"I'll be alright Mako," whispered Bolin as he let out a wet sounding cough. He no longer had the strength to cover his mouth and blood spattered Mako's torn shirt.
"S-stop talking Bolin," Mako replied as soothingly as he could muster. He held Bolin a little closer, scrunched up his face and looked away. Tears slowly inched down his cheeks and met at his chin. "I'll get you fixed up like always...I promise," he added.
"I k-know you will," Bolin replied in a shaking gasp. His face was growing paler, making the redness of the slashes glow. The green chinese style shirt he usually wore was clinging to his bloody body in torn strips. With every slight breath he took, what was visible of his undershirt grew a deeper rouge. One of Bolin's arms hung limply at his side. Mako noticed it was a purplish yellow and facing an unnatural direction. There wasn't time to worry about it though.
Mako was focusing only on Bolin's lower abdomen. He was applying as much pressure as possible. After getting knocked around a considerable amount, Bolin had misjudged a dodge and managed to get a flaming dagger in his gut. By that point he had so much adrenaline going, he didn't feel it. He'd only staggered a little and then called to Mako and Korra that he was okay. They hadn't really seen what had happened to him and weren't concerned until he'd collapsed at the end of the fight.
Now he lay against the wall of the cave they had fought in; gasping for air. Mako had made Bolin apply pressure to his stomach simply to keep him conscious, but now his hand was slipping away from the wound.
"Keep your hand there for me," Mako said finally looking dead on and fearlessly at Bolin, knowing that his brother couldn't see his tears anymore.
"I...don't need to. I'm...okay M-mako. Nothing...hurts...now that...you're here. Thank you for...fixing me...like always," he said with a warm blood red smile. Mako watched as Bolin's vibrant green eyes soundlessly glazed over to a dull gray and his hand fell to the ground. Mako let out a scream that seemed to shake the walls of the cave and would surely render him mute. Then without meaning to, Mako filled the whole cave with violent, raging flames as he hugged his younger brother's body in anguish.
Korra, who was near the cave, gathering quick-healing herbs that could be used in conjunction with water bending, saw flames shoot out from the mouth of the cave. Her eyes grew wide in response and she raced towards the source, trying to get as close as possible. She shouted for Mako and Bolin as she reached up to bend the flames, but found that there was something about them that made them almost...too hot to bend. She couldn't get near the flames and found herself extremely nervous.
Korra hadn't wanted to leave Mako and Bolin, it didn't take a genius to see that Bolin had been seriously wounded. Though it was difficult, she didn't feel it was her place to get in between the two brothers and had suggested she get some herbs. She was now looking up at the swirling flames and seriously wishing she'd stayed with them.
"Hey! Mako! Bolin! Are you guys okay? Please! What's going on?" she yelled as loud as she could. The roaring of the flames easily hid her pleas and she sighed before sitting down right outside the cave. If she couldn't go right in, she'd wait. Those boys could take care of themselves. She reassured herself that there wasn't anything to worry about.
After about five minutes the flames subsided and she could hear pebbles being kicked around as someone walked out.
"Mako? How's Bolin looking?" she asked as she quickly stood up and peered at him. Mako who was holding Bolin's limp form in his arms simply gave her a blank expression and walked over to a grassy area near the cave. Korra worriedly chased after Mako while repeatedly demanding to know what was going on.
Mako gently set Bolin's body down on the grass and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a slightly bloody handkerchief and placed it over Bolin's smiling face. He knelt there for a moment or two with his eyes closed. Korra knew from the moment Mako walked out of the cave that Bolin was gone, she just hadn't wanted to believe it. Now she had no choice, Bolin's body was really there before them. She collapsed to her knees and began to wail. Mako wrapped her in an awkward hug, but that was only for few seconds before her avatar state activated and the whole area was decimated.
