All the airbenders are rounded up in the courtyard by Ming-Hua, Ghazan, and Zaheer. Katara and Kya were among them as well.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet a true airbending master." Zaheer says to Tenzin.

"What is it you want from us?" Tenzin asks

"Nothing at all. In fact, if everyone cooperates, you will all walk out of this situation unharmed."

"Then what are you doing here?"

"I want Aang, and I'm tired of chasing him."

"You're using us as leverage."

"Yes."

Katara stands up with a determined look on her face, "I'm not letting you get to Aang."

Bumi, Kya and Tenzin stands as well, "Neither are we." Tenzin says.

"Unfortunately, you don't have a choice." Zaheer replies.

"Yes, we do."

Tenzin pushes the three criminals away with airbending, "Jinora! Get everyone out of here. Bumi, Kya, help us hold them off!" P'Li shoots near Tenzin, but he uses his airbending to protect the group, "And stay out of her line of sight! Go, go!"

The airbenders all run away. P'Li fires a beam at the exit, though everyone has evacuated. The criminals approach Katara and the three siblings. Katara and Kya bends water from a fountain and both forms a ring around themselves. The Red Lotus ready themselves and Zaheer throws a gust of wind at them.

Katara creates a wall of water in front of them to block the attack.

Meanwhile, the escaping airbenders reaches the end of the sheltered route. They look at the stable and Kai gestures for them to move out, though they are forced to retreat when bombarded with combustion beams.

"It's too dangerous." Pema says, "We'll never make it to the stables with her up there."

"We have to try!" Jinora says.

The airbenders dodged P'Li's attacks as they ran to the bison stable. They made it to safety and hid there for a long time as P'Li bombarded the area with combustion beams.

Kai started to become impatient the longer they hid there. Eventually, he grabbed his staff and said, "I can't wait any longer."

"Wait, what are you doing?" Jinira asked.

"Whatever I can." He runs out, "Get to the bison! Get out of here!"

P'Li fires a combustion beam at Kai, who narrowly misses the attack. The next combustion beam threw Kai off the cliff, though he is able to open his glider and take flight, avoiding multiple combustion beams. As he flies past P'Li, she turns her attention to the fleeing airbenders.

Kai flies back to the airship, sending an air swipe to P'Li, causing her to misfire and blast the cliff above. P'Li turns her attention to him and fires a combustion beam. Kai protects himself with an air ball, but is knocked out.

Jinora turns back and sees Kai falling from the sky. Tears fall down on her face, "Kai! No."

-----

Zaheer somersaults to avoid Tenzin's air blast. He constantly avoids Tenzin's attacks by jumping to new heights. Before reaching the roof, Tenzin manages to land a hit on Zaheer, but he is still able to run off, avoiding the master's attack.

Zaheer makes it to the houses attached to the wall, which Tenzin follows, attacking him with a close-range blast which was blocked. Zaheer rises and lands onto the protective wall. Tenzin follows and attacks him from behind, knocking him off balance.

Zaheer manages to regain his ground and somersaults, kicking a blast of air a the meantime. Tenzin avoids the attack and fires two quick air blast, which Zaheer avoids by somersaulting above him. Zaheer lands successfully and sends an air kick.

------

Bumi jumps down to the first floor with Ghazan giving chase, melting the floor above. Once on the same floor, Ghazan erupts the floor into lava, forcing Bumi to land onto the hall. Ghazan bends the floor beneath Bumi into lava, but he is able to jump out of the way before it erupts.

Ghazan directs the lava to Bumi, but he leaps to the wall and charges toward Ghazan with airbending, sliding beneath his legs behind him. He pounces atop the lavabender, grabbing him by the neck and pulling his hair before biting him on the shoulder.

Ghazan screams in pain before launching Bumi off with an earth pillar.

Meanwhile, Kya attempts to redirect Ming-Hua's water appendages, but to no avail. Ming-Hua leaps up and attempts to land a hit on Kya, but Katara wraps water around her waist and pulls her back, making her fall.

