"Wow, you were not kidding," Korra muttered, looking down at the city. "Those are a lot of cobwebs."

"Yep," Nico nodded.

They were all perched atop the wall, Diana having flown them up. The whole city was stretched out before them, spreading for miles and miles. If Korra had to guess, it was at least the size of Republic City. It wasn't as impressive, due mostly to the fact that a lot of it was falling apart from neglect and time, but the square-shaped buildings looking more like Ba Sing Se instead of the skyscrapers she was used to. That wasn't to say there weren't larger buildings as Korra spotted a few dotting the city, most tall towers lining the periphery of the city. There was one large building circular in shape that was more metallic than the others. And at the far end of the city, leading into the mountains, was the largest building of all with a dome overhead and several small towers surrounding it. The designs in fact looked like the kind used hundreds of years ago. But of course, that wasn't the part of the city she was focusing on.

Her attention was grabbed by the sheer amount of webs. Every street, every building, every wall, everything within sight had at least one layer of web over it. Korra couldn't help but feel a jolt of fear as she took it all in. Before now, she had never considered spiders to be particularly scary. She knew Bolin was terrified of them and that Mako also had a healthy dislike (as did Tenzin) but she was never really that bothered by them. But now, she couldn't help but wonder the size of the creatures that were able to produce this much web and if they were still around. Or the sheer number of spiders to do the same. She didn't know which one was worse.

"They look a little old," Ben offered.

Diana nodded. "Yes, they are frayed and dried, practically falling apart. They have long been abandoned."

"So, where'd the spiders go?" Liza asked, sword in hand as if a spider was going to attack at any moment.

"Probably went looking for a new source of food," Ben said. "Ate everything they could in the city and then moved on. Don't think we'll find any left here." As he said it, Korra couldn't help but notice that even he seemed a little unsure of that, more like he was trying to reassure himself.

"So, where to then?" Nico asked.

"There," Diana pointed with her sword. "The palace. If there will be answers to be found, it will be there."

Korra followed her gaze to the dome-shaped building at the end of the city and couldn't help but be reminded of the lavish palace in Ba Sing Se. She never understood why the leader of the city had to have such a much larger home than anyone else. What exactly did they do with all that space? She much preferred the air nomads where the larger buildings were the temples, not palaces.

They began walking down some stairs leading to the streets below. Korra heard Ben grumble all the way down about the 'ridiculously small steps' and found herself smiling a little. But it faded as she saw the tight grip Liza had on her sword and the way her eyes kept flitting around, just waiting for trouble.

"You ok?" she asked.

"We're walking into the nest of Dangers," Liza replied. "We need to be on constant guard. The spiders may have left, but who knows what might have taken up residence."

Judging from all the webs and dust, Korra figured they were the first ones there in years, centuries even. But it was best to be on guard.

"Why do you keep saying Dangers like that anyway?"

"Oh, that's just what we call them. You know, cause they're a danger."

"Then why not just call them monsters or beasts?"

"Beasts can also mean normal animals and some Dangers don't look like monsters. Some can look peaceful and harmless but turn out to be the most dangerous. Some are just enchantments come to life, not truly alive. Dangers covers all the bases. If they're dangerous, they're a threat and need to be avoided."

"But people can be even more dangerous sometimes," Korra pointed out.

Liza snorted. "Don't I know it."

As they walked through the city, Diana took the lead, sweeping away all the cobwebs that she could with her sword. It wasn't nearly enough and pretty soon Korra felt like she was stepping in the stuffing they put into cushions and beds as the webs stuck to her feet. Ben tried using his fists to clear the stuff but was then pretty soon covered in it, constantly wiping it off his rocky form. Korra was tempted to just firebend it all away but considering they were all standing in the stuff, that might not be the best idea. Instead, she sent gusts of air soaring ahead, knocking most of the webs out of the way but there were plenty leftover sticking to the ground. Still, they continued on to the palace, despite all the webs, making progress with each step.

"So, where is it you're from anyway?" Korra asked as they passed by one of the main streets.

"Freestone," Liza replied.

"Ok," Korra said after a minute. "What's it like?"

Liza shrugged. "It's home."

Clearly Korra was going to be the main conversationalist here. "Tell me about it."

Liza looked over at her. "Why?"

"I don't know, to pass the time?" Korra suggested as she sent another gust of air to help clear the way, sending more webs shooting away from them.

