Note: Thank you for reading. If you haven't read any of my stories before you might want to go and read The Winds of Republic City first, as it is the first part to this ongoing story.
oOo
Korra walked… and walked… and walked some more. Time passed as if in a void and she found that she wasn't sure if she had been underground for minutes, hours or perhaps, she considered, centuries. Ridiculous, for certain, but either way, her legs were on fire and yet after all of this time there was no light to indicate an end or to show her the way. All she could trust was the sound of her boots scraping against what she assumed was a stone floor, and even that sound she was starting to lose faith in. Even the feeling of her hands on the narrow walls of the underground hallway around her began to feel like a lie of her growingly fearful mind.
The passage seemed to last for an eternity. "Little girl!" she called out. What was her name again? Korra hesitated to move any further, wondering if perhaps she and the little girl were going to die down here in the cool passage. A brief flash of light that seemed to come from nowhere blinded her in the dark as she recalled a memory she couldn't possibly have. She trembled and slumped up against the wall beside her as the name 'Sora' resounded in her ears. Korra looked up and saw honey brown eyes gazing down at her with big, sultry lips curving to reveal a beautiful white-toothed smile. The woman who had led Sora down into the passage leaned downwards and kissed Korra on the forehead, and suddenly the passage became clearer.
The musty, dank air that initially assaulted her senses and left her feeling disoriented seemed to be transitioning like a gradient into something warm and inviting. As she trekked through the impossibly long passageway, a wave of fresh air that felt like a sunny day in spring made her toes tingle and her eyes flutter close as she inhaled. Her lips parted slowly and the memory of her first kiss invaded her senses. It was a wonderful feeling but fleeting.
"Sora… Naruto's daughter. That was her name." Slowly, Korra's mind began to clear as the strange fog that had eclipsed her thoughts started to fade.
Korra's eyes widened when she realized there was a light at the end of the tunnel. She reached out toward it and pulled herself closer and closer by grabbing at the walls which she now saw were made of inlaid stones wedged perfectly into place. Her eyes narrowed, confidence restored now that she saw the light at the end, Korra called out, "Sora! Sora!"
"Sora!"
The exit was so close now. Korra felt strength return to her legs as she started running through the passage. Her eyes growing wider and wider as the dim colors of the walls broke out into the beautiful and vibrant colors of an ancient temple hidden deep underground and yet, brighter and warmer than even the brightest summer day in Republic City. The sound of cascading water whispered in her ears and then she heard a child's laughter.
oOo
"Naga! There you are, girl. Where's Korra?"
Naga was already waiting for Lin when the earthbender showed up and pet her gently along her scruff. Naga whined and turned to look toward the unhinged and shattered door at the front of the brothel.
Mako and Asami reached the walkway to the building just as Lin began to walk inside. Bolin was busy looking around, feeling a little wary even though he couldn't quite understand why.
Naga turned to Bolin and nudged his elbow slightly as he walked beside her, to which Bolin replied, "You feel that too, don't you? It's weird-scary here. Even Pabu doesn't want anything to do with it," he smiled sympathetically down into his shirt at the scared fire ferret who was busy shivering.
Naga nuzzled his shirt as if trying to comfort the tiny creature, but to no avail. Bolin pet her gently and scratched the inside of her ears for a second before walking toward the entrance to follow Asami and Mako who had already walked in.
"Bolin! Do not come in here! You don't need to see this! Asami, turn away!" It was Mako. Bolin could faintly hear him trying to comfort Asami but she wasn't having any of it. She muffled her screams with her hands but Bolin could still hear it all of the way outside.
"What's going on?!" he called out, body tensing. Naga started barking, sensing Bolin's distress. No one answered him for a while so he called out again, "Mako!"
"Just wait outside Bolin," called out his brother. He turned to look back at the gruesome scene, only to close his eyes and furrow his sweating brow. The uncertainty in his voice was clear from the wavering way he spoke. "There are… it's… there have been some murders." Mako reached out and grabbed Asami who had shirked backwards against a small alter where the broken Kiyoshi figurine lay.
"Mako… Mako… it's s-so te-terrible… how could anyone do this?" Her chest rattled and her breathing came as if she were naked in the bitter cold. Tears ran down Asami's face and Mako instinctively pulled her in close to comfort her.
