Korra, Asami, and Mako emerged from the smoking wreckage of the plane, battered and shaken. They were now inside one of the many hangers of the Red Sun, having just narrowly avoided death by a hair's breath.

"Is everyone alright?" asked Korra, climbing down from what was left of the plane.

"A little bruised, but I'm fine." said Asami, climbing out of the cockpit.

"Same here." said Mako, finally letting go of plane's wing he had been tightly clutching. "Asami, please never do that again. We almost died back there."

"I got us inside the ship like I said I would, didn't I?" asked Asami.

"So what's the plan now?" asked Mako. "How are we going to bring down this behemoth?"

"If we want to stop this thing in its tracks, we're going to have to take out the engines." said Asami. "If we can find the engine room, then I can take care of that part. We'll have to be careful though, because this place is probably crawling with Red Lotus members. While I'm busy disabling the ship's engines I'll be left wide open to attack, so I'll need someone to watch my back while I work."

"Mako, you go with Asami." said Korra. "You'll be her backup."

"What about you Korra?" asked Mako. "Aren't you coming with us?"

"I've got my own mission to take care of." said Korra. "I'm going to find Xai Bau and confront him. He'll mostly likely be in the ship's command deck."

"Sounds like you've got your work cut out for you." said Asami.

"Good luck." said Mako. "You'll need it."

"The same goes for the two of you." said Korra. "I'll you catch up with you guys later."

With that, they split up and went their separate ways in the ship. Mako and Asami proceeded to head down a corridor on their way to find the engine room, and Korra began to climb up a metal ladder that would lead her towards the command deck, carrying her airbender staff strapped to her back.

Back at the outer courtyard of the prison, Iroh and Tensu fiercely clashed as soon as the Agni Kai began, sending out massive jets of fire towards one another. From the excessive amount of power they were putting into their flames, it was clear to anyone watching that this was more than just a simple honor duel, but rather something deeply personal for both combatants. Each and every move they made, from their attacks and parries to their dodges and evades, was brimming with emotion.

"I see you haven't lost your touch Iroh." said Tensu, dodging a flaming kick from General Iroh. "Your days of commanding troops safely away from the front lines have not dulled your bending skills like I thought they would."

"The same can be said for you." said Iroh, ducking and rolling as Tensu sent a large fireball towards his head. "Even with most of your body replaced with metal prosthetics, your days of being on the run as a member of the Red Lotus have kept you on your toes."

Under most circumstances it was generally accepted as fact that a bender should never allow their emotions to guide their actions during a fight with another bender, however this duel was an exception, as this rule was negated by the fact that both combatants were already deeply familiar with each other's fighting style. Iroh and Tensu had spent years living together and fighting together as comrades in the Fire Nation army, and the two friends had often sparred with one another when they were training their firebending and honing their martial arts skills. They had become so intimately familiar with each other's movements that even years later they could still recognize what move the other was going to make almost before they did. To them, it was like rediscovering a favorite book from their childhood and still being able to recite the words verbatim because of how many times they had read it in the past.

Both Iroh and Tensu sent a wave of fire towards each other that obscured their vision, and seeing an opening they both rushed at each other for a punch to the face. As expected, both of them had the same maneuver in mind, and as a result both ended up being punched in the face at the exact same moment, Tensu with his one remaining arm, and Iroh with the opposite arm. For someone who was missing an arm, Tensu was able to hold his own remarkably well against Iroh, and due to his more durable body he was able to recover from the blow to his face much quicker. Seeing that Iroh was still on his knees due to being stunned by the blow, Tensu ran up to him and proceeded to knee him in the face with one of his metal legs, knocking Iroh back and giving him a black eye.

By this point in the fight they had switched from firebending to using their fists instead, and their Agni Kai had now devolved into a straight up brawl. Neither one of them seemed to be gaining any ground against the other, and it was becoming painfully clear that they were too evenly matched in both their firebending and martial arts skills. This would not last forever though, as the tides would eventually start to turn in Tensu's favor if things kept up like this. Iroh was still only human, and his body was would eventually start to tire out from exhaustion, while Tensu on the other hand with his augmented body would be able to continue on fighting for much longer than any normal person, even with a missing arm.

Iroh would need to try a new strategy, seeing as overpowering Tensu with brute force would not be enough because of how physically strong he was. Recovering from the earlier knee kick to the face, Iroh picked himself up of the ground and began to dash away, and Tensu followed after him. Iroh's plan now was change the location of the fight, in the hopes that it would give him a greater degree of control over the battle if he controlled the terrain. As Tensu followed him, Iroh made his way to the top of the metal beams and catwalks surrounding the outer walls of the prison tower, luring Tensu higher up until they were both far above the ground. With Tensu now in a location where he would not be able to move about as freely as before, Iroh now felt confident to try to gain another advantage over Tensu, this time by attempting to get into his head in order to cloud his thinking and judgment.

"What made you change like this Tensu?" asked Iroh. "I thought you just wanted to free your people when you enlisted in the Fire Nation army, so how did it all come to this? Anarchy and revolution? That's not what you were about."

"Xai Bau opened my eyes to a greater truth." said Tensu. "He showed me the bigger picture and how there's a much greater struggle to be fought, a struggle to free this nation and the whole world from the tyranny of rulers."

"Not everyone in power here is like that." said Iroh. "Even though there may be a lot of scumbags like those warlords who started the civil war, there are still many with noble hearts who are willing to work with the people for change, like my grandfather Zuko. Your corrupt commanding officer may have abandoned you and the others to die that day, but I never would have done that. I may not have been there when it happened, but if I had known you were still alive out there, I would have walked through fire and lava to go get you back myself, orders or not. Can you say the same for this Xai Bau? Would he do the same for you? Why do you follow him with such loyalty? What could he have possibly done for you to warrant that?"

"He gave me a second chance at life." said Tensu. "He saved from dying that day and gave me a new body, one in which I would be able to exact my revenge."

"As his puppet?" asked Iroh. "Xai Bau is playing you like a game of Pai Sho. You're just a tool to him. A tool he has molded in his image. I may not fully understand Xai Bau's reasons for wanting to do all of this, but is this truly what you want, or is it actually what Xai Bau wants and he has forced his ideals on to you? The war didn't change you, Xai Bau did. Try to remember the person you used to be back then. It's not who you are now"

"You know nothing of the pain and hardships I've been through." said Tensu, angrily sending a blast of fire towards Iroh, who avoided it by jumping over it and landing back down on the metal beam.

The two continued their duel atop the precarious terrain they now found themselves in, aiming their attacks with caution and taking care to keep their balance so as not fall. As they fought, Tensu's mind began to dwell on Iroh's words, unable to push them away, causing him to start losing his edge.

After the plane carrying Korra, Asami, and Mako had left the hanger, Bolin and Lin stood there with their eyes locked on their opponent Sanken, preparing to make the first move against him.

"It looks like that tin can won't be here to help you this time." said Lin, confidently. "You're at a disadvantage now. It's two earthbenders against one."

"You think so?" asked Sanken, playfully.

"We're well aware by now that your primary weakness is physical strength." said Lin. "Just to be on the safe side, I'd better remove this too. It's not like I'll be needing to defeat you anyway."

Lin then proceeded to make a bending motion, and as she did so her metal armor detached itself from her body and fell to the ground around her in a pile Bolin then followed suit by removing his belt buckle and any other metal objects he was wearing.

"Do you really think that will be enough to save you?" asked Sanken.

"You don't scare me." said Lin, smirking. "So you're some kind of earthbending prodigy? Then show me everything you've got. Don't hold back. I'm ready for you this time."

With that their earthbending battle began, and Sanken started off by making a bending motion that caused the ground to start rising up and forming a wall around Bolin and Lin, which then began closing in on them. Not wasting any time, Bolin and Lin used their bending to make two holes in rock wall for them to escape through before being crushed. When they emerged through the holes they were met with a barrage of stone blocks that had been pulled out of the floor of the hanger. Bolin and Lin avoided these with ease as the pieces of rock struck the wall behind them, creating several holes and tearing through the wreckage of the nearby planes, causing one of them to explode when a spark from one of the rocks ignited some leaking fuel. Seeing no use in holding back to minimize damage, the three combatants began tearing the hanger apart piece by piece with their metalbending, hurling pieces of sharp metal at each other like deadly missiles. One of these metal pieces flew dangerously close to Lin and grazed her arm, the pain of which caused her to momentarily break her concentration.

"Careful now, you might get cut." said Sanken, mocking Lin. "Maybe you should have kept that armor on after all?"

"You're really annoying, you know that?" said Lin, now getting agitated.