Liza seemed to roll her eyes but she nodded. "Alright, what do you want to know?"

"I don't know." Korra thought back and something Liza had said earlier popped into her head. "You mentioned the Adventurers Tribe, right? Or something like that?"

"Yeah, the Adventurers Guild. It's my guild, my home. My home in Freestone, I mean."

"Ok, so what is it?"

"Well, Freestone has many Guilds to keep the city running. There are the High Guilds, which are the most important ones. There's the Knights Guild, or the Stone Sons, who are charged with protecting the city." She snorted a little there and Korra saw there was derision in her expression. Apparently she didn't think too highly of the Knights Guild. "Then there's the Mages Guild, or the Silverglows. They're the magical practioners." There was that word again. Magic. It sounded slightly familiar but Korra couldn't quite put her finger on it. "They keep the wards up around the city while practicing their magics. Then there's the Healers Guild who, you know, heal people. And the Merchants Guild who sell the goods around the city and provide lawful commerce…to the best they can, anyway."

Korra snorted. Yeah, when it came to commerce, she always found there to be unlawful elements operating alongside the lawful ones.

"Then there are other guilds like the Stewards and Smiths and such who provide smaller but still essential tasks for the city. And then there's my guild. The Adventurers Guild." Liza wore a proud smile as she started talking about her guild. "It's main job is to go outside the city to look for resources and try to cull the population of Dangers. We go where no one else in the city dares to and fight monsters from their darkest nightmares to keep the city safer."

Korra smirked. "Sounds like you're really into that."

Liza shrugged. "All my life I wanted to be a knight, to be the hero. But they're called the Stone Sons for a reason. No girls allowed."

Korra felt her smirk fall as a dark feeling came over her. She could remember early on in her training when some citizens of the Southern Water Tribe had thought she couldn't handle it as the Avatar because she was a girl. It had taken her a long time, far too long, to prove she was more than capable. That mentality was still there in the world, but it was much less prominent now, thanks in a large part to previous Avatar Kyoshi. But still, there were a few people who thought like that and it grated on Korra's soul whenever she came across them.

"So, the Adventurers Guild was next best," Liza continued. "But, when I was allowed in, I realized their role is so much more important. The Knights keep the peace inside the walls but those are just squabbles with the occasional petty criminal and sometimes a truly dangerous one. They are there to protect the city from Dangers but they don't really go outside the walls. The Adventurers are the ones who truly make a difference, where you really have to prove your worth. It's there where I really found my place. And I wouldn't trade it for anything."

Korra smiled. She could relate to that. When she had first come to Republic City, she had struggled with how she would fit in with Tenzin wanting her to train all day and just stay on Air Temple Island and Beifong wanting her out of the city completely. But then she had joined Mako and Bolin in the Fire Ferrets pro-bending team. And from there, she found herself.

"Good for you," she said out loud.

Liza rolled her eyes. "Thanks." They continued on for a little longer in silence before Liza spoke up again. "So this Avatar thing," she said. "You said you're there to keep balance. What exactly does that mean?"

Korra frowned, trying to think of the best way to reply. "Well," she began, thinking carefully, "the world is divided fairly among the four nations. The Fire Nation, the Water Tribes, the Air Nomads, and the Earth Kingdom, though it's becoming more of a democracy now." She smiled at that, thinking about how much Prince Wu had changed since she first met him. "There's also the United Republic which is sovereign state among the others and where I spend most of my time. And my job is basically to keep the peace. When things get out of order, my role is come in and restore the balance. For example, a little while ago the Earth Kingdom became the Earth Empire under the ruler Kuvira who wanted to take control of most of the world by force and we stopped her." She shuddered, thinking how close to failure they had come. "We're still dealing with the aftereffects of that. I'm also the bridge between the spirit and mortal worlds."

"Spirit world?" Liza questioned. "Like, the Fae?"

"I don't know who they are. The Spirit World is a parallel plane of reality home to supernatural entities who embody aspects of nature or life or other things. It's…kind of hard to explain but they play a large role in the balance in the mortal world as well."

"Wow," Liza nodded. "That all sounds very…confusing."

Korra laughed. "Yeah, it kind of does."

"But pretty cool too," Liza added.

"Yeah," Korra agreed. "It is pretty cool."

"Gah!" Ben shouted ahead of them. "How many freaking webs are there here?"

