Found
Summary: Whilst trying to find Raava after leaving the South Pole, Korra is tending to her wounds from her latest failed battle in an underground earthbending arena. She wasn't expecting a certain CEO finding her after she learnt of her disappearance. Korrasami. Inspired by joehnna's Korrasami – Found comic on DeviantArt, and created with their permission, check out their stuff! Pleeeease!
Dingy, dank and dark, Korra's current temporary place of residence was not particularly inviting. Then again, the only guests that visited her was her nagging landowner, and the unwelcome guest that haunts her dreams and stalks her steps: her past self.
As of now, the young and tortured Avatar was tending to her daily wounds, injuries sustained from illegal, underground earthbending fights. She lost more fights than she won, including today's particular loss, and the aggressiveness of her opponent left her more injured than ever before. One blackened eye, her skin peppered with bruises, a heavily bleeding cut on her arm and what was sure to be multiple cracked or broken ribs, she had a hard time convincing the landowner that she was in no worse shape than usual, managing to walk to her room straight backed, but her whole body as rigid as a steel pole.
An open medical kit on her bed, she tended to her injuries the old fashioned way. She was believed to be an earthbender, and therefore couldn't risk being seen waterbending, and revealing herself as the Avatar. That, and the pain was a familiar friend to her, the coursing agony reminding her that she isn't a wandering, lifeless shell just yet, tethering herself to the physical world through the arduous torment.
Long ago has she forgotten the feelings of love and comfort, safety and security, encompassed in the embrace of her parents, or her friends. If it weren't for the constant feeling of pain, she would've remained as numb as the frozen winters of the South Pole, trapped in its relentless, unforgiving, icy grasp.
Korra cleansed her wounds with water and disinfectant, mending the small cuts and skinned areas with band-aids and medical patches. However, the large cut on her bicep was causing her quite a bit of trouble.
"Ugh, this wound won't stop bleeding," Korra thought to herself, clamping a bloodied rag to the afflicted area in a pointless attempt to stem the bleeding. She remained silent in the quiet of the room, hearing the landowner talking very loudly, potentially over a minor problem. However, he would not stop yelling, steadily approaching her room.
"The landowner is louder than usual … Geez ..." Korra thought, thinking of anything that she may have done wrong, "I'm pretty sure that I paid rent this week ..."
The landowner got closer and closer, the words just starting to become legible through the walls.
"-ato you can't just barge in!" he yelled, "Lady Sato!"
Korra's eyes widened as her blood froze in pure, unadulterated panic, tremors overtaking her body with her intense terror. "Asami?!" she screamed internally. She jumped up as Asami Sato entered the room, stiff with her back to the young CEO.
There was a brief pause before Asami's rich tone addressed the landowner, sending shivers down Korra's body, "Thank you for showing me the way, Mr. Hatsu. Lock the door on your way out please."
"A-As you wish, M'Lady ..." he stammered, giving up on restraining her from entering his client's room.
"Thank you," she replied coolly as he followed through with her wishes, the door locking with an audible 'click'.
Silence reigned within the room, Korra unmoving yet defeated in her posture, the only indicator from the back being her slightly bowed head. Asami stared at the back of her old friend and partner-in-crime, before she found her bright, tea green eyes wandering from her companion to the bed, where the medical kit lay. She turned her head to face the equipment more, taking in the blood-soaked rag and sheets, disinfectant, patches and gauze spilling out onto the spoiled bed.
The expressionless green gaze flickered to the injured woman before her, seeing her beaten face and broken expression in the reflection of the windowpane. Her eyebrows furrowed, her lips curling and pursing into and angered scowl, swallowing harshly. She breathed in once from her nose and demanded coldly "Talk."
Korra remained silent, her expression cast down towards the floor, fear controlling her mind, self-hatred and disgust holding her tongue. She couldn't even open her mouth in fear of losing all of her control, either over her words, or of the tears that yearn to escape her eyes. Her breath became even more laboured just due to fear, on top of the damage to her ribs.
She couldn't speak.
She couldn't breathe.
"You, ran, away," Asami forced out, fury lacing her tone whilst reigning back the explosive lecture that struggled to get loose from her lips, "you lied to your parents. You've been missing, without us knowing it, for six, months. Why?!"