Sanken then started to make another bending motion, causing one of the large hanger doors to be ripped of its rails and sent towards Lin and Bolin, who stopped it together with their metalbending halfway between them and Sanken. For a good while the door stood floating in midair as Sanken pushed at it from one side with his metalbending while Bolin and Lin pushed back at in from the other side with their metalbending. Just as this was happening, two people approached the hanger and entered, one being Varrick and the other being Zhu Li. As soon as they entered the large floating metal door split in half due to the immense strain that was being put on it by their metalbending. One the halves flew right over Varrick's head, barely missing him, but the wind created by the fast moving metal projectile was enough to blow his hair back completely.

"Watch where you're aiming!" shouted Varrick. "You nearly took off my head!"

"Oh great, of all the times from him to show up it just had to be now." said Lin, annoyed by Varrick's sudden arrival.

"What's going on Bolin?" asked Varrick. "Did I miss something?"

"Now is a really bad time for this Varrick." said Bolin, emphasizing the word really. "We're kind of in the middle of something."

"Well what am I supposed to do now then?" asked Varrick. "I thought the plan was for us to meet up with you guys once we finished our mission?"

"Just go wait outside." said Lin. "If you stay in here you'll only get in the way."

"You don't have to tell me twice." said Varrick, turning around and falling back with Zhu Li.

Once Varrick and Zhu Li were a safe distance away, they began to observe the fight through a small hole that had been made in one of the hanger's walls by the earlier barrage of rocks. As Bolin and Lin inched their way closer to Sanken, he used his earthbending to make the ground to violently shake, forcing them to back away as a small rift opened in between them. Judging by his movements, it was obvious that Sanken was trying his best to prevent his opponents from getting too close to him, and all of his attacks up until this point had been maximized for power and efficiency in hopes of trying to end the fight as quickly as possible, no doubt because he knew that he would not last long if he were forced into a close combat situation. Bolin continued to push forward, using his lavabending to fill up the small rift and harden it into stone so that he and Lin could cross over to Sanken. As they approached, Sanken quickly rushed to the top of a metal observation deck in the hanger in order to reach higher ground, and he turned around to look down at Bolin and Lin from above. They both stopped to carefully consider their next course of action, realizing that it would be unwise for them to follow Sanken into an area filled with large amounts of metal, giving him a distinct advantage.

"Do you know how I first got the title of Sanken the Iron Dragonfly?" asked Sanken, taking a moment to examine his surroundings and distract his opponents.

"Never heard of you, but care to enlighten us anyway?" asked Lin, using the opportunity to catch her breath and stall for extra time to think.

"It was partially because of your mother Toph Beifong." said Sanken. "After I left my village and began traveling around the Earth Kingdom to learn and master all the different styles of earthbending, I sought her out. In my search I finally came across her in the Foggy Swamp. I wanted to learn all I could from the earthbending master I had looked up to for so long, so I began challenging her to earthbending battles in order to test my skills. In all the dozens of times I fought her, not once was I ever able to beat her, but I was persistent though, and the more I fought her the more I found my earthbending skills slowly beginning to improve."

"You got to train with Toph Beifong?" asked Bolin, surprised. "It must have been an honor."

"I wouldn't really call it training, considering she didn't want me around and kept telling me to go away." said Sanken. "She found my constant presence to be a nuisance and said that I was annoying like a dragonfly, constantly buzzing around her and making noise. The nickname stuck around, after I mastered metalbending I began calling myself the Iron Dragonfly. As is often the case in life, your idols usually aren't all they're cracked up to be, and after a while I got bored and eventually decided to move on. Before I left, she told me I had great potential, and said that if I want to fully reach that potential I should stop idolizing her and trying to be just like her, and instead find my own path to go down. With that in mind I set off on my own again, and in time I found my own path just like she said, and from that I created a new and unique bending style, one that brings out the fullest potential of earthbending."

"Its fullest potential?" asked Bolin, intrigued.

"I first got the idea for it after observing a curious phenomenon among certain animals in nature." said Sanken. "How is it that some animals always know which direction to travel in whenever they migrate, or how certain animals just seem to have an innate ability to sense where their prey is in relation to their surroundings? It's almost as if some invisible force guides them in their actions, pushing and pulling them. The answer then became clear to me. Just as Toph had once discovered a fundamental truth about earthbending while observing the movements of badgermoles as a child, I too had discovered another fundamental truth about earthbending. That fundamental truth was magnetism."

"Oh that's right, I remember you mentioning something about it that night we talked at the festival." said Bolin, trying to keep Sanken talking so that he could use the time to plan out what his next move would be.

"Everything in this world exerts a push and a pull." said Sanken. "The invisible force of magnetism is what allows earthbenders to control that push and pull so they can move the earth around them. Metalbending takes it even further and allows that push and pull to be manipulated on an even greater level, making it possible to bend something that has such a small amount of earth in it. All things both living and non-living exert a magnetic field, no matter how minuscule it may be. Even humans give off a magnetic field. Once I learned how to sense and manipulate the flow of these magnetic fields by combining metalbending with the seismic sense of earthbending, I could feel everything around me like never before. I could move just about any solid object with my earthbending, even things that contained almost no earth in them. Some magnetic fields in objects and creatures are weaker than others, making them harder to bend, but the presence of something like metal within them can actually amplify those magnetic fields. Surprisingly enough, you'll never guess what else has metal present in it, people. That's right, humans actually have little microscopic pieces of metal all inside their body. Not just humans, but all creatures do. It accumulates there naturally, from the things we eat to the substances and environments we're all exposed to on a daily basis. That metal inside our bodies can actually act as a conductor to channel and amplify the magnetic fields that we give off."

"Wait, you don't mean..." said Bolin, sounding worried as he began where Sanken was going with this.

"Just as waterbending has its own version, I've created something that gives even that a run for its money." said Sanken, beginning to smile evilly. "Behold, earthbending in its purest and most concentrated form!"

Sanken then began to make a new strange bending motion, and after making a downward thrust with his hands, Bolin and Lin could feel their bodies suddenly stiffen as a heavy pressure overcame them, forcing them to their knees.

"What is this?" said Bolin, struggling to stand up. "It feels like my body weighs ten tons."

The weight on their bodies continued to grow, causing Bolin and Lin falling flat to the ground on their stomachs. Bolin began crawling over to Lin with extreme effort.

"This is completely different from bloodbending." said Lin. "We can still move, but our bodies feel so heavy because of what he's doing with that magnetism ability of his. Now I get it. This must be what he did to me the first time I encountered him on that night at the royal palace. My whole body went stiff and heavy just like this after he caught me in his metalbending grip and then threw me against the pillar like a rag doll. Back then I thought it must have been because of the metal armor I was wearing though."

"How do we get out of this?" asked Bolin, frightened. "There must be some way to counter it. Even Amon's bloodbending wasn't all powerful."

As this was going on, Varrick and Zhu Li were quietly watching the battle a safe distance away through the hole in the wall, close enough to hear what Bolin, Lin, and Sanken were saying, but far enough away that their attacks would not be able to reach them.

"There's got to be something we can do Varrick." said Zhu Li. "They're both helpless out there."

"I know, but what can we do?" asked Varrick. "That kid can literally force people to the ground with his bending without so much as even touching you."

"You always think of clever solutions whenever we're in a tight spot." said Zhu Li. "Think of one now."

"I am thinking." said Varrick, looking around and trying to brainstorm, and after a few moments and idea came to him. "Hmm, magnetic forces... That gives me an idea that just might work. Zhu Li, I'll need your help with this."

"What do you need me to do?" asked Zhu Li.

"Remember that little invention we built back in Zaofu a couple years ago?" asked Varrick. "The magnetic suit that attracted all the metal tableware to it as soon as we turned it on? I think that might come in really handy here, after I make a few adjustments of course."

"How will that help us now." asked Zhu Li. "That suit is probably stashed away in one of your warehouses right now."

"I know, but with the materials laying around here we just might be able to throw together a functioning approximation." said Varrick, who then turned around and pointed to the armor Lin had taken off and dropped on the ground earlier. "I'll need you to bring that armor over here. Once you've brought it over we'll get to work on creating the electromagnet."

Now understanding what Varrick was planning to do, Zhu Li quickly ran into the hanger, retrieving Lin's armor and disappearing with it before Sanken could even notice her. As she did this, Varrick started to take apart some of the radio equipment they had brought with them, as well as collecting a few pieces of broken scrap metal and copper wiring from the wreckage of a nearby plane.