"I don't think yelling about it is going to help much," Diana commented, brushing more cobwebs off her blade before chopping through some more.

"Well, it makes me feel better," Ben countered. He grumbled under his breath, shaking loose a whole bunch of webs that had attached to his body, tossing them aside. "Are we any closer?"

"Still a ways to go," Nico told him.

"Can't you just teleport us there kid?" Ben asked. "With your weird Shadow Travel thing?"

"It's not that easy."

"It never is," Ben sighed.

"Shadow Travel requires a lot of concentration and takes a lot out of me," Nico explained. "I've done three travels today already. I need to rest before I can do more. And I definitely can't do it with a group this size for a while. Unless you want to vanish into the shadows permanently."

Korra winced at that image. "Yeah, I think I'm good walking."

"Yeah, I guess the webs aren't that bad," Ben said, still a little grumpily. "Wish Susie was here. She'd just blow all this stuff away with one of her force fields."

"Well, this is the best I can do right now," Korra told him, sending two gusts of air ahead, blowing at least half the webs out of the way. But the accumulated webs were still sticky and clung to each other and the ground, not giving up easily. "So let's just make do. At least there aren't any spiders in here. It's just the webs."

Ben nodded to that. "Yeah, that's true. One silver lining here."

They came to a stop as they approached a deep trench in the city, one that ran down either way for as far as they could see. "This must have been a canal once," Diana said, looking into it. Korra looked down as well but if there ever had been water, it had long dried up. Now there was just dust and webs.

"And no way to cross it, great," Ben grumbled.

"Hold on, hold on," Korra told him. She stepped forward and thrust her foot forward. The earth responded, a large chunk of rock shooting from the ground and creating a walkway across the canal.

"Damn," Ben nodded. "That's handy."

"Thanks," Korra replied, walking across it. She looked around at the buildings, seeing the cracks and gaping holes in many of them. She wondered how many came from time, and how many came from something else. She shuddered, looking at all the webs and imagining spiders swarming through those holes to get at the people inside. Though it was curious not to find any remains. It didn't look like a massacre. This place just looked abandoned.

Diana seemed to think the same thing. "What really happened here?" she muttered.

"Who knows?" Liza muttered.

"There are no bodies, no true signs of conflict that I can see," Diana continued.

Nico kneeled down to the street and closed his eyes. He seemed to be focused on something. A few seconds later, he reopened them. "It's strange," he said. "There's not much death here. I could feel it out in the wreck back there but here, practically nothing."

"Wait, you can feel death?" Korra asked, eyes widening a little. "Is that what Hela meant by death energy?"

"A little," Nico replied. "My father's Hades, god of the underworld. I can sense places of great death, sense the restless spirits still waiting there. But there's really nothing here."

Korra blinked for a second and then pushed past the whole 'god of the underworld' thing for a little while. She didn't know how to process it just yet anyway. "So what does that mean exactly? The spiders must have come here for a reason. I mean, they definitely got settled here," she gestured to all the webs around them. "But they would need something to feed on."

"Probably the animals then or something. I don't sense their deaths, just peoples'," Nico replied.

"So, there's a huge battle outside the city with ships and such," Ben said, rubbing his finger against his chin that created a soft grating sound. "But no signs of any battle within the city. So the people must have left. Probably thought they were going to lose and hightailed it somewhere else."

"Yes, but where?" Diana asked.

"In Freestone, in case of emergencies, there was a safe haven beneath the city where certain residents could take shelter. About a hundred of them," Liza explained. "Maybe this city is similar."

"Well, our best bet's probably still the palace," Korra pointed and the towering building that loomed closer and closer with each step.

It took them about thirty minutes to make their way up to the palace, cutting through more and more webs. Korra began to notice that the buildings got a little bigger and seemed fancier. The architecture was less worn and in better shape. Liza noticed as well and snorted.

"We're in the richer sections of the city," she said. "They're closer to the palace here and farther from the walls so that the poorer sections can act as buffers for any invaders."

Korra grimaced. "Yeah, that sounds about right," she said dryly.

Eventually, the buildings disappeared for a wide street leading to the palace doors. Or at least what used to be doors and now were just shattered pieces. Clearly, something had wanted in. And it was as they all stepped inside that they found the first bodies.

