As soon as Tenzin saw the aircraft that hovered around the northern temple, he knew what he needed to do next. He flew down to the gardens on his air glider, where all the airbenders were training. He told them to gather the bisens and informed them of the situation. After that was taken care of, he found Pema and his kids, and together they slowly tried to escape. They were about to cross a bridge when Zaheer landed in front of them. Tenzin stood in front of his family protectively. Not wanting to pick a fight, Tenzin and his family were brought into a room where all the other airbenders, as well as Kya and Bumi, were being held captive. Zaheer, Ghazan, and Minghwa, the members of the Red Lotus, were there but what shocked him was too see Lei tied up beside Ghazan and Minghwa. Zaheer approached all the airbenders, that were kneeled on the floor.
"It is truly an honor to finally meet an airbending master," Zaheer said, Tenzin narrowed his eyes.
"What is it you want from us?" Tenzin demanded.
"Nothing at all. In fact, if everyone cooperates, you will all walk out of this situation unharmed," Tenzin answered, as he looked at all the airbenders.
"What are you doing here?" Tenzin asked, Zaheer turned to him.
"I want Korra and I'm tired of chasing her," Zaheer replied.
"So, you're using us as leverage," Tenzin said, as he looked at the airbenders then at Lei. Zaheer nodded.
"I'm not letting you get to Korra nor I am letting you go with Lei with you," Tenzin said sternly, as he stood up from his place. Zaheer narrowed his eyes.
"Unfortunately, you don't have a choice," Zaheer sneered, Tenzin narrowed his eyes.
"Yes I do," Tenzin said, before sending a huge gast of air at the members of the Red Lotus, launching them to the back of the room. Bumi and Kya stood beside Tenzin to fight with him. Tenzin quickly turned to Jinora.
"Jinora, get Lei and everyone out of here," Tenzin shouted, Jinora nodded while one of the airbenders picked up Lei's weak form. Suddenly, a beam from P'Li came from above them, as she stood in the airship.
"And stay away from her aim!" Tenzin shouted once more, before Jinora and the other's running out of the room and away from them.
It was a three versus three match with Zaheer, Minghwa, and Ghazan against Tenzin, Kya, and Bumi. There was no telling who could win this fight. Meanwhile, Pema and Jinora, along with the other airbenders made their way down the tunnels of the temple to the stables where the bisens are. They were about to exit out of the tunnel into broad daylight, when a beam came from the skies. Kai and the others jumped back into the tunnel. Kai took a peek to see where P'Li was. The airship was hovering just beside the bisen stables.
"As long as she's there, she'll just target us with her beam again," Pema said, as she held onto little baby Rohan.
"I can find a way to distract her while you guys run for it," Lei said weakly, as she tried to stand up. She lost her balance but the airbenders catched her before she could fall. Kai turned around and approached her.
"No, you have to stay here with them, Lei. You're too beaten up to do something like that, I have another way," Kai said, Lei sighed and nodded. Kai started walking towards the opening of the tunnel and gripping onto his glider tighter.
"Kai, what are you doing?" Jinora asked worriedly, Kai turned to her.
"Get to the bisens, I'm going to divert her beams," Kai said, before running out of the tunnel. Not long, beams were following Kai's trail as he began running towards the edge of the cliff. He jumped off the edge, extended his glider, and flew off into the sky. P'Li continuously tried to shoot beams at Kai, but he was able to steer away with each beam she aimed at him. P'Li took notice of the airbenders, along with the fire nation princess, slowly crossing the bridge to get to the Bisen stables. She narrowed her eyes at them before sending a beam at them. The beam was redirected into the sky when Kai flew in front of her and sent a gust of wind, causing her to stumble back. P'Li glared and sent a beam at the small boy's air glider. Kai's glider caught on fire and broke into pieces, as well as knocking Kai unconscious. Jinora turned around at the sound of an explosion and saw Kai falling down from the sky to the bottom of the cliff.
"KAI! NOO!" Jinora cried, as she started crying. Lei looked back in horror to see Kai falling. Pema grabbed her traumatized daughter, running to the bisens. Lei was running with the help of an airbender holding onto her. They were at the bisen pens until a beam exploded in between them and the bisens. Lei looked up to see P'Li on the edge of the airship, as it came to a landing. She stepped out of the airship and made her way towards them.
"Pema, get everyone to hide," Lei said, as she removed herself from the hold of the airbender and stood as straight as she could.
"What are you gonna do?" Pema asked worriedly, as she held onto her daughter. Lei looked at P'Li, who stood there challenging her with her eyes. Lei turned back to Pema.
"Just get everyone somewhere safe," Lei said, before turning around and walking towards P'Li. Although the toxins were not fully out of her system, she had to fight with what she's got so far. Pema hid the airbenders inside the bisen pens to distance themselves away from the fight. P'Li and Lei stood across from each other with a distance apart.