As battle continued to rage on in the city below after the arrival of the forces of the Fire Nation and its allies, both sides seemed to be a roughly even match for each other. Korra, Asami, and Mako were now hard at work trying to change that however and turn the tides with their infiltration of Xai Bau's flagship, the Red Sun. After having fought her way through several Red Lotus members while climbing further up into the Red Sun, Korra finally reached he set of metal doors that appeared to lead to the ship's command deck. She pressed a button on the control panel beside the door, but the doors didn't budge, having been locked from the other side.

"It's going to take a lot more than that to keep me out Xai Bau." said Korra, smiling.

Korra then began to make a bending motion, and as she spread her hands apart from her body the metal doors began to crumble, creating a gap for her to walk through. As she stepped into the command deck she was immediately confronted by two Red Lotus sentries, which she dispatched with ease. She sent them flying back with her airbending, causing them to hit the floor and land at the feet of Xai Bau's wheelchair, where he sat surrounded by a small group of flying spirits.

"Ah, we meet at last Avatar Korra." said Xai Bau, looking up at her and moving another piece around on the Pai Sho board set on the table in front of him. "With all the noise you were making on your way here, you gave me plenty of time to plan out my next move."

"You know why I'm here Xai Bau." said Korra. "I've come to put a stop to this coup of yours. We won't let you do as you please in the Fire Nation any longer, nor allow you to put any more innocent lives in danger because of your selfish ambitions."

"We, you say?" asked Xai Bau. "How exactly are you going to do that? Look around you Avatar. In all your efforts to reach me, your allies have all been divided and separated from you one by one, and now you stand before me, alone. You have all done exactly as I anticipated you would, each of you playing your part in this grand game of Pai Sho I have been playing."

"Enough games Xai Bau." said Korra. "As the Avatar, I will do my duty and finally right the wrongs of the war that has caused so much suffering in the world for so many people. Avatar Aang may not have been able to stop it, but in his place I will put an end to the chain of tragedy that has resulted from it, once and for all."

"Our goals are not mutually exclusive." said Xai Bau. "I too wish to end this suffering and create a better future for the world. As the Avatar, isn't that something you would want. At one point in time, even Avatar Aang wanted to help me accomplish this goal."

"So you did know Avatar Aang after all." said Korra. "I knew your voice sounded familiar. I saw you in a memory of my past life as Aang."

"Yes, the two of us were once acquaintances at one point." said Xai Bau. "Actually, you could say that for a time he was even a protegee of mine, and I his teacher. Shortly after the Hundred Year War, I took him under my wing and taught him many things about the physical and spiritual worlds, and opened his eyes to the many new possibilities around him. I shared with him my grand vision for the world, a world in which there would be no war, a world where everyone would be free and no person would rule over another, a world that would live in harmony with the spirits. The only way this dream could have succeeded was with the help of the Avatar, but in the end he disagreed with my vision and rejected it, saying that it would disrupt the natural order of the world and create anarchy. After that he cut all ties with me and left my tutelage. A pity it was. He left because he lacked the vision to see new possibilities and determination to go through with creating those new possibilities. He was simply afraid, afraid that the status quo we had all come to know and rely upon would be destroyed. The members of the White Lotus also similarly disagreed with my views and disowned me, so I left their order and created my own, the Red Lotus."

"Aang left because he saw your vision for what it was." said Korra. "It would have created chaos and disharmony, the very opposite of what it intends to accomplish. Without order in this world, there cannot be balance, and without balance there cannot be peace. It is the duty of the Avatar to maintain balance in the world, even if that balance sometimes requires the preservation of things that some people may not agree with. You tried to sway Aang into following your ideals so you could mold him into your apprentice, but you failed in doing that, so that's why you created the Red Lotus, to help you bring about this vision of yours that Aang had rejected."

"If Avatar Aang had joined me in achieving my vision, this world could have been spared from so much needless suffering." said Xai Bau. "If he had joined me, even the tragedy that was the Fire Nation Civil War could have been prevented. You say that the Avatar's duty is to maintain balance in the world, but when the world needed him most he did nothing. His frail and weakened body could only lay in bed, dying from the effects of his time spent frozen in the iceberg finally catching up to him. He could only watch as the selfish ambitions of those in the Fire Nation once again tore apart the balance of the world the he had sought to preserve, just like when he had disappeared at the start of the Hundred Year War. Although we mostly operated from the shadows during the conflict, we of the Red Lotus ultimately helped to bring about its end and put a stop to the endless bloodshed. The Order of the Red Lotus that I had created had done what the Avatar could not, what the Avatar had failed to do. The stain on the Avatar's name doesn't have to remain however. That was Avatar Aang's mistake, not yours. It's never too late to try to change things for the better. Join me Avatar Korra, and we can correct this imbalance that has stemmed from Avatar Aang's inaction and lack of vision. You can help me bring this world into a glorious new age."

"By becoming your puppet?" asked Korra. "Thanks, but no thanks, though you've probably already been thinking of doing that for a while, like when the Red Lotus tried to kidnap me as a child. Since you failed to bring Aang over to your side, you figured you would just go for me instead, and when that didn't work out you settled for second best and made Tensu your substitute for Aang and the poster boy for your cause."

"Unalaq may have acted on his own accord and without my knowledge when he concocted that plan to kidnap you, but his heart was in the right place." said Xai Bau. "He only wanted to help me bring about my vision for the world, a vision he fervently believed in up until he lost sight of it and was led astray by Vattu."

"On paper your vision may sound like paradise to some, and you may even be right about some points, but I'm through with people telling me, the Avatar, how the world should and shouldn't be." said Korra. "Over these past few years, I've faced many hardships, overcome countless enemies, and learned so much more about this world that I never could have imagined. I've seen through the eyes of many people, people like Aang, Tenzin, Amon, Unalaq, Wan, Zaheer, Kuvira, Toph, and Azula, and hearing each of their stories has opened my eyes to the bigger picture of the world around me. Through it all I've come to realize that nobody is truly right or just, no matter how much they believe themselves to be. My choice is that I choose to neither preserve the status quo nor help you destroy it. Instead, I will forge my own path and find another solution, a third option that you have all been blinded to. If I have to fight you to do that, then so be it."

"So you have made your choice then?" asked Xai Bau. "Very well then. I guess I'll just simply bid my time and wait for the next Avatar to appear, after I've sent you off to your next life."

Xai Bau then picked up the single Pai Sho tile with a black louts symbol on it and placed it at the very center of the board where it was surrounded by all the other tiles with white and red lotus symbols on them. The group of flying spirits circling around Xai Bau suddenly became frightened by the sudden change in atmosphere and fled, making their way out of the ship through the windows. Xai Bau pressed a button on his wheelchair and the life support system attached to it began to deactivate, and as it did so a strange fluid could be seen filling up a glass receptacle on the back of the machine as it drained from the plastic IV tubes that were attached to his body. When the fluid had finished draining, Xai Bau began to stand up and as he did so the small plastic IV tubes were pulled out and disconnected from his body one by one. The sight of this, along with the sound of his bones beginning to creak and pop, made Korra cringe.

"Come on now, are you really going to make a 23 year old lady have to fight a 130 year old man?" said Korra, refusing to believe that Xai Bau was actually serious about fighting her. "Can't you just have that Kyoshi woman fight for you?"

"This is much too important for me to let someone else handle." said Xai Bau.

After getting up Xai Bau did a few brief stretches, causing some of his bones to make another popping sound, and after picking up a glass of water on the table in front of him and drinking it he did a short breathing exercise and then stood up straight. He began walking over to Korra, now seemingly fine and moving around as if he had suddenly aged backwards by several decades.

"It would be unwise to underestimate me Avatar." said Xai Bau. "I am not what I appear to be on the surface. 130 years is a long time to hone your body and bending skills to their maximum potential."

Xai Bau then proceeded to take of the top of his robe and toss it aside, revealing a surprisingly muscular body underneath, one covered in countless burn marks and scars from past injures, no doubt the result of a long life filled with fighting and hardship. He took a moment to straighten out his long white beard and mustache after his robe had tangled it when he removed it, and then he turned towards one of the Red Lotus members at the controls in the command deck.

"If need be, you may put the ship on autopilot." said Xai Bau, speaking aloud and pointing to a man at the controls. "I will be back shortly after I've dealt with this."

Xai Bau then walked over to a small raised section of the floor and gestured for Korra to follow after him. Korra stepped onto the raised platform with him, and after she did so Xai Bau pulled a nearby switch, causing the platform to begin rising off the floor and making its way up towards the ceiling, where it opened up to allow the platform to pass through. After a few moments the platform finally stopped, reaching a wide open area located on the very top of Red Sun's outer exterior. The area they were in was very large with railings on both sides, most likely some sort of outdoor observation deck for viewing the battle.

"This shall be the location of our battle to decide the fate of the Fire Nation." said Xai Bau. "I hope you are prepared to face your destiny Avatar."