The first thing they noticed was that there were far more webs in here than anywhere else, the entry hall completely covered in webs that it didn't even resemble anything manmade. Just spider-made. The second thing was the bodies. There weren't many to see, the webs covering most of them up. But there were still quite a few. Dried out husks scattered around. And not just human. Korra nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw several large spindly figures spread out as well but they were just as dead as well. Still, one question was answered. It wasn't an army of small spiders making the webs, but giant ones. Ones at least the size of Korra and probably bigger as well.

"Well, not hoping to run into those things," Ben nodded at the husks.

"Don't worry, they must be long dead by now," Diana reassured him. But Korra couldn't help but wonder if there was tinge of uncertainty in her voice. "Nico, are you sensing anything now?"

He didn't say anything for a minute, his eyes closed and his head tilted, as if he was listening to something. Then he looked up. "Yes," he said softly. "This place…there's a lot of death here."

Korra had to stop herself from shivering, looking around the walls and imagining ghosts and specters emerging from them or creeping up behind her, hiding in the shadows. "So the people fled here where they made their last stand," she said softly.

"But then, why are there so few bodies?" Liza asked.

Korra had a thought about that. "Step back," she said, having them all back away to the front entrance again. Then she raised her fist and summoned a burst of flame. She had been hesitant to do this before as they were in the middle of the webs. But now they were more contained within these walls. She shot the fireball into the middle of the webs and then for good measure shot a few more.

The effect was instantaneous. The cobwebs went up in smoke in seconds, burning to ash and revealing beneath their mass the rest of the bodies. Korra gasped and she heard Ben curse behind her as at least a hundred corpses were revealed, most human but a few more spider husks as well. Before the fire could spread too much, Korra summoned it back, extinguishing it.

"Hmmm." Liza squatted down next to one corpse, a broken skeleton in faded armor. "They're all soldiers."

"What do you mean?" Korra asked.

"Look around. All the bodies have weapons and armor. There's no sign of ordinary citizens. And there's only around a hundred."

Korra frowned but realized she was right. There were only soldiers there. And the amount of people could nowhere near fit the population of the city.

"It is just the first room," Diana said, her eyes going toward the back of the room where a large doorway loomed to the rest of the palace. "I'm sure we will find more if we keep looking."

"Yes," Nico added. "We will."

With that ominous warning, they made their way across the room to the doorway and found an even larger room with many more doorways and two large stairwells leading up. And, of course, more webs draped everywhere and more bodies lining the webs. Korra again burned the webs away but controlling it enough so as not to let the fire run rampant. More soldiers and spider corpses were revealed but nothing else.

"Should we split up?" Korra asked.

"No!" Ben instantly said. "That's a bad idea. Haven't you ever seen a horror movie?"

Korra blinked. "What's a movie? You mean a mover?"

Now Ben blinked. "A mover? What's that?"

"We shouldn't split up," Liza interrupted. "When you walk into the nest of a Danger, even abandoned, you should stick together. Strength in numbers. Besides, it's also logical. These webs are too thick to really walk through and Korra's the only one who can burn it down. Unless anyone else is hiding some magical power like that?"

"She's right, we stick together," Diana affirmed. "Now, which way?"

Korra looked around. "I don't think people would head up in a crisis like this," she said, nodding at the stairwells.

"Agreed. So one of these other doorways then." Diana gestured to the nearest one. "Let's start here and see where it leads us."

It led them to the kitchens, as it turned out, where a large funnel web was located, the insides shadowed and hidden. Korra shuddered, easily imagining a spider lurking inside, just waiting to pounce. She had no problem burning that web down, revealing nothing but some old bones inside.

From there, they went on exploring the whole palace, room to room. They found what looked like a ballroom, a library with dusty books written in a script none of them recognized, what might have once been a parlor, the servant's quarters, and more. Throughout it all, they found more skeletal remains and all were soldiers. Nico occasionally noticed a few that may have been citizens but it was hard to tell without focusing on it. Korra kept looking at him, noticing something bothering him. He kept tensing and twitching a little and his eyes drifted to look at something that wasn't there. But whatever it was, he didn't say. Korra decided to keep an eye on him.

After a while, they felt they had searched practically every room on the ground floor of the palace and still found nothing new so decided to continue the search upwards, climbing up the stairwells. They found more large rooms with more webs and more bodies but not much else so they kept on. They found a few bedrooms that seemed to be the emptiest of the rooms in the palace, the webbing in there light and no skeletons at all. Then, after they finished that, they began exploring the towers. The first two were completely bare but the third one was where it got interesting.