No answer.
"TALK!" she yelled, fists clenching at her side.
Korra shakily opened her mouth, indistinguishable words silently passing her lips, unknowing of what to say. She then forced her voice to withhold her emotions from colouring her words as she said quietly "I have my own issues to sort through. I thought they were gone when I was healed, but I was wrong. I didn't realise this until I left for the city. This is why I turned as I approach the docks of Air Temple Island. I told my parents otherwise so they wouldn't worry. That is all."
"That is all?!" Asami breathed incredulously, "Do you realise how bloody scared we were when Tonraq and Naga came to Air Temple Island, believing you would be with them, and you weren't there?! Tonraq believed you were in the city, and imagine his horror when he realised that you were gone! And all you have to say is 'I had issues. That is all'?! You should've sent a letter, or something! How heartless can you get?!"
There was a pregnant pause, until Korra replied "I know. I am heartless." She turned her head slightly, not showing her face at all, "You now know where I am. Your search is over. Now please ... leave me be."
That was the worst thing she could have possibly said.
"WHAT?!" Asami screeched, her businesswoman composure all but shattered. She charged at Korra and spun her around, slamming her back-first into the windowpane, Korra accidentally letting loose a small gargle of pain, but that went unnoticed by Asami is her ire. "YOU HAVE THE GALL TO TELL ME TO LEAVE AFTER YOU FUCKED OFF FOR THREE YEARS?! YES, YOU WERE HEALING FOR MOST OF THAT, BUT WE FUCKING MISSED YOU, DAILY! GIVE ME ONE GOOD FUCKING REASON TO NOT BELT UP YOUR BLOODY ARSE FOR THAT! COME ON! GIVE ME ONE!"
Asami slammed her twice more against the wall in the last two sentences of her lecture, unaware that Korra was losing conciousness. Korra coughed up violently, Asami's enraged eyes fading to confusion, then horror when blood spewed up from Korra's mouth, the young Avatar weakly cupping her mouth with her still heavily bleeding arm. Her arm feebly flopped to her side as she swayed, gasping "I … c-can't ..." before her eyes rolled up inside her head and collapsed into Asami's panicked arms.
The young entrepreneur quickly carried her to the filthy bed, kicking off the blanket and medical kit onto the floor before gently laying the unconscious woman upon the mattress, fixing her head so she wouldn't choke on the blood or on her tongue. She then burst from the room, kicking down the locked door, screaming "MEDIC!" as she ran to the foyer of the apartment. After explaining the situation, Mr. Hatsu sent for the village doctor immediately, with Asami rushing back to provide first aid.
She could do nothing about the broken ribs, but she tied a tight bandage around Korra's bleeding arm, though the bleeding only slowed down fractionally, and held onto her hand, pleading for forgiveness and a miracle.
The village doctor was a waterbending healer, and managed to alleviate most of the damage to the ribs, but Korra needed to heal the rest on her own. The waterbender bandaged her torso up to keep her fixed in in a position to heal properly, and then healed her arm, no problem. She left with Asami paying her upfront, and the engineer stayed by Korra's side, for the rest of the night.
The following evening saw Korra awake in her room, alone, and immediately remembering the events of the previous night, racking her with intense guilt and sorrow. She spotted a plate of food nearby, and began to eat it sombrely yet liberally, until her hunger was sated. She quenched her thirst with the water that came with it, before standing up to gaze out of her window, her arm tenderly cradling her ribs. It was earlier than the previous night, so she was out for almost a whole day. She sighed, wondering on what to do now, when the door shut quietly, the sound of heeled shoes identifying the guest immediately.
"You've been out for nearly a whole day," Asami informed her quietly, guilt and despair woven deeply with her words, "The doctor healed you as best as she could with her waterbending, but the rest is up to you."
"Just like old times," Korra said bitterly, knowing what was flooding inside of Asami's mind, "You didn't know about my ribs, Asami, so you can stop feeling guilty now."
"I could see that you were injured, Korra," she retorted, "I shouldn't have done it in the first place."
Shrugging, Korra replied "I deserved it anyway. I should've been more gentle with my words, and should've stopped acting like a coward."
