| By Gingalover | Genre | Rating | Reviews | Updates |
| More from Gingalover | adventure | PG | Here | No update page |
Outside, Asami had finally begun to notice the result of being captured by Taar: Korra finally losing herself in the Avatar State. While Taar began to move around a little again, Korra was going completely ballistic on the Voronon, attacking it from any direction she could catch. She attacked with every single amount of power, and every attack she could do. A fire blast here, an ice stab there, a ring of rock slicing Taar in another spot, but nothing seemed to effect Taar all that much. However, unlike all the other attacks everyone else tried to do, Taar took account of Korra's fighting and tried to keep her at bay with its tentacle attacking. Korra kept either burning or slicing away at Taar's tentacles just enough to keep herself from getting constricted and tossed aside. Taar continued to destroy the buildings with the same tentacles time and time again as it moved, ruining more and more of the city in its wake. The others down bellow tried to fight as well, using whatever firepower they got but had a similar effect on Taar. While they were going at it, Asami was trying to run as fast as she could to find Korra and the others on Taar. However, considering how ginormous Taar was, that could take an all day run just to reach that far. As Asami continued running, Korra was lashing out with all her strength at Taar's head, making Taar a bit agitated throughout the whole thing.
While Taar was having its own difficulty, it could feel Asami running along its back towards the noises. Instead of keeping her, though, Taar actually gave her its version of a boost: the tentacles wrapping around her body and pulling her forward. Asami wasn't hurt from the sudden pull, but next thing she knew, she ended up by one of Taar's wings. Asami was set easily on the wing, the girl running out as much as she could. While she was, she could see Korra flying around Taar, trying to fry off Taar's face as much as she could.
"KORRA, OVER HERE!" Asami called, but she was too far away for Korra to hear her. Korra continued to blast as much fire at Taar as she could, scorching one side almost completely. Taar groaned a little bit from its scorched state, its left eyes being burned away completely. Asami ran along the smooth wing, which felt like the skin of a dolphin or a whale, trying to get Korra's attention before she could completely annihilate Taar while she was on it. If Taar were to fall over now, not only would Asami and everyone else risk instant death, but also the whole downtown area would collapse, even more so than it already had.
"KORRA!" Asami called again. Still, no response from Korra. Asami was starting to get more worried, and it was even harder to balance herself on Taar's smooth fins. Asami was too far away for anyone to see her, or to help her. All she could do was try her best to get anyone's attention while avoiding falling from the height she was on. The strong wind flowing passed Taar's fins didn't help her out either, having to fight the wind just to stay on. However, the strong gusts were enough to push her around more and more. Suddenly the wind became far too powerful, and she ended up launched around, tumbling and sliding on the fin. It made her go far but not enough to be blown off, though it was rather close. Out among the fight, Korra failed to notice Asami in peril while trying to scorch Taar alive. How dare it capture Asami?! Far down on the ground, all of the people tried to slow Taar down and were actually making some sort of progress on it, to the expense of more of the city being destroyed. Thanks to the multiple attacks, Taar's legs looked like they were ready to snap off completely, looking like blue Swiss cheese. Taar knew it was in a little bit of troubl, and could sense Asami having trouble with balancing on its fin. Even with one eye gone, it knew where she was, and its tentacles came alive again. However, they were over by Korra instead of Asami, most likely because Korra was closer to it than Asami was.
"Get away, you monster!" Korra screeched, fighting off whatever tentacle came close to her. Unlike before, Taar wasn't trying to move her away, it was just trying to reach her. However, since Korra was in her Avatar State, Korra couldn't exactly control her anger against the monster. Taar noticed her flying away from it after a bit, so it quickly did a sneak-attack on her, one smaller tentacle hair suddenly shooting out and connecting with her forehead. Korra was ready to fight, but, Taar suddenly gave her an unexpected gift: a vision. The vision was short and didn't even show any past or future events. Instead, it showed her where Asami was, showing her trying to balance, but a strong gust of wind getting her blown off. Asami grabbed hold of Taar's wing, barely holding on, when the vision ended. Korra suddenly grew a little tired, as the Avatar State faded away, Taar catching her in its gentle grip. The glow in Korra's eyes faded away, the orb also being removed before Korra looked to Taar's scorched eye.
"You ... You didn't kill her ..." Taar responded thanks to its tentacle, which nodded no in front of her.
