A/N: Full author's note at the end! In the meantime I don't own ATLA or LOK. Happy reading and leave a review!
And I Am Travelling
Chapter 1: Lost Girl
She refuses to let Asami stay, though it's not for lack of trying on the other girl's part.
After Jinora's ceremony Korra remains just long enough to observe the niceties and assure everyone that she's on the mend, before feigning exhaustion and making her excuses to leave. She lets Asami wheel her back to her room and get her situated near the window. She could do it herself, but it doesn't hurt to let Asami help. Everyone's feeling powerless right now, no one more than herself, somehow when she lets Asami do this small thing she can almost pretend that the other girl is just being nice. She can almost pretend that a lot of the help Asami gives isn't something she needs.
Almost.
She does put her foot down, figuratively at least, when Asami starts bustling around her room. Letting her help with the small things does no harm, but Korra can't bear the constant movement and the accompanying hovering. It's too much of a reminder.
"Go enjoy the party," she says, forcing an upbeat note into her voice, "You shouldn't miss it just because I need a nap."
Asami smiles at her, but Korra can tell it's forced, "I'm not missing much. Between Ikki, Meelo, and Kai, that party's going to be more excitement than I can handle."
Korra struggles to keep that cheery note in her voice, "Well go enjoy it anyway. Someone's going to have to tell me all about it later. Besides, I trust your rendition of events more than Mako's, and especially Bolin's."
That elicits a small, but genuine laugh out of Asami.
"Well that's definitely true," she chuckles, as she moves towards the door. She pauses a moment before she actually opens it though. "Are you sure you'll be all right? That you don't want company?"
Korra half turns in her wheelchair and offers Asami a small smile. "I'm going to look out the window for a bit then take a nap. Hardly exciting. And don't take this the wrong way, but if you say you want to stay here and watch me sleep it's going to creep me out."
Asami returns the smile so Korra knows the one she mustered up at least looks real.
"You sure you don't want me to stay?" she asks as Korra waves her off.
"Positive," Korra replies returning her attention to the view out the window.
"Alright," Asami says, opening the door. "Let me know if you need anything, okay?"
"Yep," Korra says, keeping her attention fixed on the view until she hears the door close behind Asami. She counts to fifty in her head before she finally lets the tears that started during the ceremony fall.
She doesn't make a sound on the outside, she's never been a loud crier, but inside her emotions are a mess. In all the time after the poisoning she's never cried. She's yelled, and been angry, frustrated and sad, but until now she's never cried.
She's not sure why Tenzin's speech set her off. Maybe there's not an exact reason. But everything just seems so… hopeless.
After all, she should be getting better, and she's just not.
Which she guesses isn't all that surprising. She's always known she's a lackluster Avatar at best. She can't even claim the list of accomplishments and accolades that have been attributed to her as actually being hers.
She spent most of her life in the White Lotus compound while the world seemed to get one just fine without her. Even after she left and moved to Republic City, her presence only seemed to make things worse. If the Equalist mess taught her anything it's that she's not a very good peacekeeper. In fact, insinuating herself into the situation only served to make the Equalists lash out. Sure she eventually defeated and exposed Amon, but he got away in the end. And the seed of unrest he planted didn't vanish with him, even after she restored his victims bending (which she only managed to do because she had Aang to show her how).
And then there was the Civil War between the Northern and Southern Water Tribes. Not only had she been tricked into opening the Spirit Portals, but she hadn't managed to prevent, nor stop, the war once the fighting broke out. The only reason the war had ended was because the Spirit World issues trumped those of the two tribes. And even those she had completely mishandled. Without Iroh to guide her in the Spirit World and Jinora help her in the real world she never would have been able to revive Rava and vanquish Vatu. The fact that she'd only had a connection with the Spirit World for a few months is proof enough of that.
Even the reappearance of the Airbenders wasn't her doing. The Spirits did that. She may have chosen to leave the portals open, but only because she'd had guidance and insight from Avatar Wan—a connection, she painfully reminds herself, that is now lost—and really her uncle is the one who really opened the portals in the first place.
And then there's the Red Lotus, who managed to escape their prisons, kill the Earth Queen, start a revolution, and land her in this sorry state. Their emergence, and continued existence, may have cost her the most, but it was by no means the first time she'd failed. Even Tenzin had seen that. Wasn't that why he'd commissioned the Airbenders to roam the world in service? To make up for all her obvious failures?
Yeah, she's done a bang up job as the next Avatar.
And now there's no one to help her.
Oh sure, she's got adults full of sage advice all around her, but they don't understand, not really. They all have their responsibilities and many of them knew Avatar Aang at least at some point, but she has the world on her shoulders, and that was the one section of her training the White Lotus never covered. And why should they, when she had all those past Avatars to consult?