"Acting like a coward?" Asami asked, confused, "It was acting more like a jerk instead of a coward."
Sighing again, Korra told her "I was jack-shit terrified, Asami. I had so much I wanted to say, so many things I didn't deserve to say. I feared talking to you, talking about me, and for hearing what had happened when you all found out that I legged it all around the world with no sense of direction."
Korra flinched when soft and deceptively strong yet gentle hands grasped her own from behind, intertwining their fingers together as Asami rested her forehead to the back of Korra's head, the gesture intimate and tender. The engineer asked, with a slight plea "Then can you please tell me what you wanted to say to me? I want to be here for you."
The young Avatar closed her eyes and sighed for the third time, before nodding a bit and breathing "Alright."
She let go of Asami and sat on the edge of her bed, gesturing for Asami to do the same. As the young woman sat down beside her, Korra began to talk.
"I did leave to go to Republic City," she began, "I believed that I needed to be around you guys to feel whole again. But as I approached the harbour, I saw her."
Asami frowned at that, tempted to ask 'Who?' but she figured that Korra would explain who she saw.
"It was a vision, or more correctly, a hallucination," Korra explained, "she follows me everywhere, no matter where I go. She was standing above me on the tip of one of the tallest rocks in the bay, staring at me. She was there when I was walking in the volcanic lands of the Fire Nation, she was the one who lead me to the underground earthbending rings, where I lose more than win, where I get injured so often. She's within my dreams, unending and relentless, but no matter where I go, she attacks me, I fight back, and then after a short while, she vanishes … she is my past self."
Eyes shocked and mouth agape, Asami clarified "You're being haunted by yourself? Why?!"
"I would be really grateful if I was told, and I wouldn't be here if I knew," Korra responded bluntly, "She's me from my battle with Zaheer. She's in the Avatar State, with chains and shackles on her wrists, glaring down at me wherever I go. In my dreams, she is me: I am beaten multiple times throughout the battle, but the worst parts are the parts that I've never told anyone ... one of them being that the poison was bent into me, through my skin."
Asami choked in horror, sadness and fright clouding her vision, but Korra continued "My enemies turned into my past foes through the poison's effects: Zaheer into Amon, Ghazan into Unalaq, and Ming-Hua into Vaatu. They were all taunting me, saying that the Avatar era is over, that I will be the last Avatar, and then they kept chanting 'Let go. Let go. Let go. Let go.' And finally, when Zaheer nearly succeeded in killing me. When Jinora recounted to me how I was saved by her and the airbenders, she said that all they saw was me being restrained with air, supposedly unconscious. In reality, he was removing the air from my lungs. He was choking me."
Her eyes grew haunted, her arms hugging herself as she whispers "That hallucination of me is why I keep losing in the ring. I am fighting her instead of the opponent, and I keep losing because of that, but no one else can see her. That's why I can't return to the city: she's not leaving me alone."
Asami couldn't help herself any more and launched herself at Korra, being gentler on her ribs as she embraced her frightened friend firmly and lovingly. Korra wrapped her arms around her in return desperately, longing for the love she was robbed of for three years, wailing into her friend's shoulder. Asami's arms ran up and down Korra's body, rubbing her back and petting her hair to sooth her heart-wrenching cries. The engineer had tears of her own cascading down her cheeks, the droplets falling silently without a single sob, for it was not her that needed comfort that night, it was the lonely, frightened, wounded and scarred young woman within her arms.
As Korra's sniffles started to die down, feeling exhausted from her tears and starting to drift asleep, she whispered pleadingly "Will you help me out here? I need to find answers, answers that I can feel are out here."
Asami nodded, laying Korra down upon her bed tenderly and murmuring into her ear "As if I'm letting you out of my sight. I am going to be there for you, at your side."
Korra softly pulled Asami down beside her onto the bed and breathed "Thank you."
Asami covered them with the blankets on the bed, falling asleep with the young woman, in what was the best sleep they've had in three years.
If this takes off and if you guys desire it, I can write a couple of chapters extra to retell Korra's adventure in the Swamp, and any other parts of Book 4 and beyond that. If not, I will list it as "Complete" in a month or so as a oneshot.
Have a good one!