Walking away from the platform that was located in the middle of the open air observation deck, Xai Bau made his way towards one end where there was a wall above where the command deck would be, while Korra made her way towards the other end of the observation deck where there was a metal door that led down into another part of the ship.

"I've heard that one before." said Korra, turning to face Xai Bau from across the observation deck.

"Luckily for you it will be the last time you have to hear it." said Xai Bau, turning around to face her from the opposite end of the observation deck.

For a brief moment there was silence and nothing else could be heard except for the roar of the ship's engines, and then the battle began. Korra immediately charged at Xai Bau, shooting fire at him with a fierce intensity, determined to end this battle as quickly as possible. Xai Bau responded with fire of his own, and for the first minute or two of the fight they exchanged attacks with one another, both shooting off flames and evading them as they remained constantly on the move in their arena of battle. After a while, Korra finally managed to get close enough to Xai Bau and she began to engage him in hand to hand combat, and to her surprise Xai Bau was able to keep pace with her and match the power and speed of her blows, managing to dodge some of them while being hit by others and seemingly shrugging them off like they were nothing, all while hitting her with several of his own.

"That speed and power, someone his age shouldn't be able to move around like that." thought Korra, pondering to herself. "It just doesn't seem possible."

Korra pondered this for a moment and then decided to try something. She ducked for a low punch at Xai Bau's waist, and as she did so she used her seismic sense to get a reading on his body, and in it she could sense what felt like several metal parts.

"Ah, so that's why." thought Korra, realizing the answer. "He's similar to Tensu. Some of the organs in his body seem to have been replaced with metal parts, no doubt a result of injuries he has sustained throughout his life, maybe even from the civil war."

Xai Bau then inhaled a deep breath and began spewing out fire his mouth, forcing Korra jump back in order to avoid being roasted alive. He then took another breath and sent out a massive wall of flame towards her, forcing Korra use her airbending to launch herself up into the air at the last second to avoid it, but in the process her airbender staff came loose from the strap that was holding it to her back and it fell out of her reach, landing on the portion of the observation deck behind Xai Bau. When Korra landed back down on the floor, she looked around and was surprised to find that Xai Bau's flames had been so hot that they had actually melted nearly all of the surrounding metal on the observation deck. Xai Bau then began to create even more flames around his body, giving him an appearance akin to that of a terrifying flame demon, and he sent out another wave of fire towards Korra. Korra tried using her airbending in an attempt to push back the flames, but Xai Bau's flames were too strong and they quickly overpowered and absorbed the blast of air, which only served to feed the flames even more. Not wanting to push her luck any further by attempting to counter it again, Korra immediately launched herself back towards the door at the other end of the observation deck with her airbending, Xai Bau's flames completely engulfing the spot where she had been standing moments before. She repeatedly pulled on the door handle in an attempt to open it, but found that it was securely locked.

"Oh come on!" shouted Korra, beginning to panic.

"Not that way Avatar." said Xai Bau mockingly, almost as if he had anticipated that Korra would make a run for the door.

Xai Bau prepared to send out another stream of fire, and Korra quickly used her metalbending to unlock the door and open it. She immediately ran inside and slammed the door shut behind her, throwing herself to the floor just in time as the entire top half of the door was instantly melted away by a blast of fire. The fact that Xai Bau's flames were hot enough to instantly melt metal told Korra that she was dealing with an extremely powerful and skilled firebender. If Xai Bau's flames touched her, she would not just simply be burned, but the flesh would have melted right off her bones.

"Okay, this may not have been the best idea to just challenge him outright like that." said Korra, rolling over to put out a small flame on her pants. "What have I gotten myself into? If those flames even touch me it's over. It's time to think of another plan."

Korra started to crawl away so that she would not be visible through the hole in the door and leaned against one of the walls off to the side. She began thinking to herself for a way to stop the monster of a firebender that was Xai Bau, or at the very least avoid being turned into a pile of ash. Hearing Xai Bau approaching, Korra began running down a set of metal stairs the led deeper into the inner workings of the ship. She ran from one room to the next, trying to make sense of the confusing maze of corridors and hallways within the maintenance section of the ship, and found her options steadily being narrowed down little by little.

"It's like he's already played out this entire battle in his head before I even got here." thought Korra, musing on her situation. "It was a bad move coming down here. Inside this ship he pretty much controls the direction and flow of the entire fight. He had plenty of time to prepare for this beforehand, so having me come down here was probably part of his strategy all along. He's trying to control my movements and force me into taking certain actions so that he can exploit them. He's playing a game of Pai Sho in which he has already planned several moves ahead of me. If only I had spent more time sharpening my Pai Sho skills with Asami. I've never been too good with strategy."

After running around for a while, Korra finally found herself in a large boiler room, inside of which was a large tank of water. She hurried over to the water tank and opened the small hatch at the top.

"This might work." said Korra, an idea coming to her. "Alright Xai Bau, I'll play this game little with you."

Korra could hear Xai Bau's footsteps getting closer, so she quickly ran to the other side of the room and took off the part of her outfit around her waist and hung it on a nearby pipe where it would be halfway visible and appear as though she were hiding behind it. She then ran back to the other side of the room and hid behind some pipes next to the boiler. Xai Bau finally entered the room, and after looking around he spotted the piece of Korra's outfit that she had left hanging on the pipe, and assuming it to be her he sent out a blast of fire towards it, melting the nearby pipes and incinerating the decoy. He walked over to where it had been and examined it more closely, but found no other traces of Korra.

"That was a pretty clever move." said Xai Bau, praising what Korra had done. "A wise ancient philosopher once said that all warfare is based on deception. You seem to have a basic understanding of this concept, as do I. You thought I was nothing but a feeble old man in a wheelchair at first, but now look at how I have even the Avatar on the run."

Before he could turn around Korra, jumped out from her hiding place and began using her waterbending to pull the water out of the tank she had previously opened, but Xai Bau was ready and immediately got into a fighting stance. After dowsing Xai Bau with the water from the tank, he retaliated with his firebending, and rather than his flames being put it instead caused the water to vaporize and become steam. Korra's plan had backfired, as the water had not been enough to completely counter Xai Bau's flames and overcome their heat. Seizing the opportunity while Xai Bau's vision was obscured by the cloud of steam filling the room, Korra ran past him and went back into the hallway again, hiding inside another one of the rooms to rethink her strategy and tactics.

"There has to be some way to counter those flames of his." thought Korra, thinking to herself on what to do next and beginning an internal monologue. "Using air will only fuel them and makes the flames grow hotter, while any water that touches them will just turn into steam. So airbending is out of the questing, and if I want to beat him with waterbending I'll need a massive amount of water to do it, way more than the small amount that's on this ship. Maybe earthbending then? No, there isn't even any earth on this ship to bend, and metalbending won't work either because he'll just melt it with the heat of his flames. I guess that just leaves firebending as my only option now. Will it be strong enough though? His firebending is leagues above what I've seen from most other firebenders. I'll need to increase the power of my flames somehow if I want to able to match his." Korra began thinking, and then the answer became obvious. "That's it, the Avatar State! The power of my bending increases whenever I use it." Korra considered the idea further, but then started to have second thoughts. "No, it's too risky. There's a very real possibility that I might actually die here in this fight. If that happens while I'm in the Avatar State, then the Avatar Cycle will be broken. Zaheer tried to kill me while I was in the Avatar State to make sure the Avatar Cycle would end, so what if Xai Bau tries to do the same? If that's the case, then why would Xai Bau say he plans on killing me and then waiting for the next Avatar to show up so he can convert them over to his side? What if that isn't really his goal afterall and he still wants to break the Avatar Cycle like before? Was Xai Bau announcing that part of his plan to me just a ploy to get me to lower my guard so that I would go into the Avatar State? I would be playing right into his hands if I did that. Whether it's the Avatar Cycle being broken or him killing me and influencing the next Avatar with his ideals, either outcome would still benefit him. What do I do! This is all so frustrating! I've never had to do this much strategic thinking before! I wish I could still talk to the spirits of my past lives. They would probably be able to give me some advice on what I should do in this situation."

As Korra sat there in her hiding spot, she continued to debate with herself whether or not she should use the Avatar State, but time was quickly running out for her, as Xai Bau would soon find her and she would have to fight him once again.

Elsewhere onboard the Red Sun, Mako and Asami were busy fighting their way to the engine room, Mako with his firebending and Asami with her electrified glove and martial arts skills, supplemented by her newly acquired skills in chi blocking. Their search took them through many similar looking hallways and corridors within the ship, each patrolled by Red Lotus members, and after a while they finally reached a room filled with heavy machinery.

