The Only Hope

Book 4: Chapter 22

Now

Alarms rang in our ears like whining children, and the flashing lights turned everything red.

“We need to move fast. Su, Lin, climb up to the arm and try to disable that weapon. Mako, Bolin, Bri- get to the engine and see if you can power this thing down.  I'm going after Kuvira.”

“Are you sure? When you fought Kuvira before-” Korra nodded and cut Su off “I know, she almost destroyed me. Not this time.” Nodding at her, I looked at Mako and Bolin.

“Come one boys-” I narrowed my eyes as I begun to move, “This one’s for Leza.”

We rushed through the suit, and once we found the engine room, Bolin broke in using a lava saw- super cool move to witness despite the current situation. After opening the panel, we poked out heads in, “I'm going for that lever. You get the other one. Bri, you get to the other side- there’s a panel over there too.” With that Mako jumped out, and Bolin followed on his heels. As they each took on a guard, I hopped into the room, pushing my up into the air. I went around the big spirit vine thing, landing a few feet from the panel. Rushing over, I lifted my hands and stared down at all the buttons and switches.

I was totally lost on what to do. So I took a gamble. Choosing a small area, I picked out a red and green button to choose from. Just as I was about to press down on my first random-button-guess, a blast of fire came roaring at me. I ducked, thinking it was a miss fire from Mako at first, but when I rose back up I saw it was from someone else- the walking dead.

“Not so fast, Princess.” Kwon held his hands out in a stance, his cold eyes watching me. I wasn’t sure how to respond- the sudden numbness of his fake death came back to me. I had been so distracted by Kuriva I had yet to still take in the fact that Kwon wasn’t dead.

He sent another wave of fire at me, to which I avoided again. Taking a stance, I shot a bolt of air at him. “I don’t understand- you’re supposed to be dead!” He took another shot. “Oh I bet you wish I was!” I sent out a defense.

“Why- why would I do that- Kwon I loved you!” At that he let out a scream and sent a bolt of lightning at me.  “LAIR!” I hopped up, the lighting barely missing my side. “You never loved me! You never could!” he sent another bolt at me. “You loved him! You always loved him!” His strikes got faster as his anger rose, but they also got more reckless. At one point I lost my footing and nearly got hit by a fire ball. Luckily I was able to roll away and only the ends of my hair were singed. As soon as I was safe, I was back up.

“That’s not true Kwon- I was ready to spend my life with you! I changed everything about me- for you!” He threw another hit. “To try to forget him! You never cared about me! You-you- self-centered jerk!” he threw one last wave, before meeting me in the eye. We were both panting, our chest heaving. “That’s why I faked my death. Kuvira showed me the light, showed me that all monarchies are corrupt and need to be destroyed. So that was when I planned my death, because in doing so it freed me from you and everything that is wrong with our world.” I shook my head slightly, unable to believe that I was hearing red lotus things from him. Where had my Kwon gone?

“You’re wrong, people like Kuvira and Amon and Zaheer are what’s wrong with the world. People who try to think that the world is something small that they can control, when in fact it’s so big it controls us.” I slowly began to swing myself around, where my back was no longer against the wall. “We have the power to change the world, but when it’s done in a way of hatred and death- then those aren’t the saviors or uniters. They’re murders, they’re evil. Pain and suffering is not the right path to find a sense of justice- and you know it. You’re parents believe you are dead- we mourned your death! How is causing so much distress to the people you care about the most an excuse for peace?” His eyes, which had grown soft at one point, hardened again.