She opens her eyes. She is alone. And dead.
The Avatar observes herself with interest from above. Her eyelids flutter open unsteadily, and her pupils dilate erratically, unsure of how to adjust to the sudden intake of light. Gray flecks are sown in her hazy blue irises, and cement in them is simple, blank ambiguity.
In her, she feels the smallest, smile-like feeling ripple through quietly. This is her body, her flesh-such a beautiful, innocent creation-the place where she will be housed until it can work no longer under mortality, and collapse.
And then, she will be reunited with the wondrous place beside him; Aang, and Roku and Kyoshi and the previous Avatars.
Surely, surely she is dead.
She can't process where she is. She saw things, flashes of bright, colorful light-light she has no idea can even exist, with such grand splendor, and tangibility, and feeling-but those things do not form into anything comprehensible. She feels the skin above her eyes pinch and tighten, but she can't hold it for long; the unfamiliarity with her own movements cause twitching and short, jerking spasms. It's as though she has been stuck like stone for centuries, and then suddenly, she has awoken, and her body hasn't moved for so long that she doesn't even know how to-
"Breathe!"
The young Southern Water Tribe girl's neck jolts laboriously to the side, and some instinct she is completely alien to kick in-a sudden desire to figure out who or what has spoken kills her chest and ricochets around the walls of her mind-but that feeling quickly extinguishes as another thought barrels into its path:
Why am I not breathing? Korra asks herself.
Panic pierces through her veins, and, with some difficulty, she tells her hands to inspect her chest, to which they report that, yes, indeed, her lungs are not operating, and her body does not rise and fall in an automated cyclic rhythm like she feels it should.
The lack of air is not painful; she's gone the majority of her life detached from the element. There seemed to be external forces keeping her alive—if she can even consider herself to be alive at all-and it is then the realization creeps upon her.
She is not alive, nor is she dead.
The flashes of light continue, and for a moment, curiosity spark a nerve ending in her mind, and she wants to know what it is, why it is so real, so much more than something that can be merely seen.
Maybe this was how Lin, and Chief of Police, Toph sees the world, felt vibrations, and the world itself around her begins to hum quietly-so persistently periodic, yet also soothingly simplistic.
"Is... she…?"
"...my god."
"... Korra,"
"What are you doing here, Korra?"
The girl's almost certain when she turns and looks up to the previous Avatar's face, she can see herself not just because she's staring into his hazel gray eyes.
"Aang?" she breathes, and she's so confused at the same time. "But how? But, I thought—you-"
"Me?" The 166 year old man laughs childishly. "No. It's you, Korra. You belong down there, with your family; your friends."
Her spirit is slowly slipping away into the Spirit World where she doesn't belong. She has a home already.
"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." she says firmly, trying not to let tears spill. "I broke our connection. And I know I don't have much right to ask but... how do I get back?"
"My cycle is over, Avatar Korra. We all make mistakes when we're young." He's serious now, then he softens. "However, just as I was blessed with people who care and have love for me, /they/ will show you where you've messed up and help you pick up the pieces."
Everything-never-witnessed emotions, igniting nerve signals-even the twitching of her fingers-seem so strange, but also it is all so scary, the feeling of being pulled away all over again, most of all—
Exciting.
And finally, when she grows accustomed to these sensations around her, her mind wanders back to the disembodied voice that said breathe, and the other ones that plead, oh my god and please and is she gonna be okay?
Was I alone?
No. She wasn't.
"To answer your question, Bolin; Spirits...she is going to be okay."
Lin doesn't finish her statement before the others flood in, Senna and Tonraq bickering at Korra sitting upright in her bed.
"Don't overwork yourself Korra!" her mother's hushed voice says.
Korra nods and looks at the three others whom have come to witness her awakening. Asami, Bolin, Mako. A smile breezing easily against their faces. She saw the something(s) fashioned with such care, such intricacy, such unmatchable uniqueness that made her want to fuse with her almost dead body as soon as she could.
You belong there, with your family; your friends. My cycle is over, Avatar Korra.
a/n: I MISS AANG SO MCUCH WHY DID I DO THIS