"W-where is she?!" Korra asked, a bit more urgent that time. The tentacle pointed back to the wing, Korra immediately starting to fly off with her airbending as fast as she could. Meanwhile, Asami was going through that same situation the vision showed: hanging on for dear life. Korra flew as quickly as she could, keeping herself up with airbending while boosting herself forward with firebending thrusters on her feet and hands for good measure. Asami was dangling on the end of Taar's wing, slipping inch by inch as Korra flew to her aid. Asami struggled more to get herself up, not even daring to glance down to the ground, trying to be strong. However, Asami's grip finally became lost, and in a sudden click, she began to plummet. Korra saw her start to fall but was still far away and began to kick it into high gear to reach her.
The fall felt in slow motion for Asami, as she stared right up into the sky at where she used to be, unsure of when she would hit the ground. She didn't know if Korra saw her or not, but even if she did (or if anyone did), who would end up saving her from this crisis? Her heart was racing, her eyes stayed wide in fear, yet she didn't scream a word. While she couldn't say it didn't happened before, à la her involvement way back in the Spirit Library, but this was different: she didn't plan it, no one was close, and she was WAY farther up. Asami could feel another sensation hit her as she fell to her death. It was like they always say ... her life flashed before her eyes ...
Her flashing life stretched her back to her younger days, going through many events in her life she held dear to her, but showed events she never wanted to remember again. One of those was her mother getting killed by a triad member when she was little. Another showed her of her training in self-defense sometime afterward. Then came the event where she first met Mako (or rather, hit him). Some more visions showed her romantic time with Mako, from dinner at Kwong's Cuisine, to the ride through central park. Other flashes showed her in a race with Korra but then showed rougher times again, which included when she got arrested for breaching curfew and breaking up with Mako. Another flash showed her defeating her own father and putting him into jail near the end of the Equalists involvement with the city.
Her flashes continued onward to other times afterwards, when she first worked with Varrick, the involvement with him and her industry, and the events going through during the Harmonic Convergence. Visions continued on more and more, showing her with Korra to find the airbenders, and her events within Zaofu, but also showed her fighting the bandits alongside Korra, as a favor to the Queen of Ba Sing Se, then showed her getting arrested by the same authority. A harsher flash of her involvement in Si Wong Desert also showed itself to her, especially when they almost got eaten by the sand shark. Her flashing life continued onward, from her assistance in the air temple, to the ceremony at Air Temple Island, comforting a crippled Korra before it began.
Her flashes then showed the development of the city under her help, and the respect she gained upon cutting that ribbon for the grand opening of the station of Republic City, along with a rather bitter moment with facing her father once again. Her flashes continued to her reunion with Korra and rescue of Prince Wu. The flashes continued far off into her involvement and showed her struggle during Kuvira's invasion, and when she lost her father for good during the whole thing, a vision she wished she didn't have to see again.
The next set of flashes showed her and Korra's vacation within the Spirit World, both sides having a good time throughout the entire time, and her involvement with helping expand Republic City as promised by Raiko. The flashes next showed her and Korra first confronting Ziyou, and her trip back to the North Pole to help with the Qishi. The next strong set of flashes all summed up her trip in the Fire Nation, showing her state with the Qishi, and her support to Korra. She also saw the flash of her going through the forest after their airship crashed, reaching Sekitan, and meeting Hotaru for the first time. She saw herself with Chi and helping in defeating El Niño.
Next, she saw when she accepted Hotaru in Future industries, and the project on the new aircraft taking place, and showed her first encounter with the Voronon, Shuvirra. Asami saw her adventures in fighting the Voronon on her travels; Clivuuk, Gronihag, Yiplov, Awadil, Liunovvix, Toroon, and Armophlli...
And after all that, it led her back to the very same place. Falling to her doom from Taar's wing. In the end, after everyone she met, befriended, fought, and beaten, after everything she'd gone through ... She had only one thought ...
"... I'm sorry, everyone ... Bolin ... Mako ... Korra ... Goodbye ..."
Asami closed her eyes, which were streaming tears by that point, as she waited for the impact to come from the fall she had to face no matter what she did. As she fell, Korra was flying so fast towards her, she might as well smash the sound barrier by now. Going like a comet in the sky, Korra targeted directly on Asami, going as fast as she could to reach her.
"ASAMI!" Korra yelled. The voice made Asami open her eyes, turning her head to see Korra flying at her. Korra slowed down a little bit but was fast enough to finally catch her, grabbing hold of her upon impact. After grabbing her, Korra redirected her propulsion to slow the fall as best she could, though the G-forces made that extremely difficult to do. Finally, Korra released the strongest airbending kick she could ever do, and then, finally, it slowed down the fall. Thank Raava for that, they were feet away from the next building bellow Taar. A bit rough, but Korra landed down onto he building with Asami in her grip, both girls realizing that they were still alive after everything. Taar sensed that Asami was alright after her fall and gave a triumphant bellowing roar.