She wishes she could talk to Avatar Wan. Just to ask what it was like having all that power and all those expectations with only his gut to guide him. She wishes she could talk to Aang. To ask him to help her make sense of this world he helped to create. To ask him what she should do, now that she can barely get out of bed by herself anymore. To ask him if she's still the Avatar, even if she never recovers. To ask him so many things.
She's not sure when the tears finally stop falling. She's not sure when exactly she dozes off. She's not sure where her thoughts end and her dreams begin.
All she knows is that the darkness creeping over her is a welcome relief and she lets herself sink into the blackness.
She wakes with a crick in her neck and immediately regrets falling asleep in her stupid chair. She gingerly lifts her head and can practically hear the muscles in her neck screaming in protest as she rights her lolling head. She's so focused on not causing herself more pain that it takes her a moment to notice that something is… different.
Her neck doesn't hurt from sleeping sitting up, but from her position lying on the hard ground. She can feel the stones under her body, smooth, as if thousands of feet have slowly worn them down. And she smells… seawater? But it's much stronger than the light scent that drifts into her bedroom on the wind. So she's outside? But how did she get here?
She carefully opens her eyes, expecting to see the bright electric skyline of Republic City twinkling back at her in the night. Instead she's greeted with a low stone wall overlooking a wooden ramp that leads down to an ocean reflecting the last bits of twilight. And that's all there is. Just ocean. No far off coastline, no sprawling city; just endless ocean stretching out in front of her.
This isn't right. She knows this isn't right. But before she can work herself into a panic a young, excited voice catches her attention.
"Hey, she's awake!" the voice exclaims, causing Korra to quickly glance behind her.
Apparently she didn't end up here by accident.
She scrambles around to face the group of people circled around the fire pit and takes up a defensive stance, ready to attack if need be. Most of the group appears to be younger than her, but after what happened last time she was kidnapped, she's not taking any chances. After all, they still don't know much about the Red Lotus and who—or how—they recruit.
But it's a strange group to say the least.
At first glance they all appear to be from the Fire Nation, dressed in reds and golds, but they don't all look the part. The older boy in the back does, but he's standing out of the fire's direct light while the others sit closer making it hard to tell. Two of the girls might be, but the other one along with another boy both have water tribe coloring meaning at least one of their parents isn't from the Fire Nation. The smallest boy—the one who call out to her?—definitely isn't if the Airbender tattoos are anything to go by.
Airbender… tattoos… but that doesn't make any sense! The only other Airbending Master, besides Tenzin, is Jinora!
…Isn't it?
"Smooth, air-boy, way to scare the daylights out of her," the Water Tribe boy says.
The boy shoots her a sheepish look, "Sorry," he mutters as Korra tries in vain to figure out what's going on. "We were just worried," he admits in a calmer voice, "Katara checked you over when we found you on our way back from the village, but it's still good that you're awake."
"Um… yea," Korra sputters, glancing towards the Water Tribe girl. Katara's not an unusual name in the Water Tribes, but naming your kid that is bold to say the least.
"Anyway," the boy continues as if Korra hadn't spoken, "I'm Aang, and this is—"
"Aang!" the older boy in the back cuts across him, silencing the Airbender. "Don't tell her who we are! We don't even know who she is or how she got here!"
He angrily strides towards the boy and as he comes into the light Korra catches site of a vivid and familiar scar stretching across his left cheek and eye. It takes her a moment after the words have left her mouth for her to even realize she's said them.
"Lord Zuko!" she gasps, causing the older boy to freeze and the rest of the group to focus on her.
It's amazing how fast they close ranks. One minute they're relaxed around the fire and the next all of them are up, wielding various elements and weapons. Seeing the serious looks on their faces and having identified Lord Zuko, it's almost too easy to place the others. Too easy and also completely impossible… and yet…
She's seen the statues of them around Republic City, most of them weren't much older than they are now when those statues were made. But…
"This is impossible," she whispers, dropping out of her defensive stance to stare at the young faces around her. "You can't… I can't be… how did… are we… in the Spirit World?" She can barely complete the thought as her mind rebels against what she's seeing.
The Airbender—Aang, it has to be Aang—frowns, but doesn't drop his stance. "Why do you think we're in the Spirit World?"
"Because," she pauses, "Because it's the only thing that makes some kind of sense! Because…" Korra takes a deep breath, hardly daring to believe what she's about to say, "Because you're Avatar Aang, and I'm the next Avatar, Korra."
A/N: And that's chapter one! As I'm sure you can tell by now this is a time travel-ish AU-ish fic that I came up with after seeing the LOK Book 4 trailer on Friday and getting some encouragement from a friend. So this takes place right after the Ember Island Players episode in ATLA and right after the end of Book 3 of LOK. Essentially it's my twist on Korra's state of mind at the end of Book 3 and will probably be completely AU when Book 4 airs on Friday. This will be a short fic (5 chapters) and the chapters will be short too. I'll post a chapter a day with the final chapter being posted Friday morning-ish before the new season airs. Drop me a review and tell me what you think! Next chapter will be out tomorrow!
-Skylar