Ming-Hua looks up at Katara with a glare. Katara at her as well as she addresses her daughter, "Kya, go help one of your brothers. I've got this."

Kya nods and runs out to help Bumi with Ghazan as Ming-Hua stands up.

"I've always wanted a chance to fight the greatest waterbender master." Ming-Hua said with a smirk.

Katara said nothing as she prepared to fight. Ming-Hua freezes the tips of her appendages into ice blades and swings them toward Katara. She ended up slicing a statue into pieces as Katara dodged the attacks.

As a blade nearly slices her, she breaks it off and throws it to Ming-Hua. Ming-Hua grabs the blade and throws it back to Katara, sending two more ice spikes in the meantime. Katara manages to break off two of the ice, though is knocked against the wall by the last fragment.

Ming-Hua bends a water vortex and charges toward Katara, but she is able to send a large wave of water to Ming-Hua, knocking her off the cliff. Katara walks up to Ming-Hua, though is taken aback to find her bending the directed water into multiple water arms and return to the scene.

Katara's surprised look turned back to her determined one. Ming-Hua smirks and uses her appendages to attack Katara.

Katara blocks the attack the same way she blocked Hama's attack all those years ago. Ming-Hua is taken back, which gives Katara the chance to surround her with her own water appendages and freezes it.

Katara turns and runs out of the room to go help fight the other members of the Red Lotus. She runs to where Kya and Bumi were fighting Ghazan. She blocks an attack the lavabender sent to them.

As she prepares to send another attack at Ghazan, water wraps around her wrist. Katara turns in surprise to see that Ming-Hua had already gotten out of her ice encasing. As she goes to attack with her other hand, Ming-Hua throws her against the wall. Katara hits her head and the world goes black as she falls to the floor.

Ming-Hua joins Ghazan and knocks Bumi back with a water blast. His sister retreats to cover him, freezing her water to block Ghazan's rock, though the next attack shattered the ice. Bumi steps back and nearly loses his footing.

Ghazan bends a large earth fissure, throwing the siblings off the temple. Bumi airbends and holds on to the ledge while grabbing his sister.

"I got you." Bumi says, reassuring his sister. Bumi groans before turning to see P'Li.

"Bumi, let go!" Kya exclaims.

"But we could die!"

"We're gonna die if we hang on!"

P'Li directs a combustion beam toward Bumi. Bumi hangs on before letting go, narrowly missing the combustion blast. Both siblings plunge down the cliff before their fall is cushioned by trees, and they land on the cliffside, unconscious.

-----

Tenzin attacked Zaheer with an air blast, which Zaheer dodges. Tenzin jumps behind Zaheer to avoid an attack and counters by arching his back to throw another blast, knocking down Zaheer. Tenzin charges toward Zaheer, but is knocked off by a combustion blast.

He cushions his fall with airbending, preparing for another attack, but was struck by Ming-Hua on his right and Ghazan on his left. He dodges barrages of attack by Ming-Hua, Ghazan and Zaheer, though was knocked down.

As the Red Lotus surrounds him, he braces himself up and blows off Ghazan and Zaheer. He protects himself in an air sphere, but is blasted against a wall by P'Li. He props himself up, his clothing badly tattered and his face bruised.

"Give up. It's over." Zaheer says.

"As long as I'm breathing, it's not over." Tenzin strikes Zaheer with a close-range air blast, but misses.

The Red Lotus launches assaults at Tenzin. However, the attacks are blocked by a wall of ice. Katara removes the wall and circles the water around her with an angry look on her face. Blood trickled down her head from when she hit head.

Together, Tenzin and Katara attacks the Red Lotus.

------

Kai is licked in the face, causing him to regain consciousness. He wakes up to see himself hanging upside-down on a tree and the bison calf that licked him awake.

