I stood in the back room with Kya as we tried to keep Jinora's energy flowing, but she didn't have much more time. I was doing everything I knew of, but we were barely denting it. We need to find Katara and hope she could do more.
I walked out with Kya to talk with Tenzin, "as soon as we reach the Southern Water Tribe, we'll blast through the blockade at the main portal. Then we can rendezvous with Tonraq and his troops, crash through the defenses around the portal, and enter the Spirit World."
"Woah! Since when does my little brother wanna crash or blast through anything?" Kya asked.
"I'll do whatever it takes to save my daughter."
"We all want to save Jinora, but I think your plan might be a tad over-aggressive, seeing as there are only seven of us and one ship," Buki said.
"Really? And what do you suggest?" Tenzin asked.
"An attack like this calls for strategy. I remember when I was surrounded by pirates at the Hurricane Straits. We managed to capture them all, with just a feather, two eggs and a barrel of molasses," Buki said.
"I don't want to hear any of your crazy stories now! This is serious!" Tenzin said. Asami walked towards us, along with Bolin and Mako.
"Are we almost there?" I asked.
"Almost, but I just picked up a distress signal from the southern troops. There's a problem."
**********
I walked in with Tenzin to help Katara with Jinora, "where is my mother?"
"She's in the healing hut. So many injured," Senna said as she led us inside.
"What happened?" Katara asked as she ran to us.
"Her soul is trapped in the Spirit World," Tenzin said.
"Oh my goodness! How long has she been away?" Katara asked.
"Almost a week. We've tried to keep her energy flowing, but..." I said.
"I can feel her slipping away. You're the only one who can help her now mom," Kya said.
"Yue, help me with her," Katara ordered. I nodded as we took her to a pool and set her in. Katara and I began to heal her, but we didn't do much more good.
"How much longer can she survive like this?" Tenzin asked.
"I don't know, but she is very strong to have lasted this long," Katara said. We walked outside as Katara continued and found Korra.
"I talked to the rebels. They said Unalaq's got the southern portal surrounded.Harmonic Convergence is only a few hours away," Korra said.
"Then we have to break through the enemy lines ourselves and get to the portal now," Tenzin said.
"There's no use in talking anymore. We know what our mission is," Korra said.
"A suicide mission," Bolin said.
"You know, I was in a similar situation once. My platoon had crawled through the desert with no water for a week! But when we finally located the only oasis for a hundred miles, it was surrounded by angry sandbenders. I realized our only chance to get to the water was to drop in from above. So I fashioned together a catapult, and with the help of a few well-trained hog monkeys," Bumi said.
"Enough of your ridiculous lies! Can't you see that the fate of the world and Jinora's life depends on what we do here today?!" Tenzin said angrily.
"Hold on, maybe Bumi's right. We don't have a catapult and hog monkeys, but we have a flying bison and there's a plane on Varrick's ship. Maybe we can attack from above," Asami said.
"What are you thinking?" Korra asked.
"Mako, Bolin and I can use the plane to create a distraction and scatter some of the defenses. You, Yue, Tenzin, Bumi and Kya can fly into the spirit portal on Oogi when you see an opening."
"Let's get moving," Korra said.
***********
"There are spirits everywhere. I don't see an opening," I said to the others as I stood on top of Oogi.
"Let's circle around and see if we can find a way in from the other side," Tenzin said as dark spirits attacked us. "Hold on! The spirits are weighting Oogi down! We're losing altitude!"
"Get off of him you sticky, nasty little blob of goo!" Bumi said kicking the spirit and then he fell off. "If I go, you're coming with me!"
"Bumi!" Kya shouted. Unfortunately, Bumi's sacrifice didn't help much. I held onto Oogi as we plummeted to the ground, but then everything went black.
********
I woke up to see Asami, Mako, and Bolin get thrown into the tent. Along with all of the others already there, and then Unalaq walked in. "Congratulations, everyone. You've all got front row seats for the beginning of a new world order."
"You don't know what you're doing Unalaq. Freeing Vaatu won't make you powerful, it will only make you a traitor to everything good that's happened over the last ten thousand years," Korra said.
"You think what Avatar Wan did was good? Driving almost all the spirits from this world? The Avatar hasn't brought balance, only chaos. You call yourself the bridge between the two worlds, but there shouldn't be a bridge: we should live together as one," Unalaq said.
"Even if Vaatu escapes, I'll put him right back in his prison, just like Wan did," Korra said.
"It's true that when Wan fused with Raava he tipped the scales in her favor, but this time I'll be here to level the playing field. When Harmonic Convergence comes, I will fuse with Vaatu, and together we will become the new Avatar: a Dark Avatar. Your era is over," Unalaq said.
"Think about what you're doing. I know that you've always had a deep connection with the spirits, but you're still a man. You're still my brother, you're Eska and Desna's father. Are you willing to throw your humanity away to become a monster?" Tonraq said to his brother, trying to reason with him.
"I'll be no more of a monster than your own daughter. The only difference is that while she can barely recognize her own spiritual power, I will be in complete alignment with mine. Vaatu and I will be as one. No one will be able to stand against us," Unalaq said.
"Keep them locked up. After the Harmonic Convergence, I will come for Korra," Tonraq said to his children.
"Yes, father."
"I failed in every way. We've lost Jinora forever," Tenzin said.
"There's still a chance. They didn't get Bumi," Kya said.
"Eska, Desna, listen to me," Korra said. You've got to help us stop Unalaq. I know he's your father, but Vaatu has made him completely crazy."
"We will never turn on our father," Eska said.
"If you let me out now, I can still stop him from destroying everything."
"Once he fuses with Vaatu, no one will be safe. Desna, he won't be your father anymore," I said softly.
"You don't know what you're talking about! Our father is the wisest man in the world. If he says what he is doing is right, I believe him," Desna said.
I glared at him, "your father has told you a lot of things. But you both know that not all of them were the right thing."
They didn't say anything, a few minutes later Bumi came hurtling in on a chair and knocked them over. They stood up glaring at him, but then Naga and Pabu came in and knocked them down again.
"Bumi, how did you manage to take out this entire encampment on your own?" Tenzin asked as Bumi untied us.
"I did it all with my trusty flute and-ah, never mind, you wouldn't believe it anyway. Let's get moving," Bumi said as we ran to the portal.
"You run into the portal, I'll try to hold off anyone who comes after you," Tonraq said to us.
"No, you're too hurt, you need a healer," Korra said. "Asami, can you take Oogi and my dad back to my mom?" Asami nodded and ran off to get Oogi. "This is my fight now."
"Korra, I love you."
"I love you too dad."
"Let's get going," I said as I bowed to Tonraq and Korra and I ran off.
"Once we're inside, you go find Jinora," Korra said to Tenzin and his siblings. "Mako and Bolin will take care of Unalaq, while Yue and I close the portal so Vaatu can't escape."
"Wait a second. Worst-case scenario: so we're fighting Unalaq, you close the portals and let's just say something happens to you. Are we going to be trapped in there for eternity?" Bolin asked.
"If everything goes as planned, we'll all walk out together after Harmonic Convergence. If not..." Korra said.
"Let's go," I said as we walked through the portal.
"Tenzin, go find Jinora!" Korra said to Tenzin as we faced off against Unalaq. And then the fight began, Korra began to fight as I ran towards the portal and started to try to close it. Korra joined me and we worked together.
"You're running out of time, Raava," Vaatu said. "I know you feel it coming."
*************