Winding Legacies: A 'The Legend of Korra' Rewrite

Episode 12: Enter the Void Part 2

Zaheer's gaze jumped from the Avatar to P'Li who was too wrapped up with the metalbenders to even have a chance to attack the Avatar's protectors. And if he airbent his way back to the peak, they would surely shoot him out of the sky without hesitation. Still, they needed the Avatar or else all their work would have been in vain. Taking five large steps back, Zaheer ran forward with all the power in him and jumped off of the edge of the ramp toward the peak.

Tonraq and Korra both blinked in surprise. They didn't expect him to be that desperate for her.

As Zaheer suspected, Tonraq immediately readied himself to bend flurries of icicles to stop his advance. Korra stepped behind him as she tried to figure out the best way to angle her hands so that her restraints wouldn't stop her bending's force. She turned to see Lemaya analyzing Lin and Suyin as they fought off P'Li's fire with the metalbenders. Soldiers were blown off of the peak only to propel themselves back upward using their metal cables buried into the mountainside. Their quick reset was admirable, but it couldn't last forever. Eventually, without a chance to really hit her where it hurt, they would run out of earth to throw at P'Li.

The combustionbender's back was to the Zaheer so she had not seen Tonraq and Lemaya arrive to help. Perhaps that would give Lemaya a chance to provide Lin and Suyin with an opening to strike P'Li before she blew the entire mountain into flames.

Lemaya averted her gaze for a moment as Korra took her hand in hers. It was only a second in real time, but to her it was a lifetime as Korra gently grabbed her hands that she didn't even know were shaking. The clink of Korra's chains died in her ears as Korra gave her a simple nod of encouragement, a silent promise that it was all going to be okay.

The next moment Lemaya was taking off toward P'Li as Korra joined her dad in attempting to prevent Zaheer from reaching the peak once more. Lemaya had noticed that P'Li retreated to the tip of a pillar an earthbender had created to get a better view and pin down the straggling soldiers' press toward her.

Just as she began to pass the left side of the pillar, Lemaya thrust her hands out and grabbed hold of P'Li's hand with the little water she had left in her pouch. The tremor in her fingers tried to tell her otherwise, but she knew there was no other way. Any aerial attacks from the back would have turned P'Li's attention to Zaheer which would only put Korra in more danger and ruin the chance she was trying to give the Beifong's.

Knowing that P'Li would try and dig her heels into the pillar to prevent being knocked off balance by the attack, Lemaya let the momentum from her stream of water swing her to the front of the pillar, keeping P'Li's gaze firmly away from Zaheer. As the cool water flowed over her fingers, Lemaya shot the other end up P'Li's arm before freezing it solid, slamming her hand to the ground where the water cooled to hold the combustionbender in place.

Her beam turned to Lemaya and Lin rushed forward from the small barricade that the metalbenders had made to cover her, blocking the blast with a slab of rock. "Are you out of your mind?" Lin huffed as she fought to keep her arm steady. Other soldiers directly behind them advanced to provide additional width to the barrier 

"Maybe, but now I get to drag you into being bait with me as we give Suyin a chance to knock P'Li down a peg or two." Lin chuckled. She liked the sound of that.

"What did you have in mind?"

After the quickest explanation she could manage, Lemaya stepped back as Lin yelled at the two soldiers to her right to keep P'Li busy for a minute. Holding up a single finger to Lemaya, Lin ran backward to Suyin's side, dropping to the ground as explosions sounded just feet away. She knelt before her sister with a determined look in her eyes as she said, "Lemaya and I are going to draw her fire. You take her out."