"This has to be one of the engines." said Asami, entering the room with Mako. "Most likely the one on the left side. Alright, time for me to get to work Mako."

As Asami began her attempts to sabotage the inner workings of the engine, the Red Lotus members who had been stationed in the room rushed over to stop her, forcing Mako to fight them off himself in order to prevent them from reaching her. After defeating a few of them, the rest began to flee the room, and as they left one of them pulled an alarm switch on the wall.

"We have to hurry Asami." said Mako. "Those guys just pulled some sort of alarm. The whole ship probably knows we're here now, and they'll likely be sending reinforcements down here very soon."

"I'm working as fast as I can." said Asami. "It's going to take a lot longer for me to get past all this heavy machinery than I thought it would. I need to cut through this metal plating somehow to get inside."

"Do we even have anything to cut it open with?" asked Mako.

"I would need something like a plasma saw to do that, but we don't have one." said Asami. "I could try unscrewing the bolts on the other side to get in from there, but that will take a lot of time, time we might not have."

"A plasma saw you say?" said Mako, suddenly getting an idea. "I think I might be able to help you there Asami."

"What, are you carrying a plasma saw around in your back pocket?" asked Asami, sarcastically.

"No, but I've got the next best thing." said Mako. "Maybe I could try using that plasmabending technique I've been learning from Azula. This is a perfect opportunity for me to test it out."

"Are you sure you can handle it Mako?" asked Asami. "The last time I saw you training, you still had trouble controlling it."

"I know, I but I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of it now." said Mako. "What other choice do we have? Just point me to where you need to cut."

"Alright then, if you say so." said Asami, who then pointed to a specific section of the engine's thick metal plating. "I'll need you to cut through this part."

Mako held out his arm and began to concentrate, creating a small ball of lightning in the palm of his hand. After a few moments the ball of lightning then started to change its shape and form, becoming a luminous ball of plasma that began to emit heat. After it had grown to a sufficient size, Mako drew his arm closer to the spot that Asami had indicated and aimed towards it. Right as he was about to touch the metal however, Mako suddenly felt a sharp pain explode through his injured left arm.

"Of all the times, why now!" shouted Mako, frustrated and trying to ignore the pain.

Suddenly, the pain grew even worse and Mako's arm started violently shaking, causing it to go limp and fall to his side, the ball of plasma falling out of his hand. Rather than simply dissipating when it hit the floor however, the ball of plasma did something unexpected. It bounced off the floor and began to fiercely ricochet throughout the room, burning through everything it touched. Mako and Asami began frantically dodging and jumping around, doing their best to avoid being hit by the deadly projectile, and after making several trips around the room it finally slammed into the side of the engine, melting its way through the metal plating to the inside and bursting. As this, the engine began to make a strange noise as black smoke started billowing from it.

"Uh oh, I don't think that was supposed to happen Asami." said Mako, sounding worried.

"Quick, let's get out of here!" shouted Asami, realizing what was about to happen.

Asami grabbed Mako by the arm and pulled him along with her as they ran out of the engine room, and a few moments later the engine exploded into a massive fireball. Alarms began ringing all throughout the ship as the sprinklers in the engine room turned on, dowsing the flaming engine with water and putting it out, leaving behind only a smoking wreckage.

"Well, that's one way to go about it, even though we almost died." said Asami.

"Remember, you almost killed us too with that screaming metal deathtrap not too long ago." said Mako.

"That's one engine down, one more to go." said Asami. "Now we just have to reach the other one, which is probably all the way on the opposite side of this massive ship."

"Oh great, more running around and getting lost as we're swarmed by enemies on this ridiculously massive ship." said Mako, sighing with exhaustion.

After a short break Mako and Asami continued on, heading down another corridor that led in the direction of their next destination. After a running around for a few more minutes, they eventually found themselves inside what appeared to be a large meeting hall, complete with Red lotus banners hanging on the wall. As they crossed through this room to reach the doorway on the other side, Mako suddenly noticed a small metallic glint sparkling in the air.

"Asami, get down!" shouted Mako, immediately realizing what it was.

Without wasting a second, Asami ducked right before a razor sharp metal wire sliced its way through the air, cutting one of the hanging banners behind her in half as well as taking a few strands of her hair with it. Mako and Asami both jumped to attention as several Red Lotus members flooded into the room through the doorway, and from behind one of the large banners emerged the Kyoshi woman Mei-Ling, who been laying there in wait after setting up the metal wires earlier as a trap for them when she had been alerted to their approaching presence.

"Hi there Mako." said Mei-Ling, playfully. "Fancy meeting you here."

"It's you again." said Mako, surprised to see Mei-Ling. "Why are you here?"

"Where else would I be?" asked Mei-Ling. "This is where my comrades are."

"Let us pass Mei-Ling." said Mako, taking a step forward. "We have no reason to fight you."

"You're not going anywhere." said Mei-Ling, suddenly taking on an angry tone and throwing a blade that narrowly missed Mako's face, embedding itself in the banner behind him. "You and your friends have caused us enough trouble already. Why can't you just leave us alone and stay out of this? Why is the situation in the Fire Nation even your concern? You don't even live here."

"You know I can't do that Mei-Ling." said Mako. "We promised Korra that we would help her see this through to the end, no matter what it takes."

"So you really want to go through with this?" said Mei-Ling, pulling out her iron fans and sighing. "It's a shame. You were so cute too."

"I don't want to fight you Mei-Ling, but you leave me no choice." said Mako.

With that the Red Lotus members moved in to attack Mako and Asami, who began to fight them off. Mako's left arm was still sore and hurting from before, leaving him with only one arm to use, reducing the effectiveness of his firebending and forcing him to rely on hand to hand combat.

"So Mako, this was must be that crush of yours that Bolin was talking about." said Asami, casually speaking with Mako as they fought off the Red Lotus members surrounding them. "The one who dragged you behind the motorcycle."

"Yeah, that's her." said Mako, sighing and dodging some attacks from a Red Lotus members.

After watching the fight for a while and examining their movements from afar, Mei-Ling then proceeded to join the fray, attacking Mako and Asami with her iron fans and forcing them to engage her head on.

"Oh, who is this lady now?" asked Mei-Ling, teasing Mako about Asami. "You two seem to get along pretty well. Is she your girlfriend Mako?"

"We used to date a long time ago, but not anymore." said Mako, embarrassed by the question. "We're just friends now."

Mei-Ling attempted to use some of her chi blocking maneuvers on Mako, but Asami stepped in and began countering them with her own, blocking each of her attacks and cancelling them out.

"You're not the only one here who can do that now." said Asami. "I've learned some chi blocking techniques as well."

"Judging by how sloppy your technique is, you're still just a novice at it." said Mei-Ling. "I've been doing this ever since I was a little girl."

Mei-Ling reached around behind her to grab one of the nearby razor wires and pulled on it, causing all of the other razor wires in the room surrounding them to close in around Mako and Asami. This forced them to get down in order to avoid losing their heads, but left them wide open to attack from Mei-Ling, who ran between them and kicked both of them at the same time with each of her legs as she jumped up into the air to avoid the wires. As a result of this, Mako and Asami were forced into different sides of the room, and as they tried to regroup Mei-Ling pulled out a handful of throwing knives from her clothes. This would not be an easy fight for the two of them, as it seemed that not only was Mei-Ling quick and deadly, but also smart and cunning, carefully planning out what move to make in order force her opponents into giving her an opening, a trait she most likely inherited from her great-great grandfather Xai Bau.

As Mako and Asami's battle against Mei-Ling continued within the Red Sun, elsewhere in the city someone was watching the battle unfold from the top of a high cliff near the edge of the city. It was Zaheer, who looked up into the sky and noticed that one of the Red Sun's engines was now trailing black smoke behind it. As a result of losing one of their engines, the ship's crew was now unable to properly maneuver the massive flying fortress, causing it to start flying around in a slow and continuous circle above the city. Curious as to what might be going on, Zaheer got up and started flying towards the ship in order to take a closer look.

As Varrick and Zhu Li were hard at work constructing their device out of Lin's armor, Bolin and Lin were still on the ground, barely able to move their bodies due to the immense weight that had been placed on them by Sanken's strange magnetic bending. Sanken began to make another bending motion, and as he did so Bolin and Lin were suddenly lifted up off the ground and forced to stand up straight. They were now being levitated and pulled around through the air by Sanken with the movements of his hands, almost as though he were a child playing with a toy. Being pulled around through the air like this with the immense weight already on their bodies began to cause Bolin and Lin a great deal of pain, and it felt as though the bones in their bodies might snap at any moment due to the pressure.

"Why are you doing this Sanken!" cried Bolin, in agony. "Is simply defeating us not enough for you? You have to torment us too?"

