Akashi raised his eyebrows, looking at the Earth Queen, who avoided his gaze.
"Do you have a fetish for kidnapping airbenders?" asked Akashi.
"Not really," she replied. "My father always talked about how strong and cool they were. I thought having them as strong agents would do me some good. So, I got my citizens who suddenly became airbenders. Though, I executed the person who suggested kidnapping you. So, we should be fine."
Akashi shook his head.
He was thinking about the Order of the Red Lotus.
His memory of the show wasn't so fresh. But he knew that Zaheer had a firm belief that the world should be led without the Avatar. The rulers should die, and a new system would rise. And for that, he would try to aim to kill the Avatar and poison her. Of course, he would change his mind later when he'd see how much damage his vision for the world caused, and how flawed it was.
But that wouldn't work the same way in canon.
The Avatar was less nerfed.
And… she hadn't lost the connection to the previous avatars.
All of their fighting experience, bending ability, and mastery were for Korra to access at any moment she wanted.
Forget about having experience; just the overwhelming power of the light spirit was enough.
'But I shouldn't let my guard down. Remember, Roku died to a volcano's smoke. Talking about nerfing. Why not just go into the Avatar's state and turn off the volcano?'
Akashi shook his head.
"Just bring the airbenders… I'm taking them to the temple with me," Akashi ordered.
"You're not going to tell anyone about this?" she asked. Truth be told, if the Order of the White Lotus knew about her operation of kidnapping people, and if they went after her—while she was in the middle of the war—she would be in a very bad position.
"Even if I told anybody, they would just consider it a concentration camp horror story of the rebels," lied Akashi, assuring the Earth Queen.
Her time was limited, and she had less than a week.
And by the end of that week, Akashi would claim her life and change the rule of Ba Sing Se.
She would think that he wouldn't want to kill her, since he just didn't. Of course, she didn't know what was waiting for her, and that was the element of surprise that Akashi kept secret.
Not that he needed it for a strategic point of view, but he genuinely thought it was fun to surprise her by being the person to kill her.
Very soon, a man came up with Hiroshi. The latter didn't look broken or anything. If anything else, he had bruises all over his body. It seemed that they had tortured him to force him to make weapons for them.
Meeting Akashi's eyes, Hiroshi took some time to analyze the situation.
Akashi was sitting on the throne. The Queen stood beside him. Bodies and blood filled the ground. He turned his head to see unconscious people in critical medical conditions lying around.
He then turned to Akashi.
Needless to say, he was the one who had done that.
Hiroshi had been there before, when Akashi had defeated a whole trained unit of anti-benders—dressed in mecha suits.
And now, he defeated a larger unit of earthbenders.
It didn't come to him as a surprise, as he had known that Akashi was capable of doing that—the main reason he entrusted him with his daughter.
"Akashi!" Hiroshi smiled, his eyes brightening up. "You kicked their asses!"
"Yeah, I did," replied Akashi calmly, raising his eyebrows and then smiling.
Hiroshi walked to him, arms wide open, as if asking for a hug.
"Come here, daddy-in-law," Akashi invited.
Hiroshi didn't pick up on that, and he hugged his future son-in-law without realizing it.
"They tortured me, starved me, and threatened me with my daughter. Is she fine?" he asked.
"Yeah, she's fine." Akashi pointed his thumb to the queen, "And her agents are now at the bottom of the sea."
She just opened her eyes widely. But it seemed that she knew when to shut up. So, she didn't say anything.
Hiroshi glared at the queen, pulled out of the hug, and pointed his finger at her.
"Now, do you have something to say?" he shouted. "Do you want me to make you weapons now! Why are you silent! Say something! Say something!"
"Just shut the fuck up. Just because you are lucky to have him on your side doesn't mean you're a shit," she replied, and then turned to the servant, saying, "Bring the Airbenders."
"As you command, your majesty," said that man, before turning away.
Hiroshi kept glaring at the Earth Queen, lashing at her, and shaming her, while standing behind Akashi.
It got so annoying that Akashi turned to him and commanded coldly, "Sit and shut up."
"Ahem." Hiroshi cleared his throat and took a seat.
By then, the airbenders were brought. Akashi had to admit, his race wasn't what he was expecting, with green-eyed brunette chicks on the ground. The Airbenders were around 50. That's how many they had collected. And Akashi doubted that there were more airbenders who had yet to be discovered.
Akashi smiled widely.
Finally.
Tenzin wouldn't keep nagging about having to take his daughters.
"Who are you?" asked one of the airbenders in front, reading the room, and realizing that the queen wasn't the one in the position of power.
"I'm the one who will save you," Akashi said, "And you'll be protected from anyone, if you decide to join the airbending temple?"
"And who are you to be trusted?" asked a woman.
For the last weeks, they had been kidnapped, tortured, and beaten by the Dai Lee, forced to train very hard to master airbending.
And the worst part, it was them who had to discover everything. The Earthbenders couldn't teach them, but they could act as a motivation for them to learn on their own. And that put a mental shackle on the airbenders, not to trust anyone.
Akashi snapped his finger, causing wind to surge everywhere.
"I'm just an airbender, like you guys," Akashi said humbly.
The airbenders looked at him with less suspicion and more trust now.
Akashi then stood up, turned to the Earth-Queen, and held her shoulder, smiling slightly.
She looked at him with a confused, afraid face.
"Take care," Akashi gave her a pat and turned.
Hiroshi followed after him, and so did the airbenders. They left the palace from the door, and no one tried to stop them. And the queen didn't even call her army.
"How are we going to leave?" asked Hiroshi, looking around Ba Sing Se and the citizens staring at them.
"It's easy," Akashi said, flicking his finger. A bunch of airbenders floated.
"Whoa…"
"What is this."
"Airbending. It allows you to do that!"
They expressed their wonder, seeing that they were floating.
Akashi smirked.
Ever since he reached max level in flying, not only could he have command over his body, but the air around other bodies. That meant that he could use airbending to make others fly the same way flying bison could fly.
But overdoing it could put a serious drain on his Chi.
So, he just made around 10 fly with him.
"You guys stay here, and I'll get back," Akashi said to the others.
He then flew. And since there was an air-temple nearby—an empty one, owned by Tenzin—he took them there. If Akashi was correct, there were air temples everywhere around the Earth Kingdom. In the past, there was even one in the Fire Nation.
Akashi took them to that place, finding only a few White Lotus Order members, guarding the place. Needless to say, they were quite hostile to see someone flying to them.
Akashi introduced himself as an airbender, and he told them to call for Tenzin, to tell him that Akashi found around 50 airbenders.
If Akashi was correct, Tenzin would feel like a young Pokemon trainer, and he would be very happy with the existence of others, and he would try his best to train them.
And so, Akashi went back to the others.
He found Hiroshi and the others staring at him.
Akashi picked another ten airbenders, flying with him. Needless to say, thanks to his speed, the flight didn't take long. And he repeated the process four more times.
"You're not planning to take me to the temple?" Hiroshi asked, as he was left alone in that spot, and Akashi went back to receive him.
"I'm planning to make you pay for saving you," Akashi smirked.
"How much?" asked Hiroshi, not complaining.
"Forget it," Akashi shook his head. "Just remember, you're in my debt."
"I'd be my whole life. It's needless to say that, since you know that I would never forget it." Hiroshi nodded. At this point, the money didn't matter to him. There was plenty.
'Remember it when you see your daughter all over me,' Akashi thought, before snapping his finger, making Hiroshi float. Akashi dragged him