Chapter 95: Endgame

Ren was in a daze. Kylie *made* him shower and eat, but it's like he was floating outside his body. He didn't even realize how much time had passed when a knock on his sister's apartment door made him flinch, and in came Korra. Ren immediately jumped up, and returned her hug. "You're OK. Thank the spirits."

Korra squeezed him, then pulled back, and met his eyes, look serious.

No joke from Korra? "What happened?"

"We found him, Ren."

And just like that, dread settled in his stomach again.

xXx

Korra thought about confronting Giam *very* carefully. With their rapport, bringing Tenzin and Jinora is a given. But this was too personal for Suyin and Kuvira, and she didn't want to give the impression of showing up with an army... she even decided against bringing a truth seer like Anah, lest it inflame tensions.

And she didn't tell another soul about finding Giam, not Azula or Zuko, not Mako or Bolin, not Asami or Sara, not even her parents. The risk of anything getting back to him, however tiny, was too catastrophic. But as the sun rose behind Republic City, lighting up the statue of Avatar Aang in the bay, and everyone else got ready, Korra *begged* the one man she thought could help.

"Pleeease!" Korra pleaded, eyes wide and hands clasped. "I brought your favorite breakfast skillet from Huu's!"

Gommu took a bite and hummed happily. "I do love these spicy sausages..."

"Then come with me!" Korra begged. "I'll give you ten million Yuans! I'll carve your face into the mountain, and drop it right on top of Aang's statue! Anything, name it!"

Gommu laughed, set the skillet down, and a patted the spot next to him in front of Korra's old drainage tunnel. The Avatar plopped down with a huff and an *intense* pout. "Now what do ya wanna drag some old man to Ba Sing Se for?"

"You're not just some old man," Korra protested. "I know gurus from ancient orders. I know spirits that helped create the Earth, I know past Avatars, and *none* of them are as wise as you, Gommu." She exhaled deeply, and looked out to the sea. "None of them make sense like you do."

"Aww, you don't really want me out there, do you? What's wrong, kiddo?"

"I don't know what to do!" Korra confessed, burying her face in her hands. "I have so much power. But millions could die on the whim of one man, and I don't know how to use anything I have to stop it!

He patted her shoulder comfortingly. "I know you, and you'll figure it out."

"You always say that," she complained. "That I'm special or whatever. But I'm not. And it doesn't matter anyway."

Gommu smiled as an old memory flashed through his mind. "Say, you remember how we met?"

That brightened Korra's mood too. "I was running from cops, and you stuffed Naga and me through a sewer grate."

"And you gave me a fish!" Gommu laughed. "Oh, I still remember how good it tasted, even in that stinking sewer."

"You inhaled it," Korra chuckled back. "So what?"

Gommu stroked Naga's fur, and she rolled to the side. "I remember you too, all scratched up, stomach growling. And Naga looked like she was gonna keel over." He rubbed Naga's belly. "And you looked me in the eye, a total stranger, and gave me your fish anyway."

"You were hungry too. I could tell."

"Exactly," Gommu agreed. "Now, you remember that story about Avatar Wan you told the press?"

That was random. "Uh... yeah? He invented bending, battled Vaatu and saved the world."

"Nah, before that," Gommu waved off. He could still hear Korra's voice telling it over the radio, and remember laughing at how he was just like her. "Before Wan was the Avatar, you said he'd steal food, take one look at someone, and hand it over without saving a drop for himself. He saw Raava and Vaatu fighting, and when every living thing in the world was scared of 'em, he felt for them instead." Gommu poked Korra's belly. "*That's* who you are, kiddo. You feel for others, hard, and can't help but show it. That was part of your soul before you became the Avatar." Gommu leaned back against the concrete, with his hands behind his head. "It may seem scary now, but whoever this Giam fellow is, I know you'll take one look at 'em, and that heart of yours will know just what to do, good or bad."

"Like Tenzin said," Korra remembered. It seems so shallow now, but she never thought about how far back that habit goes. "This could be doomsday, Gommu. You really think I can wing it and know what to do?"

Gommu relaxed more. "I know you will. I'm not even worried."

Korra smiled a little, and hugged him. "Thanks, Gommu."