"Oh, but this is so much fun playing around with my bending like this." said Sanken, smiling. "I hardly ever get a chance to practice this bending technique. Most people are just too fragile to handle it."

"So do you enjoy hurting people like this!" asked Bolin. "Is it all a game to you?"

"Why is it so surprising to you?" asked Sanken. "People in this world hurt each other all the time. Even the people who are supposed to be family hurt each other. Though when it comes down to it, adults are probably the worst. That's all they ever do. They do nothing but hurt others."

"Where is this coming from all of a sudden?" asked Bolin, noting the sudden change in Sanken's voice and demeanor. "Did someone hurt you in the past Sanken? There's no need to take it all out on us?"

"What does it matter anyway?" asked Sanken. "It's not like it makes a difference."

"I want to understand." said Bolin. "I still consider you to be my friend. Without you, I might never have figured out how to metalbend, and for that I'm grateful."

"Fine, if you want to know so badly then I'll tell you, since you seem to care so much about it." said Sanken, walking over to Bolin. "I've already told you a little about myself and my life growing up as a kid, about how I was born weak and that my mother always had to carry me around for the first few years of my life, but there was more to it than that."

"What could have been so bad that you didn't tell me before?" asked Bolin, curious.

"When I was young, my mother died, and since my father wasn't around I was basically an orphan after that." said Sanken. "I was still too young at the time to fend for myself, so I had no choice but to go live with my aunt and uncle's family from my father's side. It was a living nightmare."

"What was so bad about it?" asked Bolin.

"Needless to say, they didn't care much for me." said Sanken. "To them I was an unnecessary addition, an unwanted, illegitimate child my father had left behind. They treated me horribly and always made me do all hard tasks and chores, despite knowing how weak I was, and I was often severely punished whenever I messed up. Oh, but my uncle was the worst of all. He was always angry, and he often took his anger out on me. Being weak, I was an easy target. When you're weak, people think they can just take advantage of you however they like. Let's just say that he did many things to that an adult should never do to a child."

"What did he do to you?" asked Bolin, beginning to realize what Sanken was trying to say.

Sanken then leaned in closer to Bolin and whispered something into his ear, and upon hearing it Bolin showed a look of shock on his face.

"No, you can't be serious Sanken." said Bolin, stunned. "He did that to you? My brother and I may have had it rough growing up on the streets, but that? No kid deserves that. What kind of sick person could do something like that?"

Lin had a solemn and mournful expression on her face, as if understood exactly what Sanken had whispered to Bolin without even hearing it. As an officer within the Republic City Police Force, stories like Sanken's were all too common and she had encountered her fair share of cases like his during her line of work.

"Don't look so sad Bolin." said Sanken, smiling creepily. "There's no need to dwell on it anymore, because they're all dead now."

"I don't know what to say." said Bolin, with a sad expression. "How did you go from that to where you are now?"

"Eventually, I discovered that I was an earthbender." said Sanken. "When I had first heard about Toph Beifong and the stories of all the things she had done in her life, it made me want to learn how to earthbend too, and so I started training in secret. After hearing about how she had overcome her disability of blindness to become one of the greatest earthbenders in the world, it made me realize that I could do the same when it came to my weak body. I wanted to become strong just like her. Strong enough to leave behind my old life and start a new one. Learning how to earthbend opened up a whole new world of possibilities to me and taught me how to be strong on my own. I wanted to travel the world and learn all I could about the bending arts. One day, I finally decided to run away. My foster family didn't take to kindly to this however, seeing as they would lose their main source of labor, so they tried to stop me. Things escalated quickly, and in the ensuing fight I tried using my earthbending to defend myself, but since I had never used it in a fight before the force behind it turned out to be way stronger than I had anticipated. It broke the support structures of the house and the whole thing collapsed on top of them, crushing them all to death but leaving me unscathed. The village probably thought it was earthquake so some people came to check it out, but rather than sticking around and possibly being blamed for their deaths I just ran. I ran as far away as I could and didn't look back. I didn't care anymore, because now I was free, free to do as a wished. Nobody would ever hurt me again. In the years that followed, I learned just about every style of earthbending there was. Every earthbending master I learned from told me I was a prodigy like no other. I even got to meet my idol Toph Beifong and learn a thing or two from her."

"How does that lead you into joining the Red Lotus though?" asked Bolin. "You have so much talent, so why waste it on a group like them?"

"Because with the Red Lotus I have found comrades who would never hurt and actually treated me like a real family, unlike those people who raised me." said Sanken. "There was one guy among the Red Lotus who I grew particularly attached to, the man named Tensu. When I first met him in my travels throughout the Earth Kingdom, I could tell right away that there was something about that was the same as me. We were both people who had something broken about us and had been cast aside, abandoned by the people we thought we could trust. The two of us were kindred spirits and we formed a close bond, almost like parent and child. He was the father I never had, and through him I was eventually recruited to join the Red Lotus. Part of the reason I joined was because it seemed like a chance for me to meet all sorts of new and unique benders, but I joined so that I could stay by his side. He became my protector, and I became his. We were both weak in our own ways, I because of my lack of physical strength, and he because of his metal body, but each of us made up for what the other lacked through our own individual strengths. We were like the perfect bending duo, and that excited me most of all."

"I guess even among the Red Lotus there are those who have comrades they care about." said Bolin, with a look of understanding. "Just like Zaheer and his group."

"I hope you don't hold this against me Bolin, but it's either you guys or me." said Sanken, levitating Bolin and Lin higher up into the air, preparing to drop them off from a great enough height to kill them instantly. "The punishment for acts of treason and sedition against the Fire Nation royal government is very harsh. It can mean a life sentence or worse, death. Don't worry though, I'll try to make your deaths as quick and painless as possible." Sanken then had a pained look on his face, making it very evident that he did not want to do this. "Of all the people I met in my journey, why did one of them have to be a fool like you. If only we could have become friends under different circumstances. It was nice getting to know you Bolin."

As Sanken prepared the finishing blow, the clanking sound of wearing heavy armor could be heard as someone entered the hanger, and Sanken immediately looked over to see that Varrick was nearby. On his body Varrick wore what appeared to be Lin's armor, which had been wrapped in copper wire and pieces of metal, and a cable led from it to Zhu Li, who was standing behind him and holding a device constructed from their radio equipment.

"Alright Zhu Li, it's now or never." said Varrick, swallowing hard. "Either this thing works like it's supposed to, or it fries me like an eel."

"Here goes nothing." said Zhu Li, flipping the switch on the equipment she was holding.

Upon activation, the suit began to vibrate and hum as it sent out a magnetic pulse into the surrounding area. All loose metal objects in the room began to levitate and Sanken could feel it beginning to interfere with his own magnetic bending. The magnetic suit had sent out a powerful magnetic field comparable to his own, and now the two were beginning to clash and cancel each other out. Sanken could feel his control over his magnetic bending began to weaken and slip, and finally he was forced to let go. All the floating metal objects in the room suddenly came crashing down, and with it Bolin and Lin were released from Sanken's magnetic grip.

"Now's your chance Bolin!" shouted Varrick. "He shouldn't be able to use his magnetic bending while this thing is active!"

As they were falling, Bolin quickly used his earthbending to pull out a large pillar of earth from the ground and then forced the tiny particles of earth within it separate, causing the pillar to turn into a pile of fine sand to break their fall. As Bolin and Lin landed they disappeared into the pile of sand like a needle in a haystack and Sanken immediately lost sight of them. Sanken began to panic and tried using his seismic sense to find out where they were hiding, but the large amount of sand made it difficult for him to pinpoint their exact location. Moments later Bolin and Lin shot out from the sand, appearing on opposite sides of Sanken as they made a dash towards him, Bolin approaching him from the front and Lin approaching him from behind. He would not be able to stop both at the same time, and as he tried to decide which opponent to focus on, Bolin used his earthbending to move the ground beneath Sanken, throwing him off balance and putting him within range of Lin. Sanken quickly tried to regain his bearing, but it was too late for him to do anything now. Lin reached Sanken and tackled him to the ground, forcing his hands behind his back in an arm lock.

"Got him." said Lin, proclaiming their victory. "Alright, now bring me some rope so we can tie him up."

Zhu Li walked over to one of walls of the hanger and picked up a coil of rope that had previously been used to hold the planes in place. She handed it to Lin, who began tying up Sanken's arms and legs.

"That was some quick thinking coming up with that device of yours Varrick." said Lin, looking at magnetic suit he had created from her discarded armor. "You turned out to be a much bigger help than I thought you would."

"I just needed some inspiration to get my brain working." said Varrick. "I shine best when I'm under pressure."

