You & I

The Equalists: Part 1

A/N- we have now skipped the Red Lotus kidnapping and entered Avatar Korra's timeline, we will revisit some of the events that took place in between as flashbacks and memories. This starts at the end of book 1 of Korra's time.

Iroh's POV
"General, I just received a wire from the Avatar. She says Amon and his forces have gained control of the city. How do you want to respond?"

I stared out at the horizon, with a straight posture, and my hands clasped together behind my back as I calmly responded, "tell her we will be arriving in three days time and that I look forward to winning back Republic City, together."

He saluted me, "as you wish, General Iroh."

—

As we approached Republic City, we met no resistance at all.

"Hmm. Amon had to know we were coming. So why aren't we meeting any resistance?"

The soldier behind me shrugged, and I stood on high alert, looking around for some sort of ambush.

I muttered, "something's not right."

At that, explosions began from underneath our ships.

"It's a trick!" I sprinted up to the captain's cabin and commanded through the speaker, "water and earth benders, detonate those mines!"

Then I heard something in the distance, it almost sounded like buzzing.

"What is that sound?"

I ran to the window and to my disbelief, there were a swarm of some sort of aircraft I had never seen before, dropping bombs over the entire fleet of ships.

Soldiers jumped overboard, trying to escape the explosions, whilst others stayed to fight back.

I did my best to fire back at the air crafts with the rest of the soldiers, before climbing up to the watch tower to take down as many as I could from higher ground.

Until three came at me all at once, I fired towards them again and again, but only managed to take down two of them. The last one released a missile straight towards me, which I countered with a fire blast, but the impact sent me straight into the ocean.

I remember everything going dark, and feeling completely numb, before waking up again spluttering for breath, hearing an unfamiliar voice, "it's alright, I've got you."

I coughed up some more water before turning to see a younger, quite muscular water tribe girl holding me up, "Avatar Korra..."

When she didn't correct me, I knew I wasn't mistaken and I smiled at her gratefully, "you saved my life... thank you."

She used her water bending to send us back to the shore; her and her friends took me to where they were camping out. I sat down as Korra healed my injuries and explained to her group, "I was prepared to deal with Sato's mecha-tanks, but not these new, high-speed aircraft."

She sighed, "I know. Every time we think we have an advantage, Amon outsmarts us."

Her earth bender friend, Bolin, chimed in, "No matter what our plan is, he always has a better one."

I furrowed my eyebrows, "Amon is winning so far, but we're not out of the fight yet."

Bolin excitedly grinned, "I like this man's confidence!" Before his expression dropped and he looked at me confused, "so, how are we not out of the fight?"

I stood up as Korra finished healing me and explained, "A second wave of reinforcements is on the way, but I need to warn them. Do you still have a way to get a message out?"

Avatar Korra smiled, "I know just the man for the job!"

She led me to a scruffy man with a missing front tooth, "and who is the recipient of this top-secret message?"

"Commander Bumi, second division of the United Forces."

Avatar Korra asked, "Tenzin's brother?"

"Yes. A bit of a wild man. But the bravest commander you'll ever meet, some of the most talented soldiers I know are in his division."

The scruffy man announced, "ready, sir!"

"Fleet ambushed and destroyed by equalist aircraft. Retreat to Red Sand island until my signal. Do not approach city until you receive the all clear."

—

We pulled out a map and I begun, "now comes the hard part, we need to ground those aircraft, otherwise, Bumi's fleet will never be able to retake the city."

The fire bender in their group, Mako, pointed at the lower right of the map and said, "they flew in from this direction. The airfield must be somewhere over this mountain range."

I looked up to the rest of their team, "everyone get ready. We leave at dawn."

Everyone nodded and the non-bender of their group, Asami Sato muttered, "it's time to take down my father."

As we tried to leave to rest, Avatar Korra called after us, "wait. I'm sorry, but I'm not going with you tomorrow."

Mako responded, "what?"

Followed by Asami, "why not?"

"I'm sick and tired of hiding from Amon. It's time I face him."

I stepped in front of her friends and protested, "that's not a good plan. We need to stick together."

She furrowed her eyebrows and yelled, "I'm not waiting for him to hunt me down. My gut's telling me it's time to end this. On my terms."

"Korra, this is not a mission you should be handling alone."

Make stepped forwards, "she won't be. I'm going with you."

She looked over at him, "you don't have to do that."

"Yes, I do."

I placed my hand on my chin and sighed, "my grandfather would respect the Avatar's instinct. So will I."

In the morning, everything was packed up and Korra and her friends wished each other goodbye. She left us with her polar bear dog, Naga, before leaving with Mako whilst I was sandwiched on the back of Naga between Bolin and Asami.

As we left, the scruffy man yelled after us, "Good fortune and success to you, valiant heroes!"

—

We followed the direction aircrafts into the mountains, we dismounted Naga as we looked down at the aircraft and I announced, "I think we found our secret airfield. Bolin, once we get down there, I need you to tear up those runways. We can't let those aircraft take off."

Bolin saluted me, "aye-aye, captain. Ooh, General, general."

We left Naga and their little ferret as we tried to get into the airfield, Asami looked around at the fence posts and muttered, "why would there be fence posts but no fence?"

Then as we passed through them, I felt a surge of electricity pass through my body, before I crashed onto the ground, unable to move.

I woke up in a cell, tied to Bolin.

An old man walked up to our cell and called, "Asami. Asami, I know I have hurt you, and I am sorry. But I believe that one day you will come to your senses and we can be a family again."

She retorted, "are you insane!? How can we be a family after everything you've done!? Mum would hate you for what you've become!"

He grasped onto the bars of the cell and yelled, "how dare you! I am avenging her death!"

An equalist approached from behind him and announced, "the airplanes are ready for takeoff, sir."

"Good. Annihilate the fleet."

I felt my heart drop as I gasped.

Y/N.