"Leader, they are approaching."
Inside the castle in the southern part of the Earth Kingdom and near Ba Sing Se's main city, outside the walls, was Noatak — aka Amon — and his army.
After freeing his brother, Noatak had worked hard to convince people to join him.
He could have killed the Earth Queen any time he wanted,
but if he did, the kingdom would sink into massive chaos.
With 30 to 40% of the population of the Earth Kingdom joining him, Noatak wasn't far from achieving his goal.
But lately, things had been peaceful. The enemy had been gathering weapons — weapons that were meant to deal with him and his rebels.
Planes, they called them. He knew them, as they had been part of the anti-bender weapons.
And they had lost a battle once.
'Never expected Hiroshi to hate me so much that he would sell them weapons. Well, he hates all benders, so I doubt that they forced him.'
"Very well." Noatak nodded, clenching his fist.
He stepped out of the castle. Following him were earthbenders and his brother, Tarrlok.
After the Avatar had taken his bending, Amon managed to restore it.
Both he and Aang had learned the same energy-bending technique. Both could take bending using the same technique, and they could reverse the effect using the same technique as well.
"Earthbenders! Create domes and hide under them. When their bombs are over, we'll shoot them back. I'll take as many as I can in the meantime," Amon said.
Standing at the edge of the castle, he looked at the sky.
A group of planes appeared in sight, their motors audible from a distance.
The first wave arrived, high in the sky.
Noatak put his hands behind his back.
A plane after another continued flying without dropping anything on them.
Even though the Earth Queen's plan of using planes against him was sound and logical, Amon wasn't just standing there.
After being defeated by Akashi, Noatak had come to realize that he was weak.
As he had never trained since finishing his training as a kid, he had picked it up again. He had gone into the wild, perfecting his already refined skills — bending large animals, more in number every time, and from longer distances, through overload progression. For six months, he had never neglected it. And after having suffered defeat at the hands of planes once, he had trained only his range.
And so, one plane after another was caught in his bloodbending.
Had the jet planes been slower, he would have bent the driver.
But even so, from a distance, he still had his limits. More planes arrived, numerous and fast.
'This is going to be very tough. A lot of martyrs will be lost.'
The world suddenly became enveloped in darkness. The planes flew about randomly.
Shortly after that, the planes, one after another, blew up and fell.
Noatak looked confused.
The only harm they were getting was from the falling metal.
Yet, other than that, their enemy had been annihilated.
'I don't get it. Darkness suddenly took over the day, and now, everything blew up?' Noatak thought, turning his head.
It seemed that everyone there shared the same thoughts as him.
-x-X-x-
What no one knew was that there was a man laughing behind the scenes — Hiroshi Sato.
After the darkness enveloped the world, he thought that there would be no more perfect time.
It was an unexplainable phenomenon. If something happened during an unexplainable phenomenon, no one would question why.
And so, he had triggered the self-destruction mechanisms in the planes he had given to the Earth Queen.
He didn't know if she was using the weapons now,
but he knew that the rebels wouldn't waste time. They would think that all of the weapons were destroyed thanks to the strange phenomenon, and they would march to the palace,
because they knew if they didn't, the Queen might use other types of weapons.
"Though," Hiroshi muttered, smoking a cigar in his office, "I wonder what's this darkness. I just hope that Asami is fine."
But without knowing that Asami was out of harm's way, he wouldn't have attempted to destroy the Earth Queen.
Though he wondered how she would react, knowing that she had lost a massive part of her force.
She might want to blackmail him again, but she had lost a massive portion of her army. And she'd have to deal with the rebels crawling to her palace.
'It's still a mystery to me why Amon didn't just go to her place and kill her. He's a bloodbender, a league above bloodbenders. Snapping her out of life would be very easy for him. But why?' he wondered.
-x-X-x-
"I'm sorry about what happened to your father," Korra said to her cousins, "but you know, he brought it on himself."
"It's okay," said the girl. "He brought it on himself when he fused with that spirit."
"And you're not the one who killed him, cousin," said the male, staring at Akashi.
"Yeah, about that," Akashi replied, "both tried to kill him. I just delivered the killing blow."
The male clicked his tongue. "Very well. He was a dead man the moment Vatuu took over his body. We'll just take his remains and bury him in the North if you allow us."
"Sure," Korra nodded. "You can use the portals to take your father to the North Pole faster."
"What about the ships?" the female asked Akashi. "They're full of injured people, thanks to this man. We can't carry them through the South Pole and transfer them."
After conversing for some time, Akashi came to realize that the twins were both royals.
And if you know something about royals, they weren't raised like normal people, and their mindset differs.
They could kill their own sibling, their own kin, just to get the throne and all.
And they seemed to genuinely believe that it was their father who brought it on himself.
Well, in canon, they helped Korra's team. Mainly, it was because the girl fell in love with Bolin, and the twin just followed along.
'That's very twisted love — to follow your sister no matter what she says, even to fight your father.' Akashi sighed and shook his head. 'He's in love with his sister.'
The twins went to the remaining lower half of Unalaq, wrapped it in ice, and dragged it all the way to the portal that led to the North Pole.
Soon after, they appeared again and went to the portal that led to the South Pole.
The portals, which were connected, started diverging, becoming two pillars of light in the sky.
"I think I should leave the portals open," Korra said. "If spirits and humans didn't separate, someone like my uncle would never appear."
Akashi faked a cough. "Sure. Let's give these Northern Tribe gentlemen a chance to travel to your tribe anytime. It's not like some soldiers like their generals so much that they wouldn't seek revenge on the poor, powerless Southern Tribe. And it's not like humans aren't greedy anyway. Let us connect them."
Korra tightened her glare and gazed at Akashi. "You didn't have to mock me for it."
"I didn't." Akashi faked another cough.
"Next time, I'll punch your shoulder with Avatar State activated," she replied, clearly not in the brightest mood.
Akashi sighed and decided to stop.
No matter what Unalaq did, he was still a member of her family. She'd soon come to resent him and hate him more. But for now, she'd release it. Akashi doubted that her decision to leave the portals open was due to her secretly mourning the loss of a family member.
Korra sighed, walking to the North Pole's portal, placing a hand on it. The pillar of light vanished.
"You're not going to close the other one?" he asked.
"No," Korra shook her head. "I've seen how many dark spirits have formed because the portals were closed. Leaving one should be enough to keep them happy."
Akashi shrugged.
To connect both worlds, both portals needed to be open.
One open wouldn't mix the laws and wouldn't mess with the real estate market.
Because if it did, Akashi would close the portal with his own hands.
"Good choice, Korra," Akashi smiled widely at her.
As soon as they got away from the South, he would fly there again.
"What are you planning?" she asked suspiciously. "I know that smile — something's fishy behind it."
Akashi scratched his chin. "I don't know what you're talking about."
She pointed at him, eyes wide open. "You did the scratch thing. Tell me!"
"Nothing… truly nothing," Akashi replied. "We've things left to do in the South Pole. Let's leave."