In the main room, where the gate to the dark realm of the byakko was located, the hooded men were drawing the symbol of their organization on the floor with red paint (at least I think it was paint) while Nur, their leader, was overseeing everything from the midpoint of the stairs.
Korra was still in position, trying to think of how to escape her situation, for despite what she was told, she had no plans to give up.
All was quiet until the squad leader entered the room.
"My lord, we have a problem." said the squad leader.
"What is it now?" asked Nur as Korra listened intently.
"It seems that girl's companions have found our lair and are now on their way here." said the squad leader.
Korra's eyes widened in surprise as she learned that her friends had come to rescue them.
"Asami." said Korra.
"Mmm. That's certainly worrisome, but we won't let that stop us. March, my children, and stop those interlopers who are trying to stop our mission!" said Nur.
"Yes, sir." said the hooded men before leaving the room along with the squad leader.
"It's over, Nur. My friends will free me and we'll stop you." said Korra.
"They can try, but in the hypothetical event that they made it this far, by then, it will be too late." said Nur turning around to look at Korra with an evil grin.
Even though she was looking at him angrily, a part of her was worried about her girlfriend and her new friends, hoping they were okay and could make it in time.
Asami, Raya and Sisu went running through the torch-lit corridors intending to find Korra and Namaari and then, together, stop that group of fanatics who intended to unleash a great threat.
"This is weird." Asami said.
"What? That there isn't a single map of this place to guide us?" asked Sisu.
"No. From my experience, I know that when you enter the enemy's base, you usually find some kind of security measure." said Asami.
"Maybe they haven't heard about it." said Sisu.
"No, she's right. They should have already found out about us soon after we went in." said Raya.
They kept running until they reached the end of the hallway and when they crossed to the other side, they stopped immediately, for they were now in a rather large room filled with armed hooded men.
In front of them stood the squad leader.
"I must say I'm surprised you found this place so soon." said the squadron leader.
"We have our ways. Now, tell me where Korra is!" demanded Asami.
"What about Namaari? What have you done with her?" asked Raya.
"That's none of your business right now." began the squadron leader, much to the girl's annoyance, before turning his gaze to the engineer. "The girl you speak of is currently in the room behind us, but if you want to continue, you'll have to go through all of us first."
"That's it? It doesn't look like much." said Sisu preparing to fight.
"I don't care if I have to fight you all alone. I don't plan on leaving here without my girlfriend." said Asami getting ready to fight.
"Luckily, you're not alone in this." said Raya preparing to fight.
"I admire your determination, but unfortunately, it's over. Finish them off!" ordered the squad leader making everyone go on the attack.
Meanwhile, the leader had placed himself in the center of the drawing placed on the ground.
"After so many years, my people's purpose will be fulfilled." said Nur.
"Listen, Nur! I may not know your people, but I'm sure they wouldn't want to release a destructive beast that would cause the death of many innocents." said Korra trying to change his mind.
"Innocents? They are all guilty of wiping out with my people and forcing them into hiding! They deserve whatever happens to them!" said Nur.
"You can't blame them for the crimes of hundreds of years ago!" said Korra.
"Their blood is the same as those who committed the crime! But enough of this nonsense. It's time to begin." said Nur before spreading his arms, causing the 'paint' in the circle to begin to glow.
Nur began to recite some words that formed a sort of ancient, religious chant.
Korra became nervous as she wondered what he was doing.
It was then that she heard something behind her and turned her head to see the engravings on the disk begin to glow, with the eyes glowing the brightest.
Before she could think of anything, the eyes shot beams straight into Korra's back, making her scream loudly and quickly from the pain.
It wasn't painful or anything, but she could feel them draining her energy, both her life energy and Raava's, though thankfully they were doing it in such a slow manner that it could take many hours until she ran out of energy completely and died, and by the time that happened, the gate would be fully opened and the byakko would enter that world to destroy it.
"Asami, girls, please hurry." thought Korra hoping they could get there before it was too late.
Sisu was moving back and forth to dodge the hooded men's weapon attacks and arrows before taking them down with her claws and tail.
It was then that she found herself surrounded by archers, their arrows aimed at her.
She stood there thinking of a plan to escape until she remembered a certain thing.
Before the archers went to shoot, Sisu emitted a powerful glow from her body, causing the archers to scream from the pain in their eyes, which she took advantage of to shoot them all down.
Raya used her sword to block with speed and strength the attacks of a hooded man wielding two swords.