"I know. It's awful. Terrifying, but we need to remember why we came here." He rested his chin on top of her head as she pressed her nose into the nape of his neck. It didn't last long however, because suddenly Asami's eyes widened and she pushed Mako back a bit so she could look into his eyes.
"Korra! What about Korra?! Where is she?!" Asami looked around the room at some of the bodies lying there, she moved close to one with darker skin and her breath caught in her throat. "Mako… is that… is that her?"
Mako turned and looked and then shook his head, "No, it's not. Look at her hair."
Asami reached to the body of the young woman and turned her from her front to her side so she could see her face. She remained teary eyed but a look of relief washed over her features when she made certain that it wasn't Korra lying there. It hurt her to think so, but she was glad that it was this woman here lying dead and not Korra.
"She's not here," Asami said, looking around the room once. So many dead, just lying there with various looks of fear and shock frozen onto their faces.
Suddenly, from further inside, Lin's voice rang out. "I have a live one! I need some help over here, get over here now!"
Mako's eyes widened and he pat Asami on the shoulder as he started running toward the hallway that led to the backroom. Just as he was about to turn the corner he looked back at Asami and said, "Go wait outside with Bolin, Asami! I'll be right back."
Asami looked once more at the girl lying naked on her side. She had been wearing a robe but whoever had attacked her had ripped it to shreds leaving her completely naked on the ground in a small puddle of blood. There was a deep gash in her chest right where her heart would be. Somehow the wound wasn't bleeding much anymore even though it was so large. She cupped the woman's cheek gently as she watched her in silence before standing up and walking further into the building instead of listening to Mako. It wasn't until she looked that dead woman in the eyes that she realized how serious the situation in Republic City had become and she knew that she had to be strong because her friends would need her to be.
Mako looked up a few moments later and saw Asami as she walked into the room while he was holding a beautiful woman a few years older than Lin in his arms.
"Is she awake?" Asami asked, looking back and forth between Mako, Lin and the blonde.
"She has a hole in her stomach. I'm not sure how much longer she's going to be alive. Her bleeding has stopped but she may have lost too much blood already. I don't know if we should wake her to try and find out what happened or try and get her to a hospital… with the way the city is right now they may not be able to help her. I can't imagine much of the hospital staff wants to stay helping strangers while their families are holed up in their homes."
"We won't know until we try, right? Let's wake her up while I dress the wound. I learned a little bit a few years ago doing some volunteer work. Here Mako, give her over to me and Miss Beifong. Lin, can you make us some staples that we can use to close up the wound?"
Lin nodded and then looked at Mako, "Go look for any kind of first aid supplies in the kitchen and bathrooms. I saw a kitchen in the room with the broken shrine earlier."
"Right!" Mako shot up and ran out of the room and back down the hallway to where the kitchen was, but not before giving Asami one last glance as he handed the blonde over to Lin's waiting arms.
"He's a good kid."
"He has his moments," Asami said, not looking to elaborate.
"Hm." Lin smirked and said, "So do you. I wouldn't have thought of making staples for the wound. It's surprising how well you are able to assess even a terrible situation."
Asami nodded, her hands checking the wound to see if it would start bleeding again if pressure was applied. It seemed like whatever had damaged the woman's torso had also cauterized its own point of entry and that is why there was very little blood spilt in any of these wounds. She wondered if it was some form of firebending, perhaps an attack with a firebender's electricity that caused this.
"Thank you, Chief Beifong."
"Lin. You said it once before. Call me Lin."
Asami and Lin shared a smile just as Mako jogged back into the room. "I started a pot of water on the stove in case you needed hot water. Here, I also found some gauze stored in one of the cupboards and some aspirin and stuff. What else do you need?"
Asami reached out and accepted the roll of gauze and the small container holding several different types of medication. She looked through it for a bit and then frowned. "We could use some damp and dry towels. Make sure they're clean before you bring them over."
"Got it."
As he went about the rest of the building, searching, Lin spoke up, "Now we just need to figure out how to transport her to the hospital."
Asami frowned, "What about Korra?"