"You know, princess, you should just give up now instead of wasting your breath," P'Li taunted, she was surprised that Lei had survived this far.
"I'd rather waste my last breath fighting than being a coward," Lei replied, before sending lightning her way. P'Li quickly side jumped avoiding the lightning. She glared at Lei before standing up. She was about to shoot a beam but Lei was quick enough. She ran towards the bridge, before P'Li could get a shot. Lei turned around and sent fire punches at P'Li, who easily extinguished her blue fires with swift kicks. However, Lei knew she could easily deflect her moves. She was trying to get P'Li away from the airbenders and to follow her. Lei ran towards the stairs leading to one of the open courtyards. P'Li caught up with Lei, as she sent a beam towards her. Lei quickly dodged it and sent fire comets at P'Li, to stall her from sending another beam. Once, she reached the bottom of the stairs and arrived at the courtyard. She widened her eyes when she saw Tenzin getting beaten up by the other three criminals using their distinctive bending styles. She was so distracted by the sight, that P'Li had sent a beam that exploded behind her, causing her to be launched a couple of feet away from where she originally stood. Lei groaned in pain, as she was down on the floor. She laid on the ground on her side and could feel her head aching, her ears ringing, and her bones cracking. She opened her eyes and saw the Red Lotus members surrounding her. She faintly turned to Tenzin, who was unconscious on the ground a few feet away from her.
"Like I said, princess, you shouldn't have wasted your last breath," P'Li smirked, as she crossed her arms with pride. Lei glared up at her, as she coughed.
"Such a pity, you could've done so much more, with those skills of yours, you would've been more powerful than Azula ever was. But, you just had to settle for how pathetic you are right now," P'Li added, as the other Red Lotus members surrounded her. Lei suddenly felt a static feeling run through her body, as she laid weakly on the ground.
"I heard that you seem to really care about your friends, to the point you'd give your own life for them. Tell me, which on do you care about the most? Is it that other firbending guy?" P'Li asked, as she kneeled down next to her. Lei closed her eyes and helplessly let a tear out. She could feel something inside of her ignite and wanted to be freed.
"I wonder what it would sound like when I make him scream," P'Li kneeled and whispered against her ears. Lei's eyes shot open and released a dim glow.
"NO!!" Lei screamed, as she suddenly released a huge electrical wave from her body that caused P'Li to be launched backwards against a wall, then passing out from all the exhaustion. P'Li groaned in pain, Zaheer immediately ran to her side and helped her up.
"What was that?" Zaheer asked curiously, as she lifted P'Li.
"I don't know, I've never seen a firebender do anything like that before. I don't even need to be lightning bender to know that's not on any of the bending scrolls I've read," P'Li answered, as she stared at Lei's unconsciously form, wondering what she had just done and how she did it. It was like she became a bomb that detonated on her command. What was weird to her was that, she didn't need to move to generate any lightning. She became curious of this girl.
"What do we do now?" Ghazan asked, as he crossed his arms.
"We wait," Zaheer answered, before walking towards the temple. P'Li took one last curious look at Lei before gathering the airbenders back into the temple.
✨•~~~~~~~•✨
Team Avatar anxiously made their way to the Northern Air Temple, where they would face Zaheer soon. Everyone was gathered at the main deck, where they were discussing the plan of attack. They were all surrounding the map that was laid flat on the table, while listening to Su's idea.
"I say we make our approach on the west and drop down from the airships on cables," Su suggested, placing an airship piece on the Air Temple mark.
"Not gonna work, that combustion lady is gonna pick us off one by one," Lin commented, Su raised her eyebrows and turned to her sister.
"You have a better idea on how we can save the airbenders?" Su asked, sounding slightly impatient.
"We can scale up the mountain side and take them by surprise," Lin replied, Tonraq nodded.
"It could work," Tonraq commented.
"And give them the high ground? If their lava bender spots us, he'll melt the mountain side and us with it," Su countered, Bolin suddenly gasped.
"I have an idea! I'll disguise myself as a lost hiker, go into the air temple, and distract them with my bird calls. KAW! KAW KAW! KAW KAW!" Bolin said, Mako turned to him pointedly.
"Seriously? Bird calls?" Mako said, getting annoyed. He wanted to come up with a more realistic plan that would save the airbenders and Lei.
"I don't see you coming up with a better plan," Bolin countered. Korra rolled her eyes.
"None of those ideas are going to work. The second Zaheer figures out we're up to something, he'll wipe out the airbenders along with Lei," Korra said seriously, everyone turned to her.
"Opal is one of those airbenders, believe me, I understand what's at stake here," Su said, putting a hand on her heart.
"Then I think you'll agree with me, the only plan that will work is for me to give myself up," Korra said, as she turned around and looked at everyone.
"Korra, No," Lin said seriously.
