Letters From Iroh

Allies

The plane veered to the right, back towards the spirit, where I could see my boyfriend and The Avatar holding their own pretty well. They needed back up, though. Iroh more than her. He had almost drowned. "This is the best I can do!" I was literally hanging on. "It's now or never, but we'll be back soon. Ma-Ling." She nodded, as her new ally bent a section of not at all nearby stone in the direction of the fight. Dang. While the spirit didn't pay it any mind, it alerted Korra. She turned and saw us.

"She'll help you." Ma-Ling punched me again. I took it she did that out of affection. Did all earthbenders act this way? They were so tough. Maybe I liked that about them after all. "She's badass."

"Am I?" Why, Bao? I wanted to hit myself. Why'd I ask something so stupid in the middle of a fight?

She laughed. "Damn! I was wrong. You are too spoiled for your own good." She leaned closer to me. "Go on. Fight, Sugar Queen. Stop asking everyone else if you're worth it." She looked my insignificant injuries, and smirked. "Now!"

I closed my eyes as I felt myself fall over the edge of the plane, the wind whipping around me yet again. I wondered how many times I'd have to do this in the future. I hit the water before I could think much on it, though.

It was warm, and I made it back to the surface quickly, close enough to where Korra and Iroh were still fighting with all they had. I did need to fight, and I had to do it now. Simply enough, I propelled myself toward them, and though I would have been worried about what I'd look like, my head sticking out of the water, like an oddly animate wolf-dog, (and I still was embarrassed, and not that deep down either), I couldn't afford to care. I was close enough to them to thrust myself upward by freezing some of the water under me, and I landed more gracefully than I expected to at the foot of my actual hero.

"Bao!" My other hero smiled, his hair matted and salty, his breathing not much better than before. Yeah. He needed my help. Wow. I couldn't believe it. "You came!"

"Of course I did." I shook my head, the water dried a bit, and I laughed, noting how I probably looked even more like a wolf-dog than before. "Are you seriously surprised? I'd never just bail on you."

He frowned. Oh. Right. Korra broke in, and the tense response to my poorly implemented choice of words was short-lived. "Good to know. We need waterbenders. There's less of you then I thought there'd be, even in the Fire Nation."

"The United Forces needs to up their recruiting efforts." Iroh laughed. "Expand them to include more of the less powerful elements." He shot a blast of lighting toward the swirling black entity, perhaps to prove a point, and Korra responded with an ice attack of her own. Were they showing off? If they were it was in jest, like this was fun. I'd seen people make jokes while fighting, and I'd always found it endearing, the camaraderie and trust between allies was uplifting, but I'd never been able to do it.

"I'm sure-" she yelled, now using lighting, herself, alternating between blasts of air and water. I noticed she was standing on an overturned section of what was once someone's relaxing cabana. Iroh looked to be standing on a floating lifeboat. I was on something I couldn't identify but it was billowy enough to loosely link us all together. The ships were on the other side of the island, too far away to be useful. The spirit had dragged the fight away from where it'd be overpowered. We were far from where we'd been. There wasn't any earth to work with nearby, and I didn't see any metal within range either. Not every earthbender could use it anyhow. "That-" she ducked out of the way as a slab of flaming wood crashed into the waves beside her. "You're joking, but Bao!" She shouted, as I moved out of the way myself. An onslaught of debris had come on. The island really was polluted. "Tag in!" I bent my place on the odd structure forward, as it was somehow fluid enough to do so on my end without moving theirs much. I was fully prepared to help, without question. Still, I was uncertain, confused, and scared. I hoped I didn't have to take over for anyone. Please still use your waterbending too, Korra.

The wind and rain calmed and the spirit began to dissipate. It batted it's hand at the beach moving us all a bit closer, as more junk flew into the water. It then receded into the sea, making its way somewhere else. I had so many questions now! My previous unrelenting determination to do whatever I could to help now meant understanding this whole thing, which was even bigger than I knew. I'd have to fight on all fronts.

I didn't know what to say as I heard the sound of more planes approaching. We'd moved closer to the shore, and I could see more UF soldiers as well, all of them surprised. Asami was returning with support from her allies, and she'd done so quickly, but it was too late for anyone to keep up this battle.

Still, the fight wasn't over by a long shot, and as I glanced at Iroh, Korra breathing raggedly, I wondered where it was headed. I hoped it wouldn't take us far, that terror wouldn't come to more people, but that seemed in vain. We'd have to see this trough, and it didn't look like that thing had any intention of staying nearby, as it'd so easily taken us far from shore already. We'd learned from that though. We wouldn't be so quickly isolated again. We needed to come up with a plan, a strategy, one that'd cover all sides, no matter how far away this took us.

I'd be needing my maps, I just knew it.