Lin nodded, "I guess we'll have to split up. Miraculously this woman is breathing fairly normally considering she has a hole in her gut. I think it would be alright if just Bolin and Mako take her back."
Asami's eyebrows raised slightly, "Don't you mean Bolin and me?"
"No, I mean the two brothers. They will probably work together pretty well on their own to fend off anyone who might get in their way, plus they'll have Naga as backup and the Satomobile."
"OK, so we're moving on foot?"
"I think that's the best option. The first thing I did when I reached the front door was search for Korra and I haven't been able to sense her, so we should probably just move on. Wherever she is, she's not here."
Asami furrowed her brow. "So we're just going to go? What do you want me for?"
Lin smirked knowingly at the young girl, "Your expertise obviously."
"That's pretty vague, Lin."
Lin chuckled and said, "Let's focus on treating this woman's wounds and getting her ready so we can send her off with the boys and I'll tell you more as we move."
oOo
Incredibly, when Korra stepped out into the light she was greeted by a massive temple with a giant statue of a woman cradling a mass of slugs against her bosom. The slugs merged in some points and seemed to take on the form of a small girl with long cascading hair that spilled over the loving giant's gentle caress. An arm made out of those same slugs reached up to play with the earring dangling from beneath her mother's similarly long locks.
Korra couldn't help but stop for a moment to gaze upon the magnificence of the statue and all of the beautiful etchings that were carved into the stone to give texture and form a pattern on the mother and child's robes. Water spilled into the large clearing within the temple from above their heads and poured off to either side of the statue, following a trail of massive boulders that were smoothed down to act as pathways for the water to pour into the koi pond that surrounded the statue which appeared to be a part of the temple's structure.
Korra looked around to try and figure out where she was, not recognizing a place like this being anywhere in or near Republic City. She looked back into the long tunnel that she was earlier quite certain she would die in only to find that a wall had erected behind her, cutting her off from turning back for more than a few feet.
Seeing as she had no choice, she began walking closer to the large statue that was surrounded by a magnificent pond with stone pillars sticking out just above the water's surface for one to traverse across.
Korra made her way across the stepping surfaces of the underwater pillars and quickly realized that the statue and the space around her was much larger than she had realized. Surrounding the great statue in the opening within the temple was a walkway beneath an inlaid stone roof where several smaller statues that were slightly larger than human sized stood quietly in the concealing darkness that the ceiling above them provided. Once she was standing before the giant statue on one of the pillars, she noticed with surprise that the woman's face was painted and immediately she recognized the woman as Avatar Kyoshi.
Who, then, was the young girl made of slugs that she held against her bosom? Korra listened quietly to sound of running water as it poured into the pond around her. She wondered why there were platforms like this until she noticed that the water on this side was much deeper and less like a koi pond than the side in which she began.
Worse than knowing that she couldn't quite see the bottom of the pond which now appeared to be much more like a lake was the fact that there seemed to be glowing eyes staring out from underneath the water up at her. Eight sets of glowing eyes, to be more precise.
Korra suddenly felt very unsettled when she realized that there was a massive statue that easily dwarfed the woman looming over her just behind her, and it was that of an eight headed serpent carved entirely in some white, porous stone.
How she had missed it walking over she wasn't sure, but she was glad that it was just a statue.
The menacing way the long bodies of the snakes slithered out from their connected center and the way their mouths were opening up as if they were giving a warning hiss made her stomach churn. A few of them were even caught in the moment of a deadly strike, their bodies arched and beginning to extend or snap toward her. It looked unreal, and yet Korra was just certain that if she fell into the water the monster would not waste a moment in devouring her.
Regardless, Korra was tempted to take a closer look.
Hesitantly, she knelt down and pressed her palms down on the platform at her feet. She leaned over and looked over the surface of the water, taking in all of the details she could find.
The scales seemed to be made of some purple trim. What it was, she wasn't sure, but it appeared to be a kind of stone or crystal.
The porous stone of the snake itself was perfectly preserved and not a single piece of the statue seemed to have any damage or signs that it had been underwater for possibly hundreds or thousands of years. Nothing grew on the statue despite the fact that there was plenty of algae floating around in the pool and a multitude of plant and animal life swimming about below, including two koi that were swimming together in the shallow end of the pool. The statue was almost magical, as if some sort of spell or enchantment was placed upon it.