"Well, it looks like you caught me." said Sanken, accepting his defeat. "It was fun while it lasted."

"Why did it have to turn out like this?" asked Bolin, sadly.

"That's just how life is sometimes." said Sanken. "Our circumstances and experiences shape us into the people we are. It did for me, and it did for you as well."

"If only things had been different." said Bolin, beginning to tear up. "I could have done so much good in those three years I was travelling around the Earth Kingdom while working for Kuvira. If only I had met you during that time. We could have become friends much sooner, and then maybe I could have saved you from going down this path."

"Don't feel sorry for me." said Sanken. "My actions up until now have all been the result of the choices I made. This is what I chose to do with my freedom, and now I have to face the consequences of my actions."

"Will we ever see each other again?" asked Bolin.

"Sure we will." said Sanken, smiling. "Do you really think any prison they put me into is going to be able to hold the most powerful earthbender in the world after Toph Beifong? At least I will be the most powerful earthbender once she kicks the bucket. This little adventure of mine with the Red Lotus may be over, but that doesn't mean I'm done living my life yet. I'll eventually escape and just go back to doing what I did before I joined the Red Lotus. I'm not the weak person I was before. I can look after myself now."

"I don't know why, but I think I believe you." said Bolin, wiping his tears away."

"Before you go, I've got a parting gift for you Bolin." said Sanken, wiggling around his tied up hands. "See these black metallic bracelets I'm wearing on my wrists? I want you to have one of them. They're made out of a special type of iron ore called hematite. Some earthbenders use them to help in training their metalbending, so you might find it useful for training yours. Since they were made as a pair, they start to react the closer they get to each other. I'll keep one, and you keep the other, and that way we'll be able to find each other. That's how we'll meet again in the future."

"I'll keep it by my side and use it to practice my metalbending every day." said Bolin. "Mark my words, the next time we meet I'll be a metalbending pro."

Bolin then proceeded to take off one of Sanken's bracelets from underneath the ropes and put it onto his wrist, and as he did so he could feel it start to pull towards its twin that Sanken was wearing. Lin then began to lead the tied up Sanken away, and Varrick followed behind her with his magnetic suit in the off chance that Sanken might try to attack them again.

Many years ago, the man known as Tensu awoke to find himself laying in a hospital bed, surprised to still be alive. Days before, he had been ordered by his commanding officer to stay behind to cover the escape of the royal family during the Battle of Kotei City. He and his fellow soldiers had practically been sent out to their deaths as cannon fodder on a mission that they were not expected to return from alive. They had been abandoned and left behind to die at the hands of the enemy by those who they had been sworn to protect, all while the higher ups had fled with the rest of the Fire Nation military forces. The last thing Tensu could remember was trying to fight back against an overwhelming number of enemies as his comrades were cut down one by one, and in the process he stepped on a landmine, after which everything went black for him. He had somehow miraculously survived, but upon looking down at his body lying on the bed he found that both his legs and his left arm had been blown off along with part of the left side of his torso. His face had also suffered extensive damage, and what remained of his body was now covered in burn marks and wrapped almost completely in bandages. He tried to reach out with his one reaming arm, but as he did so he felt an intense pain engulf him as the sensation returned to his body, causing him to scream out in agony.

"It seems you've returned to the land of the living young Tensu." said a voice from the other side of the room.

"Who's there?" asked Tensu. "Where am I? How did I get here?"

From out of the shadows of the room emerged an old man riding on a mechanized wheelchair equipped with a life support system.

"You've likely heard of me from the other Red Lotus members." said the old man. "I am Xai Bau, leader and founder of the Red Lotus."

"So you're our great leader Xai Bau?" said Tensu, surprised at the sight of the frail old man in the wheelchair. "Zaheer and the others had mentioned your name before, but this is my first time actually meeting you. I guess that's to be expected, since I only just recently joined a few years ago after I was freed by Zaheer from the servitude of that warlord. Are you the reason I'm here now? Did I manage to fulfill my mission before I blacked out?"

"Despite what the Fire Nation propaganda may have you think, not everyone who fights in war gets to have a noble death and go out in a blaze of glory." said Xai Bau. "Unfortunately for you and your comrades, your deaths were quite the opposite, brutal and meaningless. You all believed yourselves to be fighting for your country, yet that same country viewed you as nothing more than expendable tools to act as a shield for the royal family, and then they discarded you when you had fulfilled your purpose. After the Fire Nation army had pulled out from Kotei City, they refused to send in anymore manpower or resources to take it back, leaving the citizens there to send for themselves. Since the Fire Nation refused to help its own people, we of the Red Lotus stepped in and took it upon ourselves liberate the city and its people from the control of the warlords. After that we searched for survivors, and luckily your cousin P'Li happened to be one of the Red Lotus members who were sent there. She recognized you among the casualties laying there in the battlefield, but you were the only survivor from your unit. You had sustained serious injuries, so we had you rushed here to our base to receive emergency medical care, as you can see however things will never quite be the same for you, nor will you be able to resume living a normal life ever again."

"How could this have happened?" said Tensu, the stark reality of his situation finally sinking in. "This isn't fair. I fought for the Fire Nation and gave everything I had to protect it from those who would tear it apart, and now this is how they repay me for my loyal service, with betrayal?"

"That is the cruel reality of the world we live in." said Xai Bau. "The Fire Nation you thought you were protecting is a lie. It does not care about you. Those at the top are only conserved with their own self-preservation. In a way, they're no better than the warlords who started this war. All that matters to both sides in this conflict is simply gaining power and maintaining it, and those who are caught in the middle of it are just an afterthought."

"Then what was even the point of all this!" asked Tensu, tears rolling down his face. "Why did so many people have to die so needlessly? Was it all just for nothing? Did I make the wrong choice when I decided to enlist in the Fire Nation army? Was I naive and foolish to think that I could actually change the system from within?"

"You were not wrong for wanting to change things, this corrupt system is wrong." said Xai Bau. "You were merely a victim of it. A cog in the machine. Even I have tried to change it, but failed as well. We are both at its terrible mercy."

"Then is there truly no hope for change?" asked Tensu. "Are we simply expected to just bow down and accept things as they are, regardless of how twisted and unjust they may be?"

"If there is to be real change then the root of the problem must be solved." said Xai Bau. "For too long have the nations of the world perpetuated this flawed notion of thinking that only a select few are fit to rule over the masses and decide their destinies for them. In order to bring about change, we will first need to tear down this archaic system that has been put in place to ensure the rule of the few over the many, and only then will people finally have the freedom to choose their own destinies."

"Is such a thing even possible?" asked Tensu. "To do something like that, you may as well be fighting against the entire world. It's impossible."

"It's only seems impossible to those who lack the vision to comprehend it." said Xai Bau. "People fear change because of its potential to disrupt the order they have come to know and rely on for their everyday lives. They fear the unknown, so they blind themselves to the possibilities. Even the Avatar feared this notion, and when I told him of my vision for change, he rejected it. I however do not fear change, because my eyes have been opened to the possibilities. I do not cower away from them, I embrace them wholeheartedly."

"If the solution is that simple, then isn't it obvious what needs to be done?" asked Tensu, beginning to agree with Xai Bau. "If the Avatar could not see it, then he must be a fool. He claims to be the guardian of peace and balance in this world, yet where was he during this whole conflict where so many fought and died?"

"If change is what you desire, then do you wish to help me in bringing it about?" asked Xai Bau, making a proposal to Tensu. "You seem to have the will and determination to go through with it. Sometimes in order to bring about change, you must grab hold of the wheel yourself. If you join me, we can both correct this imbalance together and bring about the change we desire. All that you have fought for, it won't be in vain. If you were to redirect all that drive and energy you once had while fighting for the wrong cause into this new goal, then all you have sacrificed so far for the sake of the Fire Nation will be given meaning and purpose."

"I would gladly demote myself to such a cause, but in my current state how will I even do that?" asked Tensu, sadly looking down at his mutilated body. "I am quite literally half the man I used to be."

"The flesh is weak and easily replaceable." said Xai Bau. "You can be rebuilt."

"Rebuilt?" asked Tensu, intrigued by the possibility. "How will that happen?"

"The Fire Nation currently possesses the most advanced medical technology in the world." said Xai Bau. "Cybernetics and metal prosthetic parts are easily available to replace those you have lost, and in some cases they may even function better than the original flesh and bone. As leader and founder of the Red Lotus, I have more than enough funds to pay for the operation for both you and I."

"I'll do it then." said Tensu. "Anything to have my strength and mobility back. But what do you mean both you and I? You're going to undergo the operation as well? I don't see why you would even have a need for it, considering you're still in one piece."

