Chapter 1: The Air Bender's Proposal

Well it's been a while since I posted anything to FanFiction, so I decided it might be best to start fresh with a new account, new stories, new everything. So welcome all to my new story, the first to be posted to this new account. I'm going to try to put more effort into this account than the last one, so I hope you all enjoy!

This is a Korra/Last Airbender crossover. It happens after Korra's bending is taken away, but before Aang gives it back. In Aang's world, the story takes place soon after the end of the series.

Oh, and I don't own Legend of Korra or the Last Airbender. Yeah.

.~.~.~.

Korra was angry.

If she was still able to fire bend, she would have sent a blasting wave of heat forward to make a damp, puddle ridden path out the condensing snow. If she could earth bend, she would drop her foot to the ground with enough force to send snow covered ground flying into the air. If she could water bend, snow would be converted to deadly icicles and sent flying out at Korra's command.

But she could do none of these things. She could not fire bend, she could not earth bend, she could not water bend. Korra was still able to air bend, but what raging destruction could one cause with puffs of air?

Air bending sucks, thought Korra as she marched away in a frustratingly mundane fashion.

Korra's friends stared at her as she made her exit, partly in shock, partly in understanding. They all knew Korra well enough to know the pride she took in her bending skill, and how much it hurt when that pride was ripped into shreds at a single touch from Aman. Korra could feel Chief Beyfong's eyes particularly (they had always had a distinguishing prick to them). Beyfong, Korra knew, was able to understand Korra's misery more than anyone, having lost her own bending to Aman's detestable power, but even Beyfong couldn't possibly comprehend the weight upon Korra's shoulders.

Korra had failed as an Avatar. She had let Aman best her, and the whole world knew it. She wanted to beat the crap out of someone. She wanted to kill something. But air bending couldn't burn people, crush people, or drown people. The best air bending could do was push someone over.

Air bending sucks. Korra repeated her mantra out loud, making a chant out of the detestable phrase. She grumbled at each miserable verse, scowled at each miserable line, lashed out with her fists at each horrible, miserable, godforsaken syllable.

"AIR bending sucks. Air BENDING sucks. Air bending SUCKS! It SUCKS! It SUCKS!"

With that last word, Korra's fist collided with the trunk of a tall tree which accordingly responded by showering her with a load of snow.

Korra let out a shout and smacked the snow from her hair, feeling a painful regret for the days when she could toss the snow off easily with her water bending. Those days have passed, whispered a voice in Korra's head, you need to learn to move on.

"Go screw yourself," Korra told the voice out loud. "Like hell if I'm gonna be a half assed Avatar the rest of my life."

"That's what I thought you'd say."

The sudden voice came from behind her. Korra turned quickly on her heel to face the intruder (which is not an easy task to perform in the snow, though Korra pulled it off without the slightest of stumbles).

The first thing she saw was orange, an outfit of ghastly orange and yellow. It was an outfit Korra was familiar with, as she had lived around similar clothing as of late. The next thing to catch her eye was a broad blue arrow stretching up over the top of his head to point down between his eyes. Korra's scattered thoughts started to come together coherently: she was looking at an air bender.

Tenzin? No, the jaw line wasn't quite right and the –

Wait. No…it couldn't be…

"Aang? Avatar Aang?"

"Just Aang is fine." The strange man in the Air Temple get-up smiled, trying to be friendly.

"What – what are you doing here?"

"I'm here to help you out."

"But. You. You're dead." Korra came the closest she had ever come to being speechless. Her mind was blank, but her mouth kept spouting out words, a habit that had been deeply ingrained in her since she'd first started to speak. "You can't be here. This. What? How?" Finally, her mouth was at a loss, and Korra remained standing there, hands still held out in defensive position. Her eyes, a severe blue like the ocean, were focused on the previous Avatar, her own former life.

Tenzin had once told her that looking at one of her past lives would be like looking in a mirror: they were the same, through and through, two different phases of the same cycle. Clearly, Tenzin had never encountered any former lives of his own. Korra looked at the strong, successful Avatar in front of her and mentally kicked herself for being such an awful failure.

"I know it's a little shocking for you, Korra. It's no secret that you're not in touch with your spiritual side. But you are the Avatar, and the Spirit World will always be open to you."

The man in orange – Aang, Korra reminded herself, Avatar Aang himself – stretched out his hand, beckoning Korra to join him. Korra, hesitantly as it wasn't often she consorted with the dead, took the former Avatar's hand. Aang took a step forward, and Korra followed. The instant Korra's foot hit the ground, the snowy landscape dissolved around her. Mounds of snow became curiously shaped boulders. The tall pines became low-hanging trees with billowing branches. The very snow Korra stood upon seemed to melt away to reveal dampened soil, nearly to the point of muddiness.

It didn't take Korra long to realize that her last step had taken her more than mere inches; it had transported her across dimensions. She was in the Spirit World.

The Spirit World took on the form of a swamp, but a swamp unlike any Korra had ever before seen. She was surrounded by trees – willow trees perhaps? – but the leaves seemed to be tufts of colored fur more than they were photosynthesizing leaves. Each tree was decorated Dr. Seuss style, wooden branches accented by layers of red and pink fuzz. The rest of the swamp looked normal: tall grass, scattered boulders, the ground occasionally lost underneath deep trenches of rainwater and mud. If there was an odd hue to the picturesque scene, it was likely due to the sunlight sifting through the pink canvas of trees, dripping tinted light wherever it pushed its way through.

Korra held out her hand, marveling at the way the pink light managed to alter the hue of her skin. Her entire outfit was transformed, stained a garish lavender. Korra shifted her weight from her right heel to her left; the girl was horrified to see herself in any clothing varying from her standard blue. She looked up at Aang, and was considerably satisfied to see that his orange get up had been dyed hot pink to match the blush growing beneath his cheekbones.