The eyes, the statue's most striking feature besides its gargantuan size, were glowing bright blue in the water seemed to be made out of a flame. Korra didn't believe it when she saw it. She just sat there in disbelief for a moment, blinking her eyes and even rubbing them to see if the image before her would change, but still the fire burned beneath the water, and Korra hoped she hadn't left her sanity in that long, dark tunnel.
For a moment, Korra thought she saw the figure of a man trapped in the center of the swirling bodies of the serpents just above their linked trunk. She was interrupted when she heard a stern voice speaking in a motherly tone, almost like she was reprimanding her for something she was doing or about to do.
"If you stare too long, you just may fall in. If that happens then you just might never resurface, Avatar Korra. Or at least, whatever comes back up won't be you anymore."
Korra stood up to her feet and glared. She wasn't sure who this woman was, but the little girl she had come in here looking for wasn't anywhere to be seen. Korra was getting impatient.
"Who the hell are you?"
Whoever it was, Korra felt like she sounded quite familiar except she couldn't quite place her. Nothing about the way she was dressed gave her any clue, other than that she seemed to be wearing a red-colored version of a long, Earth Kingdom style dress with a silk band around her waist.
Korra's eyes roamed upwards and focused on the woman's face, noting the hazel-blue eyes and amused smirk on her lips. "Aren't you cheeky? It's no wonder he's taken an interest in you. You're fiery, like his mother."
Korra blinked. "Uh… excuse me? Whose mother? Naruto's?"
Grinning, the redhead rested her weight on her other leg, shifting her stance a bit, "Bingo! My, my. There's a lot of fire here," she said pressing her palm against her chest over her heart, and then slowly and suggestively moving up past her collar bone and trailing along her neck until she reached the side of her head where she tapped gently but pointedly, "Not much up here, though…"
Korra twitched, a furious look in her eyes. "Again, who the hell are you?"
Smiling softly, the woman raised her hand up and a white mask materialized out of thin air. She brought the mask to cover her face and smirked behind it, her eyes peering through the slits at the young girl.
"Recognize me now?"
Korra's eyes widened. "Kurama… you're the fox spirit? Wait, then what was this about Naruto's mother? Did you know her?"
Kurama chuckled and grasped the front of the mask as she lurched forward trying to stifle some more laughter. Korra looked uneasy and was secretly preparing to launch an offensive against the creature until she heard her say, "I would like to think so! This is her body that I possess, after all, given to me by Jiraiya himself and untouched by the ravages of time."
"Her body… you're… are you working with Jiraiya?" Korra's hair stood on end. Had the spirit led her into a trap? What for, though? After all, Jiraiya could have easily killed her in Naruto's apartment. Why bother leading her to Naruto's daughter and this strange place?
"Wait… no, you're not…"
"That's it, my dear. I can see the cogs turning in that lovely cranium of yours."
"You brought me here for a reason… and it has to do with Sora."
Kurama smiled.
"Bingo."
"Then… where are we? I know I walked for a long time, but there's no way there's a temple this big inside or near Republic City…"
"You're right. We're not in Republic City."
"We're… we're not?"
Korra stopped to stare at her for a moment, trying to figure out what had happened.
"No, Korra."
"Wait, why are you using my name all of a sudden?"
"Ha-ha, am I? Oh, please forgive me, it must have taken me longer than usual to remember it. It's difficult to remember the names that ants give themselves when you can't pick out one from another."
"That's… wow. OK, well… aside from calling you on that, I'll ask again: where are we?"
Kurama smiled and turned to hop from platform to platform. She hopped onto the pathway beside the statue of Avatar Kiyoshi and the slug girl and turned her head to glance back at Korra.
"Follow me, Korra, and I'll show you."
Korra scowled in annoyance and turned to look back at the giant statue once more.
She knew a little about Avatar Kiyoshi. Everything that was taught to her by the White Lotus anyways, but what on earth was going on here? The statue was old, obviously, and nature seemed to be trying to reclaim most of the temple. There was hanging moss draped all over, hanging down from the open roof while vines grew along the pillars on the walkway with grass and beautiful, strange flowers breaking through in between the inlaid tiles.