"That may be so, but this frail and worn out body of mine will not last forever." said Xai Bau, now coughing as he spoke. "Old age and years of accumulated injuries have begun to take their toll on me. My organs are starting to fail and give out on me. I am slowly dying. In our current states, we won't last long enough to see our dream be fulfilled, so we will need to be remade into something much stronger and more durable. I tire of having to constantly stay tethered to this life support system, as well as the humiliation of having to go the bathroom in a bag. Once we are rebuilt, it will take some time for us to recover before we are ready, so we will have to stay safely hidden while Zaheer and the other members of the Red Lotus continue on with their respective missions."

"It will be a small price to pay, but if you can bear it then so can I." said Tensu.

"With our new bodies we will be able to do so much more." said Xai Bau. "We will have the strength to finally free the Fire Nation from the tyranny of those who have abused their power for so long, and you will be able to take revenge on those who have done this to you. You will become what the Avatar could not be, by doing what he could not do. You will be the one to pave the way for bringing our grand vision to fruition."

Tensu reached out his hand toward Xai Bau, and Xai Bau proceeded to grasp it with both of his hands, the two of them now sealing their oath and conviction to fulfill the ideal of the Red Lotus to bring freedom and change to the world.

As Tensu and Iroh continued their fight atop the metal scaffolding surrounding the upper floors of the prison, the constant glow of their firebending began to resemble the flickering light of a firefly to those who were watching from down below. They jumped from platform to platform, nimbly moving from one metal beam to the next as they continued their duel. Iroh clothes had now been scorched in several places, and parts of Tensu's metal body had melted and fused together due to being repeatedly hit by Iroh's flames.

"What's the matter Iroh?" asked Tensu, noticing that Iroh was breathing heavily and sweating. "Your movements are slowing down. Are you beginning to tire out already?"

"Speak for yourself." said Iroh, firing back. "Your attacks are starting to lose their power and ferocity. Are you perhaps starting to feel conflicted about having to kill your former comrade and friend?"

"That might have been the case if it was the old me you're fighting, but not anymore." said Tensu. "The man you were once friends with is dead now. He died the day his nation betrayed him and left him for dead."

"You're lying." said Iroh, dodging a kick from Tensu. "That's just what you keep telling yourself because it makes it easier for you to justify your actions. I know your heart feels conflicted. I can sense it in the way you're fighting. This isn't who you are. You were once a good man Tensu. What happened to you that day was unfair and unjust, but instead of rising above it and overcoming it you let to consume you and make your heart to grow dark. Xai Bau took advantage of that and manipulated your desire for revenge in order to make you his puppet to carry out the ideals of his cause. He couldn't have Avatar Aang, so he brought you under his wing instead to replace him."

"I've heard enough!" shouted Tensu, angrily sending a stream of fire towards Iroh. "I've come too far and sacrificed far too much to just turn back now!"

Tensu pushed on, forcing Iroh further towards the direction of the prison wall, and as the fight dragged on the metal scaffolding grew increasingly more unstable from all the damage it was taking. Iroh's words were beginning to eat away at Tensu's conflicted heart, and he started to put some thought into them, recalling the events of his life that had shaped him into the person he is now. He first saw his childhood living in the mountains with his family among the Zatsu Tribe, and then the day he and his cousin P'Li were taken away from their home and forced into the servitude of the warlord Jushin. He then saw the day Zaheer had rescued them and became his friend, and later how he had been recruited to join the Red Lotus, where he befriended other people such as Ghazan, Ming-Hua, and Unalaq. Next he saw the day he enlisted to join the Fire Nation Imperial Army, and how he met and befriended Iroh, who despite being royalty treated him as an equal, and from then on they lived, slept, ate, and trained together as part of the same unit, becoming almost like brothers.

After that was when things changed, and he saw the day he and his unit had been left to die at the Battle of Kotei City, Iroh having been away at the time, and then he saw the moment he nearly died. He saw how he awoke several days later to find that he had survived and when he first met Xai Bau, who told him of his vision for the world, and how he agreed to help him fulfill it. After that he saw himself being rebuilt with metal parts, and all the time he had to spend recovering alone as he painfully adjusted to his new body, and then later hearing of how Zaheer, Ghazan, Ming-Hua, and P'Li had been imprisoned by the White Lotus, and feeling guilty for not being there to help his friends. Next he saw how he gradually became more and more obsessed with taking revenge against both the Fire Nation and the warlords who had first started the civil war, and how he eventually tracked down and killed the warlord Jushin as revenge for ruining his life, but it wasn't enough to satisfy him like he thought it would, and he only wanted more after that. Finally, he saw the time he spent operating in the Earth Kingdom during Kuvira's reign, and how he had first met the boy Sanken, befriending him and forming a strong paternal bond with him, as if he were his own son.

"Where did I go wrong?" asked Tensu, thinking to himself as he reexamined his life. "Did I choose the wrong path, or was it chosen for me? Was I truly just Xai Bau's replacement for the Avatar after he failed to convert him over to his beliefs? Am I just blindly following a path Xai Bau has set out for me by twisting my desire for revenge?" Tensu thought deeper into it, and then a realization hit him. "What have I done? Zaheer, Unalaq, Iroh, they were my friends, and I pushed them away, all because I thought our goal was more important than they were. If only I had been there, Zaheer and the others might not have gotten captured, and maybe Unalaq would not have fallen into depravity like he did if I had just gone to him in his time of emotional upheaval rather than staying hidden like Xai Bau had ordered me to. I drove Zaheer off after making him feel unwelcome and unneeded after he told me he just wanted to pursue his dream of becoming an airbender, and now I'm trying to kill Iroh, the very same brother-in-arms who would have bled and died for me. They were my true comrades, the ones who would never abandon me, but I abandoned them and cast them aside because I thought I no longer had a need for them. I'm no better than the same people who callously tossed me aside and left me to die."

After making several more moves, the metal scaffolding attached to the stone wall of the prison finally gave out, and several of the stones in the wall began tumbling down with it, destroying the ramp they had used to climb up there, forcing Tensu and Iroh to stop their fight and begin looking for a way to escape. They were stranded high above the ground with no way off, and both of them were now too weakened and exhausted to even be able to use their firebending to propel themselves away for an escape through the air, having already used up most of their energy and stamina during the fight. It did not seem like they would be able to get away in time before the platform collapsed, so seeing as they were about to meet their end Iroh accepted his fate.

"I guess you won't be dying alone this time." said Iroh. "As brothers-in-arms, we fight together and we die together."

"I hope you can forgive me for all that I've done Iroh." said Tensu, apologizing to Iroh and accepting their coming demise. "However, I chose this path and now I must live with my choice, but I won't let you be dragged down with me because of it."

"What are you saying Tensu?" asked Iroh, surprised by Tensu's change of heart.

The metal platform then collapsed and began plummeting down towards the ground, and as it did so Tensu noticed a small hole in the stone wall of the prison. There would only be time for one of them to jump over to it in the small window of opportunity available to them, so thinking fast Tensu turned to Iroh.

"This is goodbye Iroh." said Tensu. "You were a good friend. Too good for me."

Tensu then ran over to Iroh and proceeded to kick him hard in the gut, sending him flying backwards off the falling platform and into the hole leading inside the upper levels of the prison. Tensu on the other hand fell along with the platform, the surrounding metal and stone pieces collapsing down onto him as he hit the ground, no doubt crushing him to death. Tensu had kicked Iroh away from the falling platform at the last second so that his friend would be saved, but at the cost of his own life. Once he landed on the floor of the prison inside, Iroh quickly got up and ran over to the hole in the wall, looking down at the pile of debris below and starting to cry.

"Tensu you fool!" shouted Iroh, calling out to him. "Even after everything that has happened, you still found it in you to do something like this for me? Is this your way of apologizing to me and repenting for what you've done?"

There was no response from below, and from the silence Iroh knew his friend Tensu was now gone, having sacrificed himself to save his life rather than allowing both of them to die. As Iroh looked down with tears in his eyes, a small grayish-white speck landed on his hand, and he looked up to see that many of these same grayish-white specks were now falling down from the sky.

"It's snowing?" said Iroh, surprised by the unusual sight. "It almost never snows here, especially not in the summertime." After examining it more closely, Iroh then realized what it was. "It must be ash from all the battles happening throughout the city right now. It's falling down here like snow, almost as if the sky itself is crying."

The flakes of ash continued to fall from the sky like snow, landing one by one around the spot where Tensu lay buried beneath the rubble. The land of the Zatsu Tribe in the north was the only place in the Fire Nation where it was known to snow regularly, and with this strange display of ashy snow it was almost as though Tensu's homeland was calling for his spirit to return home.