"Korra ... You saved me ..." Asami and Korra hugged each other tight, as Taar then began another surprising act, regeneration. Slowly but surely, vine-like growths started to heal its wounds and started filling the holes in its legs, and regenerating the deep wounds on its face, restoring its previously blinded eye. Everyone who saw that felt deeply shocked; after all of their attacks, Taar simply removed the wounds in a matter of minutes, while giving it those wounds took nearly hours. If everyone wasn't ready to give up (if not, completely discouraged) before, they were now.
"What? NO, keep firing!" Lin demanded, trying her best to stop it with her attacks, but the beast healed far quicker than she could damage, and its once Swiss cheese of legs turned back to normal in no time at all. How could they beat a colossus that size that could heal itself?! After seeing that, Korra returned with Asami, down to ground level, as Taar destroyed a couple more buildings with its deadly tentacles. It was painfully obvious to everyone that, no matter what, Taar wasn't going to go away anytime soon ...
"Asami! You're alright!" Kuvira gasped, upon seeing Asami well. Or rather, at least not worse than she already was. Asami looked up to her friends, all looking in worry. She finally knew what Taar wanted her to know and got up to her feet ...
"... Let's go ..."
The most unlikely thing ever said by any of the team, let alone Asami Sato. Leave? And let Republic City be destroyed by Taar?! However, the group was already a bit discouraged by the healing bit anyway, even if they tried to topple it as best they could. Taar itself continued moving north, moving away buildings and spirit trees as it went. Sadly, after nearly the whole day of fight it with little effect, there was nothing left they could do...
Taar sensed that the group below it had decided to go and actually gave one more "helping hand" in that regard. Even if they never asked for it, it was the least it could do. From its healed leg, a ton of hairs suddenly went out, surrounding the entire group after a little bit. Everyone was ready to fight, but they were wrapped up very quickly before anyone could do anything. The hairs turned into an orb around everyone, the entire group concealed within the closed orb. None of them could see what was happening, but they could feel themselves suddenly rise off the ground at a very fast speed, G-forces strong enough to pin them to the floor. What Taar was doing was bringing them up in the sky. Once they were high enough, Taar rallied up and threw the orb off as far as it could away from the city. The orb went flying like it was a comet going through the sky. Everyone inside braced for whatever impact was going to be, when they suddenly hit something hard. The orb didn't break apart upon the impact, and everyone within the orb wasn't injured either. About a minute after landing, the orb rotted away, allowing everyone else to see where they were. Everyone was literally on the mountains, looking down to Republic City as Taar started destroying the city a bit more vigorously now that they were gone, more buildings being destroyed and flattened...
~~
Sometime later, as it turned out, the entire group had landed near the evacuation area, seeing the residents of Republic City awaiting for Korra's word to return. All of them started to return to the group, the first to see them being the air family, Raiko, and Desna. President Raiko came forward first, despite the rough looks on everyone's face.
"Avatar, grand to see you again! Tenzin told me you arrived," Raiko explained. The group didn't say anything at first. Before they could, that all heard the echoing call from Taar across the mountains.
"What? It's still alive? What happened?!" Raiko asked, urgently. Everyone wasn't sure exactly how to put it, but eventually Kuvira gave him the bad news up front to avoid any dramatic silence.
"We can't defeat Taar. It's too strong for all of us to take. The only thing we can do is let it go," Kuvira concluded. Of course, Raiko was not happy about it.
"You can't ditch my city like this! Thousands of people live there, they depend on you!"
"Raiko, no matter what we did, it barely worked on it!" Kuvira protested.
"You're all we have left, the city needs you! Lin, your men can fight it, right?!"
"Raiko, do you think it's easy for me to admit I can't? My men could barely scratch that thing for the life of them," Lin admitted, not even looking at Raiko's eyes. Lin wanted to finish off Taar, but she was no idiot. Raiko looked to Korra next in worry.
"Avatar?"
"... Not even the Avatar State did very much on Taar. It healed itself after everything we've done ... I don't think there's anything left we can do ..."
That did it. That confession had officially proved it: Korra had given up. It wasn't the first time Korra had given up in the face of the enemy: after facing her first threat in Republic City, she lost her bending, yet still used her airbending to win. Korra also gave in back during the Harmonic Convergence, upon the Dark Avatar's revival, but still defeated Unavaatu in the end thanks to Jinora and Raava's help. Ever since then, Korra hadn't chosen the card to give up on her enemy. However, Taar was too much for her too take ...