The entire water-filled garden in the center of the temple was bathed in a warm, silken light that peeked in from above the open space where a roof normally would be. The sun was not in full view yet and seemed to be rising, which confused Korra because she was certain it was quite a bit darker when she had first entered the house with the broken Kiyoshi shrine.
"Where are we going?" Korra's eyebrows rose a bit when she realized the spirit no longer had a tail.
The woman let out a chuckle but didn't respond. She had already crossed the threshold toward the outer area away from the garden and Korra decided she best get a move on lest she lose track of the red headed woman. Korra took one last glance back at the water to see if she could make out what it was that was being held at the knotted center of the eight headed serpent, but to no avail.
Quickly, Korra hopped from platform to platform and fell into step behind the strange woman, feeling somewhat uncomfortable and wary around her because she couldn't quite shake the feeling as if she was missing or forgetting something.
They walked for a bit in a brief hallway made out of giant stones set into place with small openings and cracks between them, allowing light to peek in to illuminate the passage.
Korra slowed down and leaned closer to one of the walls to try and see what was outside. When she peeked out, however, all she saw was sky. Wherever they were, she had to guess that they were very high up.
"Come along, Korra."
Too astounded by her new setting to be annoyed, Korra just turned and kept walking until she reached a room that turned out to be a large tunnel with a grassy peak poking out at the end. The light was so bright for a moment that Korra had to cover her eyes, but once they focused she stopped dead in her tracks. The sight before her was unlike anything she had ever seen and the girl couldn't help but be completely arrested for at least a moment or two by the magnificence of it all.
"Welcome… to the spirit world, Avatar."
Breaking out of her stupor, Korra ran up toward the end of the peak and spun around as spirits who occupied the skies flew around her playfully and then moved together in schools or other smaller groups like fish or birds. There were spirits of all shapes and sizes, but invariably they were beautiful and surprising in their own right.
Just entertaining the thought of never again experiencing this view was enough to make her shiver and bawl. As she neared the grassy peak sticking out of the tunnel, Korra took in with greater capacity the view of a colossal mountain range that appeared to be carved into that of a snarling, multi-tailed fox. Its size alone left her unsure if it was real or just a beautiful and cleverly done painting. However, when she reached forward and nearly fell over the ledge, she caught herself and recoiled back in shock. Luckily for her, the spirit was quick to grab her by the hem of her pants and pull back just enough so that she wouldn't slip off of the steep edge to the uncertain fate below.
Korra and the spirit remained quiet for several moments just to give her a chance to get over the intensity of the view. Below them was a heavy layer of fog that veiled what actually lie below. It draped all across the expanse before her and coated the base of the fox mountain, obscuring any path that might lead to it. All along the surface of the mountain grew a multitude of colorful flowers, plants and shrubbery that covered almost the entirety of the mountain, almost acting like the fox's fur. From where she stood she could see that the wind was blowing near the mountain because of the way the plant-life shifted and how the colors began to change.
Korra's looked around at some of the spirits nearby while Kurama took a step forward and stood beside her, speaking through an amused smile on her face.
"You like?"
"Definitely… I didn't know what it was like… no stories I've ever read or heard have prepared me for something like this."
The fox spirit nodded. "I can only imagine what it must be like to witness this for the first time. I guess it's something like what I felt when I saw Republic City for the first time."
Korra arched a brow at the fox and said, "Huh, opening up are we?"
"Maybe."
Grinning, she said, "You like me."
"Hah. Ant, remember?"
"You like an ant!" Korra laughed and Kurama couldn't help but chuckle along with her.
"Quiet, you. Now, are you ready to see Sora?"
"Yes! Where is she?"
"Well… that's sort of the problem. The spirit world… it has this way of leading you to the person you have to see the most. For Sora, I know who that person is… she's someone very important in Naruto's past. Almost like a second mother."
"Wait, well what happened to the woman who is Sora's mother? Isn't she here?"
"I… am not sure… actually, that's not true, it's just that…"
Korra looked at the spirit for a moment but she had a feeling she'd have to pry her a bitto get her to keep talking, "What is it?"
