I'd felt conflicted before but never to this degree. I couldn't remember at time at which I ever actually hyperventilated, but I was sure about to.
Luckily enough, or perhaps unluckily, I didn't have time.
Asami and Ma-Ling were talking to me, and it took several moments for me to realise what they were saying.
"Bao! Bao! Hey!" Ma Ling punched my arm. I'm sure she'd been wanting to do that for a while, but I guess it was nicer than it'd be before the life-debt thing. I wonder if the effect would last forever.
"Ow!" It got my attention.
"We said we don't have time to land here- not for you, anyway!"
Well, damn. "Why not?" Am I that unimportant?
"Well," Asami broke in. "I can't bend, like I said, and Ma-Ling here is an earthbender." I gulped. Right. I'm the one who can dive back into the raging, torrential sea and gale force winds down there. Still, Iroh was with me last time, and I did save him. I supposed that I actually was the one who looks stronger to them, which was so odd at first, but then it began to help me overcome my fear. I'm the one who saved him, who saved Ma-Ling. I am strong! I've done this three times now. I cant keep doubting myself. I can be heroic. I know how. I took that to heart. I guess I really was getting better at self-validation. "And I know you've done this sort of thing before." Dang. Yeah, I was, but it helped to have a confirmation right away.
"How?" I wasn't stalling, but I was totally stalling. "How do you know that, Asami?" I actually wasn't sure how she did, what she knew about me.
"The papers, silly!" I found it simultaneously cute, infuriating and funny how she'd use a term like that at a time like this, though, she was one of the only people who I'd met that could get away with it. "You saved a whole ship! The same spirit, same thing- we trust you! You may not realise it, how new Republic City is, what it means for peace in our time, but the more people who fight for its protection and those who care about it give it more and more reason to develop, to change for the better- to grow! I know that you were far away from it when you did what you did before, and we're not exactly near it now either, but this world isn't divided, is it? No matter where we go, we meet people like us, and it matters, the good and bad. I mean, look at your boyfriend! You're from where I am, where Korra lives, as most of those men were, too! You brought a lot of people hope. Keep at it! Fight with us!" Her speech was inspiring, but I still didn't want to dive off the wing of her plane. Even so, if she'd seen that article, then her friends must have too. It was weird how connected the world seemed then. So small. Oh...something else she'd said...just hit me: boyfriend. Not now, Bao. Remember what Ma Ling said, about keeping your petty nonsense out of this sort of thing. This is war, or, as close as it can get!
"Are you going to land at all?" I asked, trying to figure out their strategy, get a better idea of their overall game plan.
"Yeah! We just have to make a pit stop first. We need to be sure we have enough fuel, and help, too!" She laughed at her phrasing, like her priorities had been out of order. "I gotta pick up Mako and Bolin. Ma Ling can help him and some other earthbenders once we bring them back with us. They'll need us to land! We're lacking in their arena, now, so we're adapting. We've got more planes and other machinery from my Dad, I just wasn't expecting this." When she mentioned her father, she looked momentarily sad, but she got over it quickly. "We'll be back soon, but this is where you get out. Don't be afraid! You're brave. I know it. It won't take long at all for us to get back. You've got this!"
I inhaled. "Right." I looked over the edge of the aircraft as it circled overhead. I really disliked heights. "So, can you get lower, or closer?"
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.