To her, that guy wasn't as skilled as Namaari, so it was easy for her to block a sword attack before turning her wrist, sending the hooded guy's sword flying out of his grip, much to his surprise and Raya took advantage of that moment to knock him down with a punch.
Then, she saw a hooded man with a spear charging towards her, but then, Raya turned her sword into a whip and wrapped it around the spear before jerking to the side, knocking the spear away from its wielder.
Before he could react, Raya threw a whip at him that knocked him down.
She then saw a pair of archers shooting their arrows at her, but Raya managed to block the arrows with her whip before tossing it to wrap it around a hooded man.
With a jerk, she sent the hooded man she caught crashing into the other, both of them being knocked down in the process.
Asami proved quick enough to be able to dodge the attacks of several armed hooded men before taking them down with kicks and fists.
A muscular hooded man approached her from behind with the intention of crushing her with his fists, but Asami saw him coming and somersaulted, landing on his shoulders with her legs clinging to his neck.
The hooded man tried to grab her, but before he could reach her, Asami placed her electrified gauntlet on his head, giving him an electric shock that made him scream before falling forward.
Two hooded men rushed towards her from both sides with their swords at the ready.
Thinking of a plan quickly, Asami ran towards one of them, dodging his slash in the process only to grab him by the arm and throw him towards the other, causing them to stumble to the point where they almost fell to the ground.
Before they could compose themselves, Asami touched one on the back with her electrified gauntlet and, because they were so close, the shock hit them both, causing them to scream in pain before falling unconscious.
A hooded man with a staff tried to attack her, but Asami moved out of the attack zone and grabbed the staff.
The two threw the staff at each other, trying to take it from the other and that was when a small smile formed on Asami's face before she let go of the staff, which made the hooded man stumble a bit, something she took advantage of to slide her leg between his, making him fall backwards.
In a matter of minutes, the three of them managed to finish off all the hooded men, although the only bad thing was that they were a little tired from having to fight so many of them.
In all that time, the squad leader had stood by and although he didn't show it due to the hood covering his face, he was very angry to see that an entire whole army had been taken down by two girls and a dragon.
"As hard as it is for me to admit, you two are skilled warriors. It seems I underestimated them." said the squad leader.
"And you shouldn't have. Now get out of our way." said Asami wanting to go after her girlfriend as soon as possible.
"Yes. We just defeated all your troops. There's no one left but you." said Sisu.
Suddenly, the squad leader burst out laughing lightly.
"What's so funny?" asked Raya.
"Oh, you really think there's me left? Well, in a way, that was kind of the way it was before, but now it turns out we got a new recruit." said the squadron leader.
"New recruit?" asked Asami.
The squadron leader turned his head toward the exit of the room.
"Why don't you come out and introduce yourself?" asked the squadron leader.
From there, someone could be seen entering the room and showing himself to the light.
Needless to say, in the next instant, the three let out a loud gasp of utter horror, for in front of them and next to the squad leader stood Namaari who, at that moment, had violet pupils.
"N-Namaari?!" asked Sisu.
"Are you okay?" asked Asami.
"She is." began the squad leader before turning his gaze to the girl. "Right?" asked the squad leader receiving a nod from the girl.
That made Raya grit her teeth in anger, for although she didn't know what exactly was going on, she was absolutely sure that it was not normal at all.
"You… WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!" asked Raya in total rage.
"I simply gave her an experimental serum that would cause anyone injected with it to fall into a state where she would obey any command we gave her." said the squad leader.
"You've brainwashed her!" exclaimed Asami in surprise and anger.
In fact, that reminded her of when Guan captured her and her friends to brainwash them to fight Korra, but, thanks to Kuvira, they managed to free them.
"You might say. Our leader was planning to use it on those who didn't want to join our cause despite sharing the same beliefs." said the squad leader.
"Damn you. How dare you do such a thing?" asked Sisu angrily.
"We simply do what we believe is necessary to bring true salvation to the world. Everything else is irrelevant." said the squadron leader.
This made the three of them very angry, knowing that they were willing to brainwash people in order to bring them into their ranks.
It was then that they all felt a small tremor that shook the entire room.
"Ah. It seems the ritual has begun. Before long, the byakko will be walking on their original ground again." said the squad leader extending his arms in praise.
Asami began to worry, for if the ritual had begun, Korra didn't have much time left.