"Woah!" He frees himself and lands onto the bison, "Thanks, buddy. Yip, yip!" The bison flies off.

------

Team Avatar was on their way to the Northern Air Temple in Suyin's airship. They were currently flying above several mountain ranges. They stood in the meeting room as they made a plan with Tonraq and the Beifong sisters.

Suyin places an airship figurine in front of the temple, "I say we make our approach from the west, drop down from the airship on cables, ambush these Red Lotus low-lives before they know what hit them."

"It will never work." Lin says, "That Combustion Lady will pick us off one by one."

"You have a better idea on how to save the airbenders?"

"Yeah. We come up from the valley, scale the side of the mountain and take them off guard."

"That could work." Tonraq says.

"And give them the high ground? No, if their lavabender spots us, he'll melt the mountainside and us with it."

"Wait, I've got it." Bolin says, "I'll disguise myself as a lost hiker, and once I'm in the temple, I'll distract the Red Lotus with my bird calls." He creates bird calls and whistling, "That's when you all strike."

"Bird calls, really?" Mako replies.

"Well I haven't noticed you offering any suggestions."

"It doesn't matter. None of these ideas will work." Korra says, "The second Zaheer realizes we're up to something, he'll wipe out the airbenders."

"And Opal is one of those airbenders." Suyin adds, "Believe me, I understand what's at stake."

"The only plan that will work is for me to give myself up." Aang says.

"What?" Zuko asks in surprise.

"Aang, no." Sokka says.

"We'll figure out another way." Toph adds.

"I've given this a lot of thought. I have to do this."

"You can't expect us to sit by and let Zaheer take you." Asami says.

"Aang, if you do this, there might not ever be an Air Nation." Sokka says.

"And if I don't, they'll kill all the airbenders... and Katara. Without her, there won't be any future for the Air Nation. At least this way... Katara will survive."

"You'd sacrifice your culture for Katara?" Korra asked.

"I'd do anything for Katara."

Sokka places a hand on Aang's shoulder, "I'm with you, Aang."

"We're all with you, Twinkletoes." Toph adds.

------

Aang walks out of the meeting room and heads to the radio room, feeling more determined than ever. He entered the room and sat down in front of the radio.

"Zaheer, are you there?" Aang said in the radio microphone, "It's Aang."

"I've been waiting for your call." Zaheer replies, "So, do we have a deal?"

"Yes. You release Katara and the airbenders, and then I'll turn myself over."

"And take away the only leverage I have? No. I can't do that."

An angry look flashes on Aang's face, "If you hurt Katara-"

"Katara's fine. She may have a few bruises, but she put up quite a fight. Now listen carefully, here's what I need you to do."

-----

Sokka paces around the airship meeting room while the others were sitting down. As he passes by Toph, she sighs loudly.

"Sit down Snoozles! We're all tense enough as it is!"

"Sorry, I'm just worried about my sister... and Aang." Sokka replied, but continues to pace around, "I can't believe he's doing this." He stops pacing, "Actually... I can. He always put Katara before everything."

Just then, Aang re-enters the room with a disappointed look on his face.

"Did you speak to Zaheer?" Tonraq asked.

"Yes. He told me to come to the top of Laghima's Peak at noon, alone." Aang replies, "Once he has me, he'll release the airbenders over to you at the temple. He'll have Katara with him so I don't try anything. Then he'll release her once the trade is complete."

"I think I figured out a way to play this so that the airbenders and Aang all come out in one piece." Suyin says.

"How?" Lin asks.

"Zaheer doesn't know how many of us there are, so we have the numbers advantage. I say we split into two teams," She places the airship figurine on the temple, "Mako, Bolin, Asami, Zuko and Korra will take the airship up to the temple." She places a Metal Clan figurine on a mountain, "Meanwhile, my metalbenders, Tonraq, Lin, mom and I will get in position below Laghima's Peak. Sokka will go with Aang to make the trade with Katara and signal us."

Aang nods in agreement to the plan.