She didn't *really* know how to thank him. Gommu refused anything she gave, but Korra swore, some day, everyone would see him the way she did. For now, she waved, took off on her glider, and met the sky spirits in the air.

xXx

Giam nearly lost his patience with his subject states, with them constantly calling back and act like he was holding them hostage. Can't they see he *freed* them? So, as he did some mornings, he flipped off the radio and gazed at the stain in the courtyard, lost in thought.

His lieutenant might be concerned if she wasn't doing the exact same thing.

A knock on the stone wall made them both flinch, and his lieutenant jumped to action. "Stay hidden, sir.'

Their command center was nestled in the basement of a shop, and the lieutenant carefully earthbent a notch of wall down, ready to crush whoever it was. "Uh... Sir? It's two Air Nomads."

Giam's eyes widened in excitement. "The Air Nation! Let them in!"

The lieutenant nodded, lowering the wall. Tenzin and Jinora walked in, bowing respectfully. "General Giam. I apologize for the... intrusion," he politely started, noting he didn't seem concerned that they *found* his outpost. "We previously agreed to meet, but-"

"Ah, yes!" Giam enthusiastically waved off, and bowed back. "My mistake. It's an honor to meet the last of the Air Nomads."

"Not anymore," Jinora gently corrected. "Our people are returning to the world, thanks to the Avatar." Something she already told him?

"Really!? That's wonderful!" Giam sincerely cheered. Then his expression quickly turned stern. "The new water Avatar. I've heard of her ruthlessness."

Jinora shuffled nervously, and her dad spoke up. "That's actually the purpose of our visit. Avatar Korra has offered to discuss the... *situation* in the Earth Kingdom. I assure you, her intentions are peaceful."

"Offered?" Giam's eyes went wide. "You brought her here!?"

The lieutenant stance turned aggressive. "We will not yield to another tyrant!"

Tenzin and Jinora held up their hands defensively. "Wait!" Korra screamed, running in. "Giam, calm down!"

"Avatar Korra!" Giam yelled back. "We will NEVER surrender!"

The officer clicked the radio, and received many clicks back. "Stop us, and our comrades will continue the fight!"

"Please! I'm not going to hurt you!" Korra implored, hands raised. "I just want to talk. And I brought two friends of mine you may know."

Giam narrowed his eyes. "Friends?"

As the siblings stepped into view, Giam's eyes bulged fast enough to give Korra whip lash. "Ren! Kylie!" He leapt up to them and wrapped them in a bear hug. "You survived!"

Ren was in utter shock as his living nightmare *hugged* him. Kylie was first to snap out of it and push Giam away. "Don't touch us!"

He didn't get the message. "I knew you would survive Bao Shui, as crafty as you two were." He turned around, and gestured grandly out the window. "I couldn't be more proud of what we accomplished."

"...What?" Ren asked. "Proud?"

"You killed THOUSANDS of people!" Kylie screamed.

It still wasn't registering, and the lieutenant answered for him. "We saved *millions," she coldly retorted.

"You doomed the entire planet," Ren quietly argued. Do they still not get it?

Before anyone snapped again, Korra squeezed Kylie's shoulder, and stepped forward. "Ren told me what happened to your families, how Hou-Ting crushed them right in front of you... I can't imagine what that was like."

"You cannot," the lieutenant agreed.

Giam turned away, looking back at the courtyard to hide his weak expression. "The Queen ordered us to guard the bodies in the courtyard, day and night, for months. We had to watch them decay away."

Jinora blanched. "That's awful."

"And any sign of emotion would mean punishment for our fellow soldiers," the lieutenant bitterly remembered, still tense.

"...You were never allowed to grieve," Korra realized.

"Don't pretend you understand!" Giam snapped. "You've inflicted the same terror on others! I heard your threats, and saw your trail of destruction!"

"No Earth Kingdom family will suffer under that kind of cruelty, not while our unit survives," the lieutenant agreed.

Could they not see the irony?

...No, Korra realized. Not long ago, she couldn't either. "I've lost family too. I couldn't handle it, and... yeah. I do have a trail of bodies behind me." She looked back up. "But I found something in the Spirit World that gave me some clarity. Can I show you?" Giam glared at her suspiciously. "I swear, on all my past lives, I'll bring you back here, safe and sound. Please, let me show you this one thing," Korra pleaded, gesturing towards the door.

Giam looked around, then at Tenzin and Jinora, who nodded in confirmation. He picked up the radio. "If we don't respond by dusk, you know what to do."

xXx

The General was a bit surprised to ride 'Aurora,' the spirit he met before, into the sky, and she was in such a somber mood. Were the spirits not on his side? Of course they are, he told himself, just... not these spirits. Or the Avatar's spirits.