"That's a lot of dead spiders," Ben muttered and Korra nodded in agreement. This tower was connected to the rest of the palace by a bridge and along it was a line of spider husks. In contrast to the rest of the palace, there was now only a scattering a scattering of human bodies with far more spiders. Korra also noticed a lot of arrows sticking out of the spiders and saw many small windows lining the top of the tower.

"This must have been where they made their last stand," Liza commented.

"Ah, yes, I think I know why," Diana suddenly said. "In history, I learned that many castles and palaces had a specific tower used in case of siege for a retreat of last resort. It was the most defensible area, designed for the defenders to hold out for months on end if need be."

Korra nodded. "So naturally this is where they'd go. Ok, so maybe we'll find more answers inside."

Nico snorted. "In contrast to the answers we already have?"

"Good point."

They made their way across the bridge, carefully stepping around the dead spiders. Korra had never really been afraid of spiders before but now could imagine where that fear could come from. These things, even in death, were truly terrifying to behold, especially up close.

They made their way inside the tower where the webs returned, though more spare than before. And there were more human bodies scattered around but still quite a few spiders as well. They walked up the spiral staircase, which Diana explained was designed in such a way to bottleneck enemies and to prove difficult to right-handed soldiers. "Most people are right-handed," she explained. "So, these towers were built clockwise so that the attacking soldier would have to expose their whole body to fight while a defender need only present their sword arm."

"Don't think that quite works with giant spiders attacking," Liza said dryly.

"No, it does not."

They eventually arrived in the main chambers of the tower where it was clear a large battle had taken place, the ground littered with skeletons and husks of the dead. Korra noticed Nico twitch again and look down but before she could think on it, Liza interrupted her.

"Still more soldiers," she said. "And still not enough people to fill the city. I mean, we didn't see a single body walking through the city. So, where are they all?"

"I believe some of these towers had a secret escape tunnel," Diana said, looking around the room as if the tunnel would jump out at her.

Korra frowned and then lifted her foot. She'd never really done this before, but she'd seen the Beifongs do it enough times so it shouldn't be that hard. She stamped her foot down on the ground and shot her senses through the earth, searching. She gasped a little from the input, feeling the tower around her and yet not really feeling it. She could tell where everything was, see it through her feet. It was a weird sensation but she kind of liked it as well. She also felt an empty space in the tower that dropped down well below the surface of the city.

"Here," she said, walking over to the furthest chamber and pulled her arm back, the rock wall following her movement with a large grinding sound. Behind it was a narrow chamber that stretched downward into darkness. A metal ladder stood against the wall leading down but it looked like it could fall apart at any second.

"I'm not climbing down that thing," Liza said. "It looks like a pebble could break through it."

Ben glanced down the passage, sniffing. "I think I could jump that," he said. "I've survived bigger falls."

"No need," Diana interrupted. "I'll just fly you down."

"Yeah, that's a better idea," he agreed. "Don't want to break anything down there by accident."

They decided to go in one go, Korra, Liza, and Nico holding onto Ben as Diana carried him down by his arm.

"We're still not too heavy for you?" Ben checked again.

"Still no, Ben," Diana told him with a small smile. "I'm stronger than I look."

"Clearly," he nodded. "Alright then, let's go exploring into the deep dark chasm of death."

"That's a grim outlook," Korra pointed out.

"But probably accurate," Nico added.

Diana slowly lowered them down. Korra couldn't help but glance up at her in awe. The only person she ever knew who could fly was Zaheer who was an asshole. And Diana wasn't an airbender. It was hard for her to wrap her head around all of this. Goddesses of death, people made of stone, a kid who could sense death, and a woman could fly. It was a lot from what she was used to and she had seem a lot of fantastic things in her life.

Again, she wondered what exactly had brought them all together like this.

That thought drifted away as they landed on the ground, only darkness greeting them. Korra lifted her hand and let loose a small, continuous burst of flame from her fist, lighting up the darkness and revealing a large chamber awaiting them with, surprise, even more corpses. Though this time the spiders outnumbered the soldiers once more.

"Guess we keep following the trail of corpses," Ben grumbled. "This is not how I wanted to spend my day."

