Chapter Text
“Look at you, avatar. Pathetic.”
His words pierced through her mind as she stood, barely inches from him. That familiar burning sensation of mercury flooded her veins while he towered over her, an unforgiving gaze glaring down at hers. She couldn’t turn her head from him, not once. Fear had paralysed her from the waist down.
“Please.” Korra breathed softly, her lip quivering as her shoulders tensed. “You’re not real. Just— Just leave me alone.”
“Alone?” He echoed with a snarky laugh. His body began to float, as though gravity ceased to exist.
Korra looked around. Nothing but a barren wasteland of dust and dried up earth for as far as the eye could see. No one was coming to save her.
As she looked back at him, time had paused. A grin formed on his face, as if he was taking great pleasure in her suffering and fear.
“You’ll die alone, Avatar. You are a failure.”
The young adult felt herself scream, but no sound came out while he suffocated her with a ball of her own air, pulled from her lungs, and circulating her head. Her chest heaved with desperation.
“You are a failure, Avatar Korra.”
“Korra…? Korra!”
Korra jumped up at the sound of Asami’s voice. Her face was drenched with sweat while she panted heavily, grabbing her throat with a hand. Tears trickled down her face slowly, and by what she could tell, she had been crying a lot.
It wasn’t the first time Korra had one of these nightmares. But it certainly wouldn’t be the last. They hardly come anymore, but when they do, the feeling of it is hell. It’s always the same thing, same feeling, same torture method that perhaps even the spirits can’t help her with. It always leaves her trembling violently, sometimes screaming, sometimes sobbing. It didn’t make sense to Korra why it still happens. It had been so many years, so why?
As she turned to look at Asami, she found her body had become weak with fear. She unintentionally leaned into Asami, falling into her arms. It wasn’t difficult for Asami to catch her — they had just both been asleep after all. But Korra could sense her girlfriend’s worry, and guilt overcame her.
“Are you alright?” Asami cooed, “Was it Zaheer again?”
Korra looked at her slowly and gave her a small, subtle nod. “Zaheer again.” She confirmed. “I’m sorry.”
“Hey, it’s alright.” Asami placed a gentle kiss on Korra’s forehead, her gaze soft once she saw Korra getting calmer. “I’ve been awake for a little while anyway. Are you hungry?”
“No, not at all.”
Korra sat up and heaved a heavy sigh. She turned to look at Asami, and smiled. For a moment there, she thought to herself. She wondered how, after everything they had been through and after the night terrors that wake both of them up at night, Asami could bear to call Korra her girlfriend with such pride. When Korra looks into her eyes, she always expects to see disgust, dissatisfaction or disappointment. But instead, all she sees is nothing but love and affection.
Korra frowned, ‘How could she truly love someone like me?’ She thought to herself.
Asami got out of bed, pulling her arms up into the air to stretch. There was a slight click of the bones in her shoulders before she lay them down by her side, humming in satisfaction. “Well, I think you should be getting ready. You did say you wanted to hang out with Mako and Bolin today, right?”
The avatar’s eyes lit up, “oh, yeah! Right.”
Asami smiled at her, before dashing off. “I’m first in the shower!”
“Hey! Not fair!” Korra replied, giggling as she jumped out of the bed and chased Asami down.
As Asami and Korra approached the air temple on a Bison, they noticed the four kids playing together — Meelo, Ikki, Rohan and Jinora. Rohan sat on Meelo’s shoulders, while the other two girls chased them. It was an amusing sight for both of the women to see, especially when Meelo tumbled and fell, but successfully caught his little brother. They could sense the sigh of relief from there as the two girls caught up to him.
It wasn’t long until the children noticed them though, when Korra and Asami finally landed. Their eyes all lit up, and four grins appeared on each of their faces.
“Korra!” They all said in unison as she got off.
“Hey Asami!” Jinora looked at the Bison with curiosity, “Since when did you guys get a bison?”
Asami chuckled, “We ran into some trouble on the way here. Thought we’d drop off this bison.”
The bison growled in response, as though saying ‘thank you’ before flying off.
Korra kneeled down to Rohan, a smile appearing on her face. “Well,” she said excitedly but breathlessly, “haven’t you gotten big!”
Rohan grinned, a big toothy smile which showed one of his teeth missing. “I have a surprise for you, Korra! You won’t believe what happened!”
She hesitated, “what happened to your tooth? Aren’t you too young to be losing baby teeth?”
“Meelo.” The girls stated simply together, making the young boy shuffle away uncomfortably.
Asami snorted in amusement, “Well, that’s boys for you.” She sighed, “what’d you wanna show Korra, Rohan.”