"Pink suits you, arrow boy," Korra smirked.

Aang pretended that he hadn't heard and hadn't noticed the transformative power the environment held over his clothing. He led Korra forward, out of the swamp and its curiously colored atmosphere and into a large field that extended as far as the horizon, perhaps further.

"Korra," Aang began slowly, as if unsure how his words should best fit together, "I know it's hard for you to have your bending taken away." Korra glared hard at the former Avatar, mentally cursing him for daring to bring it up. "But what if I told you it didn't have to be that way? What if I told you that there may be a way to bring your bending back?"

"How?"

"I was the one who first introduced the ability to take away bending to the world. When Aman, used that ability on you, I thought that I would be able to think of a way to give someone's bending back—"

"And you figured it out, and you're about to do it right now!" Korra pounded the air with her fist in ecstasy, relishing her presumptuous conclusion.

"Not quite," Aang said with a half smile that seemed nearly apologetic, "No matter what I considered, the same dilemma stood in my way: I'm only a spirit. I have no real power over the modern world, and therefore wouldn't be able to fix what has been wronged. But if you were to go back and see me when I was still alive…well, I may just have the power to do something then."

"So your option is time travel. Look I know you were a great Avatar and all, but that's completely ridiculous."

"Not for the Avatar. See, the Spirit World is like a hallway. You can use it to get to anywhere you want. The problem is that only one's soul may travel to the Spirit World; the physical body must stay behind. Therefore, unless one can acquire a body in the new world they travel to via the Spirit World, they will be unable to have a physical presence in this new world."

"So to 'time travel,' I have to find a body back in your old world?"

"Yes, Korra. Of course, one can't simply take any body. If the body is dead or already has a soul, it will reject you. The only way is to occupy the body of an unborn child who does not yet have a soul."

Aang gave Korra a long look, waiting for her to understand. She did not.

"Korra. You have to be born again."

Aang could tell that she was struggling with the idea, weighing it in her mind. Korra had a certain look when she was considering something so beyond ordinary, the look was near pensive – as near to pensive as Korra could get. Her forehead scrunched up, her eyes dropped to the floor, her arms embraced herself above her waist. If laser vision had been included in her Avatar prowess, the dead leaf her eyes had unconsciously focused upon would have burst into flame many moments ago.

"I have to be born again. I have to grow up, hit puberty, live again?" The girl's eyes didn't return to meet Aang's. Rather, they stayed focused on the dead leaf, forehead still besieged by wrinkle upon wrinkle.

Aang didn't respond. He too watched the dead leaf, though the muscles of his forehead didn't tighten as Korra's.

"Will I know? Will I remember—?"

"No. Remember, your soul will be placed inside a fetus, which doesn't yet have the mental capacity for such as elaborate memories as yours. You will have to discover your destiny as you grow. You will have to find me and learn how to recover your bending."

"But I won't be able to remember! I won't be able to find you if I don't even know that I have to!"

"Your destiny is strong, Korra. It will find you whether or not you acknowledge it."

"You make no sense."

Aang sighed, abandoning his sage-like presence for a moment to express his exasperation. It was difficult reasoning with the strong-willed Korra.

"So what if you're wrong, Aang? What if I can't find you? What if I fail? It wouldn't be the first time."

The arrow-bearing Avatar recollected himself with a slight inhalation and looked the other person square in the eye. "Korra, if you fail, your soul will be stuck in the world of the past. You will never be able to return your true body. In short, the Korra of this world will die, and since your soul will be lost in time, unable to reincarnate, the Avatar cycle will be broken forever."

"That's…encouraging." Korra tried a slip of pessimistic humor to lighten the mood. Unfortunately, the mood wasn't lightened in the least; if anything, the atmosphere grew ever more dismal.

"I couldn't let you go without knowing the consequences."

"So I could succeed and get my bending back, be forever known as the time traveling Avatar. Or I could utterly fail and be known as the Avatar who screwed up big time, lost her bending, died, and broke the Avatar cycle." Being an air bender the rest of her life was sounding more and more appealing to Korra.

"It is your decision, Korra," the orange clad Avatar stated solemnly, "View it as you wish."

Korra already knew her choice. It was the obvious one to make. "Do it. Send me back. This half-Avatar shit is not my thing."

"Of course." Aang had known her decision the instant he had considered this solution. And if she were to fail? It would be all his fault. All his fault for pushing her into this horrid situation. The spirit looked upon the girl – for a girl she was, not yet old enough to be considered an "adult" – and mentally groaned in despair. If she didn't make it out of this, only he was to blame.

"Take my hand, Korra," Aang ordered, refusing to betray his pessimism with any unnecessary fluctuations in his voice, "I'll take your soul to its new body."

Korra breathed deeply, knowing it would be the last breath she would take before being sent to the world of the past. She savored each oxygen molecule, appreciating the cool push the breeze fixed against the back of her throat.

Korra placed her hand inside Aang's. His skin was warmer than hers and sent bits of heat shooting past her skin.

She closed her eyes. The world was so much more peaceful in the dark.

She breathed out.

And that was when the world disappeared.

.~.~.~.

Thanks for reading, and thank you even more for REVIEWING which I know you're about to do right now :)

Sorry there wasn't much action, but I felt like it'd be best to get the explanations out of the way, so we can get to the meat in later chapters. I also realize that this chapter was a little short. Yes, yes, I do have a tendency to write short chapters, but I'll try to make them longer if that's the way people prefer them.

Please tell me what you think, especially if I missed that one blatant detail, so obvious it was sitting cross-legged on my keyboard as I typed. I am also open to suggestions, considering I have no planning abilities whatsoever. Thanks!