She wanted to go immediately to help her, but she couldn't leave due to Namaari presenting herself as a new obstacle and she didn't want to hurt her new friend, as she was now in a hypnotic state.
Raya could notice this and made a decision so she could help her and the Avatar.
"Go." began Raya getting the engineer's attention. "You go get Korra. I'll take care of Namaari." said Raya taking a few steps forward.
"What? Are you sure?" asked Asami worried about her new friend.
"I've fought her many times before. I'll be able to handle her." said Raya.
"But I…" began Asami having doubts about it.
"Listen. Their ritual has begun and we can't waste any more time than necessary." began Raya turning her head to look at her with a smile. "Trust me. I'll be able to handle it."
Of course she trusted her.
Despite the short time they had been together, she could trust her as much as any great friend of her in her world.
She may not have liked the state Namaari was in, but she wasn't about to let her girlfriend suffer, not after what she went through that time with the Red Lotus.
With an expression of determination, she gave the girl a nod before breaking into a run for the exit.
"Don't let her get away." said the squad leader, causing Namaari to pull out a black sword and lunge towards the engineer, causing her to stop.
Namaari was ready to strike, but halfway, Raya suddenly appeared and stopped her by clashing her sword against his.
With a little push, Raya pushed her away from her.
"Asami. Take this." began Raya tossing the engineer Namaari's swords to her which she caught before looking confused at the girl. "Just in case." said Raya before going to fight her mesmerized friend.
Accepting the gift, Asami went back to her mission of going after Korra and when she was halfway to the exit, the squad leader stepped in front of her so she quickly stopped.
"You're not going anywhere." said the squad leader pulling out a whip with which he cracked the ground.
Asami prepared to fight him as the squad leader cracked a whip.
Before the whip could go to get any closer or Asami could go to dodge it, Sisu stepped in the middle and grabbed the whip with her claw.
"I hope you forgot about me." began Sisu with a smile before turning her head to look at the engineer. "Go save your girlfriend."
Asami gave her a nod before quickly breaking into a run, passing the squad leader until she finally made it out of the room, leaving Raya, Sisu, Namaari and the squad leader alone.
The squad leader growled a little in frustration before cracking his whip, causing Sisu to let go.
"You're going to pay for that." said the squad leader.
"Chalk it up to my tab." said Sisu.
"Well, anyway, it doesn't matter. Not when she meet him." said the squad leader.
"Him?" asked Sisu in confusion.
"I'm talking about our leader. Your friend won't stand a chance against him, let alone save your friend." said the squad leader.
"I think she will be able to." said Sisu.
"And how are you so sure of that?" asked the squad leader.
"Because I trust her." said Sisu.
"Well, that trust will be as much her undoing as yours." said the squad leader slamming his whip against the ground and preparing to fight.
For the next few minutes, the dragon's eyes engraved on the disk continuously shot their beams at Korra's back, who was moaning slightly as she felt her strength getting lower and lower.
What was worse was that the disk began to open slowly, with each side sliding towards the other like automatic doors.
It was no bigger than a bug hole, but at that rate, it would get big enough for something big to come out the other side or rather, a lot of something.
All of that was being witnessed by Nur who was watching it all with a smile.
"That's it. Keep it up. A little more and they will be released." said Nur.
"You won't… get… away… with… yours." said Korra rather wearily.
"I'm surprised you're still holding out. It was certainly an excellent decision to choose you as a sacrifice." said Nur.
From behind him, Asami finally reached the room and as soon as she saw what was happening, her eyes widened in horror.
"KORRA!" shouted Asami, coming to get the two's attention.
"A… Asami!" exclaimed Korra in exhaustion and surprise.
"Well, well, well. Looks like they snuck a rat in." said Nur turning to look at the engineer.
"Release my girlfriend NOW!" exclaimed Asami with a frown.
"I'm sorry, but I can't do that. Not when I'm so close to completing my destiny." said Nur pointing to the gate that was opening wider and wider.
"In that case, I'll take her personally." said Asami.
"If you want to do that, you'll have to go through me first." began Nur before removing his robe, revealing a muscular body in a shirt. "And I assure you, I'm not like the ones you defeated before."
"Asami… run away." said Korra tiredly and very worried about her girlfriend.
"I'm sorry, Korra, but I didn't come all this way to back out." began Asami before turning a serious look to the cult leader. "If it's necessary to get to her, then go ahead." said Asami preparing to fight.
"Then don't regret it." said Nur preparing to fight.