"We'll figure out another way," Tonraq said, Korra turned to her father.
"I already talked about it with Lord Zuko and I've given it a lot of thought. I have to do this," Korra said, Tonraq sighed deeply.
"You can't expect us to sit by and let Zaheer take you, he already has Lei," Asami said, Korra turned to her.
"The world has been out of balance for far too long, it needs the Air Nation back again. I can't let Zaheer destroy it and everyone we love," Korra paused, "Help me save the airbenders and Lei, them you can worry about me,"
The three adults exchanged worried looks, Tonraq spoke up, "We're with you, Korra,"
"Tell us whatever you need, we're here," Su said softly.
"I'll go radio, Zaheer," Korra said, before leaving the room. Mako sat on the benches and leaned on the wall, feeling tired for the past few days. Bolin began to pace repeatedly in front of Mako.
"Would you stop pacing! I'm already tense enough as it is!" Mako shouted impatiently, Bolin stopped pacing and frowned.
"I'm just worried about Opal and Pabu's not here to comfort me, we just left them in Zaofu. I wonder how they're doing," Bolin pondered. Mako sighed and buried his head in his hands. Asami raised her eyebrows at him.
"You okay, Mako?" Asami asked softly, as she sat on the edge of the bench looking at him.
"Does it look like I'm okay?" Mako replied, from his position.
"Is it Lei?" Asami added, Mako didn't move at all, avoiding to show any emotion. Asami smiled lightly.
"I know you care about her more than we already know and it's okay to not be okay about all of this. You're not the only one who feels this way, we all want Lei here as much as you do," Asami said softly, Mako sat up and looked at Asami.
"I just hope we get to the Air Temple on time," Mako said, before standing up to join Lin and the others around the table. They tried devising a plan while Korra was in the radio room. Moments later, Korra entered the room as her father approached her.
"Did you speak to Zaheer?" Tonraq asked, Korra frowned.
"Yes, he told me to come to the top of Laheema's peak at noon. Alone. Once he has me, he'll release the airbenders and Lei over to you at the temple," Korra replied.
"I think I know how to play this so that the airbenders, Lei, and Korra, all come out in one piece," Su said, as Korra and Tonraq approached the table.
"How?" Lin asked curiously, Su turned to her sister.
"Zaheer doesn't know how many of us there are so we have the numbers advantage. I say we split up into two teams. Mako, Bolin, and Asami will take the airship to the temple. Meanwhile, my metalbenders, Tonraq, Lin and I, will be in position below Laheema's peak," Su explained, Korra nodded.
Everyone started getting ready as they made their way to the bottom of Laheema's peak. Mako was in a separate room looking at Lei's dao swords on the table. This was one of his only chances to get Lei back, and he was ready to put his full concentration into this mission. He was in a daze until someone knocked. He turned to the door frame to see Korra standing there with her staff.
"We're about to land, let's go," Korra said, Mako turned to look back at the swords.
"Yeah, I'll be right there," Mako said, Korra exchanged glances between Lei's swords and Mako. She approached him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't worry, we'll get her back. I know you like her a lot, Mako. You both are bad at hiding your emotions," Korra smiled, Mako turned right away to Korra in disbelief.
"You knew this whole time?" Mako asked, Korra nodded.
"I've seen your connection since we met, you guys aren't exactly the keep-it-low type, I was just wondering how long it would take until you guys realized it," Korra chuckled, Mako smiled lightly.
"She was really worried about your opinion about us," Mako said, Korra shook her head lightly.
"She shouldn't be. And you should tell her that when we get her back. Right?" Korra said, Mako turned to her and nodded.
After their small moment, Mako and Korra headed towards the landing deck where all the metal benders and Tonraq were getting off. Korra, Lin, Mako, Bolin, and Asami were all gathered in the landing deck. Lin handed Mako a satchel that had a radio in it, giving him a way to communicate to Korra. Lin grabbed another satchel and handed it to Korra.
"Radio the second you see the airbenders and Lei," Lin instructed Mako, he nodded.
"I will, Chief. Goodluck," Mako answered, Lin bowed and descended the landing deck. Korra went up to Asami and hugged her tightly.
"Be careful," Asami said, as Korra pulled away from the hug.
"You too," Korra said, she paused before turning to Mako. She gave him a tight hug as well, with Mako surprised at her gesture. He hugged back.
"Get her back," Korra said, as she pulled away. Mako nodded. Bolin frowned and hugged Korra from the side. Korra smiled at Bolin, before descending the landing deck as well. And with that, they were off to Northern Air Temple.
✨•~~~~~~~•✨
AUTHORs NOTE:
Merry Christmas guys!! Here's another chapter for you guys filled with more questions to put inside your head. Lei's hidden power? What will happen next? I'm uploading another chapter in a while!!
PUBLISHED: December 25, 2019