Ally Beifong

21: The Dark Spirit

"Unalaq is going to destroy the world with the help of the dark spirit Vaatu. We went to the south to stop Unalaq, but I have no idea if we're going to be too late."

"Mom, I have to help," Ally said as she boarded the ship. 

"Be careful, please," Lin whispered as she pulled her daughter into a hug. "I love you."

"I love you too," Ally smiled and Lin stepped back to watch the ship leave the harbor. Ally decided to leave her police armor behind and was wearing traditional earth kingdom clothing. A sleeveless top with brown pants, boots, and a piece of dark cloth that served as a belt. She was wrapping her hands in leather, flexing her fingers as she went. She sparred with Korra, teaching her evasive maneuvers and better tactic. 

"How did you learn to fight so well? And without bending?" Korra asked. 

"Lots of practice," Ally chuckled as she held her fists in front of her. She stood on the balls of her feet, almost floating above the ship's metal. She was light and quick on her feet. "So what were you saying earlier? About Raava?"

"Raava is who made us the Avatar," Korra explained. "She bonded with the first Avatar, Wan, and then 10,000 years passed, and here we are. She's inside us, right now. And I think I've figured out why there are 2 avatars this time around. Raava split into 2, then bonded with us."

"That makes sense," Ally replied as she landed a punch on Korra's stomach, causing her to reel back. "Want to take a break?"

"Please," Korra groaned. "I'll go train with the dummy." She set up a sparring dummy and started attacking it with gusts of air, Tenzin monitoring her form and accuracy as she went. Ally tied her hair up in a high ponytail with two strands that fell past her ears. She leaned up against the side of the ship, staring out into ocean surrounding her. She wasn't a huge fan of the ocean, she knew how to swim, but it was the unknown that scared her most. She listened as Tenzin explained his plan. 

"Blast through the blockade, rendezvous with Tonraq, then get to the spirit portal and go into the spirit world," he said. 

"That's not going to work," Ally didn't even turn to face her father, she kept her eyes on the sea. 

"I beg your pardon?" Tenzin asked. "Why won't it work?" Ally turned around and looked at the airbending master with piercing green eyes. 

"There are 8 of us," she told him. "There are dozens of Unalaq's troops. We're outnumbered and over powered."

"I-" Tenzin started, but Ally held up a hand to stop him. 

"I know you want to rescue Jinorah," she said gently. "And we will, but we have to go about this a different way. We can't blast our way through this."

"How long until we're there?" Bolin asked. He was wearing a vibrant purple coat and snacking on a cake.

"Soon," Asami chimed in. "But we have a problem, I just got a distress signal from the southern water tribe." They got to the southern water tribe and took Oogi the sky bison into the village, they were going to see if Katara could heal Jinorah. They learned that Tonraq had been captured by Unalaq and the resistance had been wiped out. 

"Katara is in the healing hut," Senna said. "There were so many that were injured." When everyone got to the hut, dozens of bodies were strewn across the floor, wrapped in bandages and barely moving. Some couldn't even sit up. Katara ran over when she saw her family, Ally was carrying Jinorah, trying to sense her energy, but she was fading. Her soul had been trapped in the spirit world for over a week, and Katara did her best to heal the young girl. They fashioned a plan to get to the spirit portal without being spotted. Asami, Bolin and Mako would take a plane to create a distraction, then everyone else would fly into the spirit postal when they had an opening. When they got to the portal, there were dozens of soldiers and meca-tanks waiting for them. Asami, Bolin, and Mako took the plane to destroy the outer defenses, but spirits attacked the rest of the group, weighing Oogi down and knocking them into the snow. Everything went dark, and the next time anyone was up, they were captured and chained. 

"This isn't going to work, Unalaq," Korra groaned. "This will be the undoing of the world." 

"You haven't brought balance either, you separated spirits and humans, creating chaos," Unalaq growled.

"Fine, if Vaatu gets out of his prison, we'll put him right back where he came from," Korra snarled at her uncle. "Just like Wan did all those years ago."

"This time, things will be a little more... equal," Unalaq smirked. "I will fuse with Vaatu when harmonic convergence is upon us. And we'll become the new avatar."

"You can't!" Ally threw herself forward, her wrists cutting up against the metal of her chains.

"You'll destroy everything, you'll destroy yourself!" She had two jagged cuts in her cheek one that resembled her mothers almost perfectly. She tried to bend out of her handcuffs, but for some reason, she couldn't. After a little while, Bumi came in to rescue them, much to everyone's surprise. They got to the spirit portal and entered the spirit world, just in time to find Unalaq and a load of dark spirits. Ally and Korra went into the avatar state and started to close the portal, while Mako and Bolin held Unalaq off. 

"Ready?" Korra asked. 

"Ready," Ally replied. They put their hands on the portal and their eyes glowed white. Together, they tried to bend the energy in the portal to close it, but it was too late. Harmonic convergence was upon them, they were out of luck. The portals shot out a beam of light that curved in an arc above the tree of time, sparking with electricity, the portals turned green. A flood of purple light, and a sound like a horn caused a shockwave to go into the material world. The entire world turned purple as lights appereared in the sky, like the northern lights, but everywhere. The portals energy combined sent several bolts of lightning into the tree, causing a red explosion, then Vaatu was free. It was too late, they were out of time.