"It's just… Korra, I'm not sure if this is news to you, but not everyone who passes away in the mortal world becomes a spirit in the spirit world. Oftentimes, spirits of mortals will stay in the mortal world and disperse, and they become a part of the spirit energy of the world anew. They lose their identities as individuals that they borrowed from the great mother spirit because most people, particularly their loved ones, aren't able to speak with spirits, so even those few people who have enough spirit energy to retain a semblance of the person that they used to be, but in spirit form, eventually find their way to places of great spiritual power such as any of the Air Bending Temples or the Great Banyan Grove Tree and the swamps. Once that happens, they're absorbed back into the energy of the world anyways. It's rare for a mortal's spirit to reside in the mortal realm very long and even rarer for someone to have a high enough spiritual connection to be able to cross over into the spirit world."
Korra didn't know what to say. She got it now, though. To mortals like her, the spirit world often seems like a place where one's spirit comes to rest in the afterlife, but if what the fox spirit is saying is true, then that means that something else is happening?
"So, how are you faring right now?"
"I'm still a little surprised."
"I'd expect you would be. Mortals often have very romantic notions of what happens to them when they pass on."
"Yeah, I guess. OK, so who is Sora going to go see? And how does this person have so much spirit energy that she's here in the spirit world?"
Kurama frowned and reached for Korra's hand. She squeezed it gently, much to the surprise of the Avatar.
"I think this is something that you should ask her yourself. I want you to close your eyes and picture that little girl."
"I am… wait, how did you know…?"
"I was the one who gave you those visions before we entered through the portal."
"I see… OK, picturing."
"OK. Now picture Naruto. Picture that smile of his when he sees you. Picture him lifting that girl up into the air and meeting her for the first time. Picture you standing by their side. Imagine you were there. Forget about me. Forget about everything. Just be in that moment. What does his cologne smell like? Does your hair on the back of your neck stand on end when he looks at you? Is there a spark between the two of you when you kiss? Imagine the warmth of their presence together with yours. What it feels like to hold the little girl in your arms while she squeezes you tight…
"OK, now open your eyes."
When Korra opened her eyes again, she was no longer standing out on the ledge. Instead, she was standing in a field of spirit world flowers and looking up a hill at a slightly older woman who was currently holding Sora in her arms.
"Hello?" said Korra, lamely. She honestly couldn't believe she was standing where she was. The more she looked around the more she realized that she was standing near the base of the mountain, just above the fog. The fox spirit was no longer standing beside her, and Korra felt alone suddenly. She kept her eyes on the woman and Sora on top of the hill while she tried her best to picture that moment again, that moment where she, Naruto and Sora were united for the first time together.
"Hello there. I'm guessing you're here to take Sora back to Naruto?"
Korra gulped. "Truthfully… I'm not even completely sure myself. I think so… but there is so much stuff going on right now that I'm basically just going with the flow for once in my life."
The older woman smirked. Then that smirk turned into a smile which eventually led to laughter.
Korra blushed and said, "It's not that funny."
"It sort of is… it's funny because I know you, Avatar Korra. I see the things you do from here in the Spirit World because when I was a mortal I once fancied meeting with you. I wondered what you would be like when you were old enough to start bringing balance to the world. What sorts of adventures you would go on.
"To think our meeting would happen here in a place where I'm not even sure I belong.
"To think that the reason why I met you was because you fell in love with a man who I met as a little boy, who has a little girl that he doesn't even know about."
"You met Naruto when he was a kid?"
The woman smiled. "Yes. He was a great kid. A bit of a troublemaker, but at least all of that practice as a thief came in handy."
Confused, Korra asked, "What do you mean?"
"Well, he did manage to steal the Avatar's heart, didn't he?"
Korra laughed in embarrassment. "You know so much about me and Naruto… who are you? What is your name?"
"My name is Yuu. It's nice to finally meet you, Korra."
oOo
Thanks for reading and putting up with my long breaks between updates. It's not always easy finding time or inspiration to write this when I'm busy working on my artwork and classes.
This chapter is more of an introduction into the next part of this story than anything else. I'll tie things together very soon.