Without any warning, a sudden tide launched itself miles upwards behind them with the swift movement of the five year olds hands. It shook the earth, and make Asami and Korra jump. And as quickly as the tides rose, they fell again.
“A water bender? But isn’t his mother a non bender?”
The two remained in silence, and all that could be heard was Tenzin walking towards them. But neither of them could be distracted by the great power this child in front of them held.
After a moment, Tenzin spoke. “Rohan is a powerful and gifted waterbender.” He stated, “my mother was a child to non-benders. It is possible.”
Asami looked up at Tenzin, “A power like that though? At five?”
“He’s got the strength of an avatar!” Korra exclaimed.
Ikki laughed, “Well, when you two have a child of your own, I’m sure you’ll find she’ll be as powerful as Rohan is.” She ruffled his hair, looking up at Asami with great pride.
The two women looked between themselves awkwardly and a little confused.
“Don’t be silly, Jinora!!” Meelo retorted, getting into his sister’s face. He paused for a moment to think, “wait, two girls can have babies?”
“Uh, it’s Ikki? And yes they can!”
Jinora got inbetween them, shoving them both back. “What Ikki means is, if you guys ever decide to adopt, you might end up picking a powerful—“
“Yeah, we’re not having children.” Asami said quickly, “I can only tolerate children from afar. No offense guys.”
Meelo shrugged. “None taken.”
“Well, I think children are a wonderful blessing.” Tenzin said.
“Yeah, I think we can tell.” Korra sniggered.
“All I’m saying is, don’t get ahead of yourselves. You never know what might happen.”
“Ugh, you sound like my father.” Korra mumbled, turning away. “Right, we’re going back. We have to go see Mako and Bolin before they think we forgot them again.”
Korra grabbed Asami’s hand, as if getting ready to waterbend her way back to republic city.
“Aw, you’re not staying?” Rohan pouted, and Asami turned back to look at him. “We’ll be back soon.” She reassured, waving goodbye as the two left. The other children and Tenzin also waved goodbye, watching as they travelled off into the distance.
“Get back here, rat!”
The girl narrowly dodged a ball of dirt coming from her head, feeling the breeze of a man hopping directly behind her afterwards. She was able to move quick enough so he couldn’t yank her like he wanted to, and instead weaved between his legs to cross into an alleyway.
She panted heavily, speeding up as three more men blocked her path. They manipulated the ground under her feet, raising it as if trying to catch her off guard and make her trip. But unfortunately, they were unsuccessful. She used them as leverage, leaping with a gust of air as a boost to lift herself towards a pipe sticking out. She swung on it, landing safely on her feet into the street. The little girl had almost bumped into an elderly lady on her way, but narrowly dodged them as she sped into the street.
Korra and Asami walked down the road together, holding hands and talking lovingly to each other. Beside them were Mako and Bolin, who also joined in the conversation with laughter and giggled. But, their conversations would soon be disrupted as a car drove into another one and launched into the air, narrowly missing Bolin as he ducked. They watched it crash into a shop, and immediately knew something was wrong as they turned a corner.
The girl lifted up a car with great force, letting out a yell as she threw the car at the men attacking her. She seemed young, her body was thin. But every move that they made, every rock and stone that flew past her, made the men’s abilities look like child’s play.
Korra ran ahead first, yelling. “Stop!” But the girl seemed unphased. In fact, it looked as though she couldn’t hear Korra when she repeated it. The girl picked up another car, and that’s when Korra took another step forward.
She shivered, and her eyes darted back behind her. Without a second thought or hesitation, she dashed the car at the avatar, who managed to counter her attack with air bending of her own.
Mako, Bolin and Asami ran to Korra’s side.
“An airbender,” Mako breathed. “She looks strong.”
“But why are those men attacking her?” Bolin questioned, pointing out her targets.
“I don’t know.” Korra replied darkly, “but I know they’re up to no good.”
Korra attempted to use waterbending to disarm the girl, but as a wave of water was shot at her, she threw the car to one side and sent a gust of wind upwards to counter it.
Korra seemed surprised, “How did she…?”
“Okay, that’s enough—“ Mako shot a ball of fire at her, but again, the attack was countered. Korra tried again, then Mako, and then Bolin. But all were unsuccessful. Though, the girl’s moves became sloppier much faster, and it wasn’t long until one of the men knocked her out with a large stone to her head.
At that moment, before the men could hurry to her, Korra got there first and protected the girl with a wall of earth. She grabbed hold of the little girl, who stirred but did not wake and lifted her onto her shoulder. At that moment, Korra activated her avatar state, but it was useless as the men retreated once the walls fell.
Asami bolted to Korra, holding her tightly. “My god, are you alright?”
Korra nodded slowly, “yeah. Not sure about the kid, though.”