They flew over the Northern Water Tribe, through the Spirit Portal, and landed just on the other side. "This is the Tree of Time," Korra introduced, leading them up into its cavity. Big spirits flew through the skies above, and little ones fluttered around the group in a swirl. The normally desolate landscape was green, vibrant, and bright with the energy, especially so close to the summer solstice.

"Its roots bind the spirit and physical worlds together," Tenzin added. "I read that long ago, the ancients would meditate beneath this tree and connect with the energy of the universe."

"Yeah, well, we don't have to wonder anymore," Korra dryly commented, sitting down cross-legged. "Sit." Giam and his lieutenant sat down, and Korra closed her eyes. "Tenzin's right. The Tree of Time is connected to everything. It *remembers* everything."

Korra exhaled, her runes flashing on her chest with her breath, and the roots faintly glowed under the Avatar's power. Images of a little Water Tribe girl running around flashed into everyone's mind, not unlike a waking dream. "Who is this?" Giam asked.

"Phoebe," Korra softly explained, then took another slow breath. "My friend. My adopted sister. My heart, when I was struggling to find a reason to live." She let the dream drift. Happy moments floated by, like Korra picking Phoebe up and spinning around, crying together, scavenging and eating together, bounding around on Naga... She was family. Then Korra ran into the workshop, and found Phoebe frozen in ice.

"Who would do that?" the lieutenant asked.

"Gangsters, to spite me. I wanted to kill every last one of them, so I *did*." The vision shifted to Kuru's cargo ship crumpling like a tin can, screams echoing over the dark water.

"Justice," Giam affirmed.

"Yeah, I thought so, too," Korra admitted with some shame. "But the Tree of Time doesn't just show memories. It lets you feel people you've connected with, and especially those you loved, and see things like they do."

The collective dream shifted to Phoebe herself, face frozen in fear as she suffocated. "She was so scared," Korra softly murmured. "But do you feel that, when she's looking at Ren just before she passed?"

"It's worry... for you, and him." Giam realized.

Korra sighed longingly, and the vision shifted again.

"Where are we now?" the lieutenant asked.

"Laghima's Peak," Korra explained. The sight of Zaheer made Tenzin and Jinora squirm. "Zaheer took the Air Nation hostage and drugged me. I thought I would never wake up, and oh, did I want him dead. But those last moments, well..."

They saw it, more clearly than with Phoebe. "That faded away," Giam observed.

"My parents, Tenzin's family, Naga, Gommu, Phoebe, Asami, Sara, Ren... When I really thought I was going to die, there was no spite for Zaheer. I *desperately* wanted the people I love to live a full life without me. Then when I came here and felt that memory, I realized Phoebe felt the same way..." Korra sniffled and teared up. "I always thought she died in fear. But her last thought was hope that Ren and I would be happy."

Ren knew where this was going. Korra held his hand and let him steer the shared dream.

Giam saw himself give the order to burn Ren's parents alive. Both of them, especially Ishaani, were so defiant, yet they felt the same thing in their last moments, hope for their children. And in the sibling's hearts... fear. More than they ever showed.

"We were so scared of you," Kylie softly confessed.

Then the test flashed by, as did the destruction of Bao Shui. "We ran from you for the rest of our lives, Giam. Then Zaheer showed up, threatening everything I love *again*... It was too much. I shut down. I felt like I had to wipe him off the face of the Earth, and make it all go away."

"You used your own design to save the Avatar," the lieutenant pointed out. "That was justice."

"That's no the point," Korra countered.

Ren nodded. "We shut everything out. Korra and I were in a terrible place, with more power than any person should have."

"And we used it for vengeance. But you can't see how much that blinds you, Giam, because you're still stuck there," Korra earnestly pleaded.

"I know what I'm doing," Giam firmly insisted.

"We do too," Korra agreed. "You're hurt. You're running."

"You're disconnecting," Ren continued. "Believe me, we get it. But you have to look at what you're doing, and what your family would want-"

"I see clearer than ever!" Giam snapped. "I know *exactly* what I'm doing, and why! I'm saving the Earth Kingdom for my family!"

"From who?" Jinora gently asked. "You're the only leader we're engaged with."