"And you think the rest of us did?" Liza gave him a look.

Before any of them could take a step forward, Nico suddenly started walking ahead of them. "This way," he said over his shoulder.

Korra frowned, eyeing him with suspicion, but she followed him anyway. She wasn't sure what was up with him but she didn't like it right now. She just hoped she was wrong.

Nico led them down the chamber, past all the bodies which again Korra noticed were mainly soldiers though every now and then she did spot some skeletons without any armor or weapons with some fabric around them that could have once been clothes. So maybe they were getting closer to where the city's citizens went. Though she hoped they had made it. To die like this, down in the dark by these monsters, was too horrific to think about.

They continued walking for about ten minutes, Nico leading them on without faltering. "Where's he taking us?" Liza asked.

"I don't think it's anywhere good," Korra muttered.

Liza gave her a questioning look. "You think…?"

"I don't know," Korra replied honestly. "It's just…a gut feeling."

Liza nodded and Korra saw her hand flexing over her sword. Ben and Diana were conversing privately but didn't seem too concerned themselves.

It was a few minutes later that Korra noticed something else. There wasn't as much web here. There were a few cobwebs stretched out over the bodies here and there but for the most part, she couldn't see any. She pointed this out to the others.

"Maybe they didn't feel like taking up residence here?" Liza offered but she also didn't seem sure.

"Or maybe they had their fill down here and decided to move back up," Ben said.

"That's cheery," Korra muttered. But something didn't feel right. She just didn't know what it was yet.

"Just up ahead," Nico suddenly said, startling her.

"What's up ahead?" she asked.

But he didn't say anything else, adding to her fears. She pressed on with the others, however. She saw Nico turn a corner, disappearing from sight and couldn't help when her heart beat faster. She walked over, dread filling her with each step. She didn't want to feel this way. Nico had saved her earlier from the desert creature. But she couldn't deny that there was something unusual about him, the whole death thing. It gave off a strange and dark aura.

She turned the corner and nearly winced, almost expecting something to be lunging out. But instead, it was just a wide chamber with stairs leading down somewhere still out of sight to her. Nico stood at the top of the stairs, standing perfectly still. Korra paused before taking slow steps towards him. "Nico?" she asked softly but there wasn't any reply.

She turned to the others and this time saw the same fear reflecting in their eyes. Diana stepped forward carefully. "Nico?" she repeated. "Are you ok?"

There was still no reply. If she didn't know better, Korra could have sworn he was a statue, the way he was standing. Slowly, they all walked up to him.

"Nico?" Diana asked again and this time she readied her blade.

Korra stepped forward slowly and, as she stood behind him, reached out and gently patted him on the shoulder.

"Gah!" he stumbled a little, causing the rest of them to jump a little. "Sorry, sorry," he said, rubbing his forehead. "It's just, it's a lot."

"What is?" Ben asked.

Nico looked over at them and Korra was startled by his haunted expression. "Look," he said softly.

Korra frowned and then looked down the stairs, still not seeing much more than darkness. She walked forward and increased the power of her flame, letting the light fill the air.

"Here," Diana said suddenly and Korra turned to see her standing at the wall, a torch above her head. Korra nodded and shot out a burst of flame to it. She blinked in surprise when it went up instantly, illuminating the dark. Then she took a step back as it didn't stop there, a whole line of fire coming to life behind it, stretching all around the chamber, lighting up torch after torch until the whole chamber was lit up.

And then she gasped in horror, stumbling back as she covered her mouth, seeing what was down the stairs. They had found the rest of the city's populace.

The chamber was huge and it held thousands upon thousands of corpses, practically a sea of skeletons and death. No wonder Nico had acted that way. If he was sensitive to death, this would have set it to go overboard.

Korra felt tears prickle her eyes as she took it all in. She saw a vast range of skeletons, some smaller than others, some in shabby clothing while others in what had probably once been in fancy garb. None of that mattered now.

"None made it out," Nico said in an almost-whisper. "I can still feel the despair, the fear, in them. They did everything they could to escape and still the spiders found them."

Ben sank to the ground while Diana lowered her head, eyes closed. Korra heard Liza gasp softly behind her but didn't pay much attention to it. She could imagine this as Republic City during Kuvira's invasion, all the people doing their best to escape but the enemy capturing and killing them all. That thought made her want to vomit. Even if this had happened hundreds of years ago, she could feel these people's last moments in the air. She couldn't help but think of her predecessor, Aang, when he had discovered what had happened to his people. She felt sick to her stomach right now and she didn't even know these people, who they were. Whatever he had felt was a thousand times worse.