Her power had found its limit.
Without saying anything else, Korra walked away from Raiko, only Mako, Bolin, Asami, and Ziyou following after her, leaving Jinora, Kai, Ikki, Kuvira, and Lin behind them. When Korra was ten feet away, another echoing bellow was overheard by everyone there, and for those who saw Avatar Korra going through, that wasn't a good sign ...
After a bit, Korra ended up isolating herself from the entire area, needing some time to herself to think over on how to proceed. She couldn't fight Taar, and she could hear Taar's roars and the destruction of the city, knowing she couldn't beat Taar. She simply sat there, on a highland near the viewpoint of the city, turned away, as she heard the others come up from behind her.
"Korra..."
"I lost."
"Come on, sister, it could be worse," Ziyou pointed out. Korra turned around in anger.
"No, it can't! That city is the beacon of freedom, Aang himself founded that city! Republic City is supposed to be the grand capital for all nations to live together, and now I can't do anything for it," Korra explained, her eyes watering more from the facts staring her in the face. Before they could do anything else, they all began to hear the roars again from Taar. However, these roars were a bit different than from before. Sometime later, they all began to hear something else: like a strong gust of sorts. Soon, a powerful blast of wind suddenly rushed by them all, along with a lot of dust. Ziyou was the first to start rushing up the mountain up to the viewpoint, rushing in her 4-legged style of running. Upon reaching that point, she was left speechless by the time Bolin and Asami caught up.
Their view upon Republic City left them unknown on words. Or rather, lack there of. Looking down from the mountain, Taar was standing there in the center of the area, but there was barely any trace of the city left. Literally every single area of Republic City was either destroyed, or disappeared entirely, most likely blown away. The area stretched around Taar was completely deprived of any buildings, and any left were destroyed. The only thing that remained normal from the city at all was the Aang memorial and the spirit portal where downtown used to be. The roads were still there, cracked up thanks to Taar, but everything else that wasn't nailed down (cars, buildings, etc.) was destroyed. Even some of the Spirit Wilds were simply stripped away from the ground. Taar gave a low groan as it stood within downtown, close to the portal.
"Well ... There goes the city ... Now what do we do?" Ziyou asked, a bit flabbergasted by the end result of Taar's destruction. Taar turned slowly, looking up to where Ziyou, Bolin, and Asami were. Asami stood there looking down from the mountain, as Taar gave one more final roar.
Something was happening to it.
Taar's body started to liquefy all over, as its eyes closed. All the physical features on Taar's body turned into gas, as it seeped out everywhere around the area that once was Republic City. Once its whole body completely turned into gas, the silver hair suddenly fell off of it, covering a large area of the portal, immediately turning into rotted vines. The fins liquefied into clear water, slamming hard within the watered down areas of Yue Bay. The mist released spread throughout the city, covering the area from view of the mountains ... Republic City had turned into misty ruins within a day. They didn't need to say anything to Korra and Mako, them already seeing the result of Taar's disappearance and transformation. As if not stopping Taar was rough on them enough, Republic City had turned into an uninhabitable area of the world. The group turned to Korra, who had her back turned after witnessing that...
"Korra? ..."
Korra didn't answer at first but eventually turned back to them, looking less sad and more formal.
"Listen. If we can't return to Republic City, then we have to relocate everyone to a new place to live," Korra announced. She knew Raiko wasn't going to enjoy that for the life of him, but it was the only thing they could do.
"What's going to happen now? None of us have a home anymore here," Ziyou asked, looking back to the once proud city. Sure, it was a slightly tactless move, pointing out the problem again, but Korra saw that coming. She turned to her twin sister.
"Most likely, we'll have to move back in with Mom and Dad. But right now, can you do me a favor and tell the others?" Korra asked. Ziyou nodded and quickly took off, as Asami went over to Korra.
"Korra? Looks like we got a lot of work to do, huh?"
"Yeah, it'll work out."
"I know it will. Korra, I can't thank you enough for saving me," Asami said.
"I'm just glad you're alive, Asami. When Kuvira told me what happened, I thought I'd lost you for good that time."
"Well, I'm still here. Now, let's go and help the others," Asami suggested. All Korra did was nod and went on back with Asami by her side. While they went, both girls held hands and smiled to one another as they went on back. They weren't sure what was in the future, but, no matter what it would be, they would go through it together. Themselves, and the rest of their team.
Team Avatar.
See more
For the collective works of the author, go here.