Giam shook his head. "From Hou-Ting's legacy! From tyranny that plagued it for centuries! Can't you see?

"Hou-Ting was deposed," Tenzin calmly stated.

"And she corrupted everything she touched!" He glared at the Avatar. "All while the Avatar stood by."

"Don't think we missed your trail of destruction," the lieutenant said. "We *remember* why we do this."

"I know you do," Korra calmly replied. "But instead of reliving that moment in the courtyard, let the Tree help. Go back, and see."

Giam resisted, but the lieutenant, enticed by the sight of her family, let go, and drifted back. She saw her husband, her sister, parents, crushed, and felt that familiar shock and rage. But here, she could feel what her family was thinking too, one by one. In all their last moments... "They were thinking about us, not the Queen," she realized. "Even with Hou-Ting glaring down at them, they weren't angry, they didn't want justice. All they wanted was for me to live out the rest of my days, happy..."

"When you're at death's door, you realize that's all that matter," Ren agreed.

Giam shook his head, but his mind was racing. "I know that! I'm restoring order! I'm doing it FOR them, and so many more! It's my sacred duty!"

Korra let that outburst float away. "You sound like some Red Lotus I've met. 'Let go your earthly tether. Enter the void. Empty and become wind.'"

"Guru Laghima," Tenzin recognized.

"And what Zaheer recited to me," Korra added. "He let go, yet he *couldn't* forget what he saw, and live in peace. That detachment let him kidnap the Air Nomads he loved, because he thought it was his duty." Korra's runes grew brighter, and her voice echoed with her past lives. "Stop running, Giam! Feel for your family. Look at what you've done! You have to see!"

The Tree of Time flared with Korra's power, roots glowing brighter, and gave Giam the gentle nudge he needed to pierce the thick dam in his mind. He saw flashes of executions, of bombs frying his own soldiers and innocent civilians, of *everything*. He felt their anguish, and their last moments, wishing Giam would stop and leave their loved ones alone, all while the Avatar spoke.

"A wise friend reminded me what being the Avatar means. I can't disconnect. I can't blindly plan out duty, following some mission or ideology. I have to look around, look to others, and *feel* what my choices are doing to the world."

"And we do too, Giam," Ren agreed. "The tech we know gives us too much power to shut down and ignore what we've done. You have to remember!"

Tears streamed down Giam's face. Connected through the tree, Ren and Korra spoke in eerie unison. "You have to SEE!"

The sharded vision bounced to the mountains of Zaofu, to Bao Shui, to his resurgence here, to all the people he killed, overwhelming everyone with a flood of carnage. Giam felt what he had shut out, all the pain, all the suffering, and even worse, the fear and grief of those he killed, and those who survived.

He knows that feeling too well, and he inflicted it upon *millions*.

It was too much.

"That's enough!" Giam roared, shooting up and stumbling out of the cavity, catching his breath. "...That's enough. Take us back, Avatar."

"But-"

"NOW!"

xXx

Sitting behind Giam on Astraea, Korra felt awful. He seemed even more broken than before, sniffling like a child. Did she go too far? "Giam-"

Giam put up a hand, shook his head, rubbed his temples, and pulled out a portable radio. Korra tensed up as he pressed the button. "This is General Giam. Acknowledge."

A hundred clicks came back. "We hear you, General," one replied.

"...Our mission is complete," Giam declared. "Destroy the bombs, permanently."

"Sir?" someone asked.

"There are no more tyrants to fight. Destroy the bombs, yield the states' authority to the Avatar, and disperse. Carry on with your lives, like your families would have wanted... That's an order."

"Seconded," the lieutenant added with hers. "That's an order."

There was a silence, then more clicks of acknowledgment. "Glory to the Earth Kingdom," someone solemnly declared.

"Glory to the Earth Kingdom," Giam repeated, and shut it off.

Korra let out a breath she'd been holding all week. "Thank you."

He barely nodded. "Aurora... Astraea. Great spirit, I have a favor to ask."

"Anything."

"Drop me off at my command center. Please."

xXx

Back in his bunker under the shop, Korra watched Giam poke through his desk, collecting personal effect. But she didn't hover or hound him. Holding a little doll in his hands, it looked like he was about to collapse, not plot an escape.

What on Earth is she gonna do with him? She could punt Giam to an Assembly trial, but what if he said something about the bombs or spirit vines? He's not exactly stable. As much as it pained her to consider, maybe the White Lotus could put him in a special prison. But whoever deals with him, she'd make sure they knew what Hou-Ting did, and that they'd give Giam the chance to mourn that he never had.