She took another step forward when suddenly something metal struck her chest, forcing her back. She looked up sharply and blinked when she saw Liza standing there, sword at the ready.

"What are you doing?" Korra asked.

"Stopping you," Liza said hurriedly, wide panic in her eyes. She then gestured to where Korra had almost stepped, at a strand of cobweb.

Korra frowned. "So? What does that have to do…" she trailed off, looking at the cobweb closely. It wasn't as frail as the others they had seen. In fact, it seemed stretched pretty tight. She looked around and for the first time noticed all the other webs in the chamber lining the bodies and walls. And none of them looked like the frail, listless things they had spent the last couple hours cutting through. They looked strong and fresh, as if made recently.

Korra glanced again at the web she had almost stepped on and followed it up to the wall where it connected to a bunch of other webs. She followed those with her eyes up the side of the wall right to a massive web. And then she gasped as she saw the thing in the center of the web.

"Oh crap," she breathed. Because this time she wasn't looking at the husk of a spider-corpse, shriveled up with its legs curled around it. This time, the spider was whole. It was still curled up, but not in death. It looked comatose.

The others slowly became aware of it as well and breathed sharply as a result. "Yeah," Liza muttered. "I guess we found them."

Korra froze. "Wait," she said. "Them?"

Liza nodded and gestured to the ceiling. Korra looked up and felt her heart freeze in its place, as if her blood had turned to ice. Hanging from the ceiling were literally hundreds upon hundreds of spiders, each one the size of a truck, some even bigger and only a handful smaller. And each one seemed like the slightest movement could wake it up.

"Looks like we found where all the spiders went," Liza said dryly.

To any readers with intense arachnophobia, my sincerest apologies. I myself have a healthy fear of spiders and I wanted to make it scary here. So, I'd recommend probably not reading Korra's next few chapters.

-KiraReaper: I am so sorry but you're going to have to wait a little longer for Snart to appear. But don't worry, when he makes his entrance, I promise it'll be epic.

-Sakra95 & Solar Man: for the Star Wars characters, I'm not trying to make them more powerful than they are. For the lightsabers, whenever Superman fights another Kryptonian being, the laser vision does hurt. Maybe not for long or not that much, but it still has an effect. So, I figured lightsabers worked the same way. Ahsoka may not hurt Superman for long, but she can still bother him with them. Besides, the kyber crystals are like Force energy which means they can absolutely still hurt Superman. Like I said, not for long. Those red gashes will fade in seconds. But they're not solar powered, so unlike the laser beams, they leave more of a mark.

As for Boba Fett defeating a Green Lantern, well if you read the Green Lantern comics you see they can get beaten by strong enough warriors. Green Arrow once helped fight off Sinestro. So Boba Fett, the greatest bounty hunter in the galaxy, could definitely take out a Lantern especially if he takes her by surprise. And as for being immune to magic, he's not. In Harry Potter, they noted that goblin steel and other such metal have a magic resistance i.e. a magical attack on someone wearing that armor won't have much effect as the metal stops it. Boba Fett wears beskar which is one of the strongest metals in Star Wars so I figured it had the same resistance. Not completely immune, but still effective.

And as for Vader defeating all those enemies like that, well, the answer is simple. He's Darth Vader. Literally, one of the most powerful villains in history. If you read his comics, you'll see what I mean.

I'm not biased towards Star Wars, I am staying as true as I can to these characters and each world's respective lore. If Emperor Superman wasn't distracted by Calvin, I have no doubt he would absolutely destroy Ahsoka.

Alright, now that that's said and done, let's move on to an exciting announcement.

For the past two weeks I have been binge-watching My Hero Academia. And it is SO GOOD! Damn, have I been missing out. Halfway through season 5 now.

So, will these characters also be appearing in this story?

Um…HELL YEAH! You can expect to see a few cameos here and there before I start bringing them in properly.

Also, please send me more anime recommendations. Except Attack on Titan. I already know I'm going to watch that so you don't need to tell me.

Until next time, please leave a review if you can and if you have any specific My Hero Academia characters you want me to introduce, let me know.