she was on top of the mecha tank. Most of the Equalist soldiers had been subdued, and the rest of the nonbending citizens just stood out of the way.
"Why am I not surprised that this shit was you," Korra mumbled.
"Where's Mako?" Kwan asked as Korra perched herself atop the mecha tank as they zoomed away, "Is he alright?"
"He was helping get Tenzin's family to safety," Korra sighed, "there's… a lot to talk about."
"Oh that sounds just wonderful…" Kwan groaned, her sarcasm apparent, "Let's go then."
Their first stop was the Underground, where a lone firebender was waiting for them.
"Kuro?" Kwan and Korra both recognized the fellow. "Where's everyone else?"
"Well…" he scratched the back of his head, the smug expression on his face hinting at some kind of accomplishment, "that Chief of Police woman figured we had enough bodies to take back Air Temple Island—so we did. I just came back to make sure I could break the news to one of you. I think that's where most of your friends are… except Hasook anyways. He and his family are still down here somewhere. I think that skulky councilman's still around too… or maybe he left with the others? I'm not sure. I might drop by with him though and say hi to you guys at the Air Temple—depends on what's all going down."
"Looks like we've got a boat to catch then," Kwan turned to Korra, "hang in there, kid—we're almost done with all this noise—and you took down Amon."
"I know…" Korra sighed as she climbed into the storage compartment of the mecha tank again and closed herself inside. "Then why do I feel like I've lost so much more than I gained?"