Maybe even rehabilitate him, in time.

...Yeah. She would have overthrown Hou-Ting herself, Korra decided. Kyoshi would have done it, for sure, and the Red Lotus were right about her.

Giam found a dusty picture of his family on a high shelf, and held it in his hand, lips quivering. He looked up to Kylie and Ren, expressions grim as they flipped through a stack of notes. Their faces had replaced his own children in his mind, something he didn't even realize until the Tree of Time showed him.

The General opened his mouth to apologize, but what could be said? He took their family. He took their home. What could Hou-Ting say to him that would make that better?

Nothing.

So Giam stepped outside, Avatar trailing behind, and let the Sun warm his face. It's like he hadn't felt its warmth in years, like he was waking up from a fever dream. But it was real.

They walked up beside the two great spirits staring into the courtyard. "That stain is horrible," Astraea commented. "Not even dark spirits spite the dead."

"Only void spirits," Aera shuddered.

"Do humans really do that to each other?" Astraea asked.

"More than they should..." Giam stepped up beside them. "Spirits. It true that all people, not just the Avatar, reincarnate? Their soul, their nature, does it carry over to the next life?"

"I've seen it," Aera nodded.

Korra put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. "Your family is living another life, Giam. All this is behind them."

"Good. I'm glad." Maybe all the people he killed would find peace too, but the living... Ren and Kylie still bore their scars, after all these years. How many more families did he break? How many survivors were like the siblings, or worse, like him? What could he possibly do to give them peace?

Nothing.

"...There's no path forward for me."

"There is. You've already made good choices today, Giam," Korra gently urged. "And no matter what anyone says, I'm going to help you heal."

Giam couldn't make eye contact. "Why? I've deeply wounded your friends, the world, the nature you embody. What motivation could you possibly have?"

"Because I'm sick of these cycles of hate! Aren't you? They've ruined everything, and I'm not passing that on unless I have no choice."

A noble sentiment. He was wrong, this Avatar is no tyrant, and he saw how much she values family in her memories. She'd help this world heal.

Giam stepped out to the spot where his family was crushed, pulled out their picture, looked upon it, face grim. He couldn't give them what they wanted... But he could end another cycle of hate. "May the Earth guide my spirit."

Oh no. "Giam-"

As fast as Korra could blink, Giam closed his eyes, bent two square slabs of earth up, and rolled his head between him, snapping his neck.

"NO!" Korra screamed, catching him before he hit the ground.

Everyone heard the commotion, and ran out. "Giam!" the lieutenant wailed, kneeling down and cupped his head. "General!"

Jinora cried and hugged her dad. The spirits turned black. Ren and Kylie stood there, agape, awash with emotions they couldn't possibly process as their nightmare laid at their feet. The Avatar lowered him to the ground, with her own tears falling into him.

"May your soul go in peace." Korra exhaled and closed his eyes. "I hope you find it, Giam."

xXx

Having lost one of her last friends on top of everything, the lieutenant was inconsolable. Korra gave her space to process inside while Jinora tried to comfort her. Ren and Kylie were in even worse shape, hugging each other and sobbing just around the corner as years of their grief, freshly exposed, came pouring out.

The Avatar moved back to the courtyard, and stomped her foot in rage, turning that wretched, bloody stain to bright lava, and back to stone, burning it away like someone should have done years ago. Then she raised a huge block of granite in the center of the courtyard, from deep in the Earth, and etched letters into it.

Tenzin walked up behind her, squinting at her writing. "'Here marks where hearts were crushed by the cold tyranny of Hou-Ting. Where the Night War began, and ended. Where a tragedy turned into a calamity, and a loving father lost his way. May it remind us that cruelness ripples outward, so that this never happens again,'" he read.

"I know. Giam's the worst war criminal the world has ever seen. But he never got a chance to heal." Korra sadly looked to Tenzin "People should remember that, right? Am I crazy for thinking that?"

"No. You are not." Tenzin put a reassuring hand on Korra's shoulder. "You've grown so much, Korra."

Korra put her hand on his. "Yeah, well, it doesn't make this stuff any easier."

Tenzin sighed sadly. "It never does."

Korra nodded, and let a few tears fall for the monster, and the man, who was General Giam.