…
"Whoa...I feel...weird," muttered Bolin as he sat up as carefully as possible. He began to survey the area and noticed it wasn't much different from whenever he'd passed out. He noticed the grey rocky walls, the dusty and pebbly floor, the earth that he'd bent during the battle and other various forms of damage to the cave. The only thing he found strange besides how weak he felt, was the intense amount of fire damage to everything. He chose not to think about it too hard though, he had other concerns. "I wonder where Mako and Korra are…." he mumbled as he stood up. "Ugh, why do I feel so light-headed? And what's with all this...blood?!" he shouted as he jumped back and phased through the wall of the cave. "What the? What in the world happened to me?" Bolin demanded as he pushed his hand deeper and deeper into the rock in amazement.
"You mean you don't remember? Geez, it only happened about five minutes ago," said a voice in a slightly annoyed tone.
"Huh? Who's there?" called Bolin as he frantically looked around the cave. He turned around in time to see a figure clad in black stroll out of the cave wall.
"Holy shit!" he yelled as he jumped away from the figure.
"So you're aware of what's going on now, I take it?" asked the shadow man.
"Who, who are youuu?" Bolin asked as he pointed a shaking finger at the man. The figure sighed before continuing, "This is going to be a hard one isn't it? It always is with those of you connected to the Avatar."
"What? What is that supposed to mean? Where is Mako and Korra?" asked Bolin as he looked at the swirling dark shadow. Before the man in black could answer, the wind began to pick up and Bolin could see bits of fire, water, air and earth being thrown around at the mouth of the cave. "Korra…?" he asked as he glanced at the cloaked man. The figure gave another loud sigh and replied, "You might as well go look. Perhaps then you'll understand your current situation."
But Bolin hadn't bothered to stick around to hear what the figure said. He was already leaving the cave to see what was going on.
Outside the cave the extreme winds were picking everything up and tossing it around like toys in a tornado. Bolin instinctively dodged stones, leaves and anything else that came his way, forgetting nothing could touch him anymore. The second he'd left the cave, he'd seen Mako and Korra standing in a calm area in the storm and his eyes lit up. He was sick with worry when he woke up and didn't see them around. He had however, also noticed another person lying on the ground near them and that rightly concerned him. He simply had to go to them and figure out what was going on and who that unconscious person was.
Of course as he got closer he saw it all. Korra was somehow floating in the avatar state, causing this storm of pure madness that was ruining the area. Mako was standing behind her with an alarmingly blank look on his face. Bolin watched as a medium sized stone was tossed into the calm zone and flew by Mako's forehead, skimming it and drawing blood. His high eyebrows caught the blood and Mako showed no reaction to the pain that must have followed. Bolin ran up to the two of them, ignoring for the moment the person napping on the ground.
"Korra! Korra! Please stop, you're destroying everything," he pleaded. When it was clear that she wasn't hearing him, he tried to get through to Mako. "Mako!" he shouted as he attempted to grab his brother's shoulders, only to find that his hands sunk right through them. "O-o-oh m-my…" Bolin stuttered as he turned from Mako, now knowing that nothing would draw his brother's attention.
As Bolin staggered away from Mako he found himself nearly tripping over the person on the ground. He had no choice but to notice them in detail now. Bolin looked down and saw that everything about this unconscious sleeper was all too familiar. The black shoes, the torn green shirt, and the blood everywhere. It was undoubtedly him. And with that realization, everything came back to him. He finally understood why he felt the way he did, why he couldn't touch anything, and why Korra and Mako had paid him no mind. He. Was. Dead.
His eyes bugged out and he fell to a kneeling position. Right there in the eye of Korra's tornado, near his body and the grieving people he loved, he screamed louder than he ever had in his life and flashes came to him. Flashes of his memories of his last moments on Earth. He saw and felt everything again: the fight that took his life, how Mako had lied to him right before the end and how he'd lied right back. He thought he was going to pass out again when he remembered how worried he was to have to leave Mako, and how he felt his last words to his brother weren't enough.
"You understand now?" asked the cloaked figure who was suddenly standing beside him. Bolin had started coughing and gagging from the overwhelmingness of it all. It took him a few moments before he was able to ask, "You've come...for me?"
"Indeed I have. Glad to hear you're finally aware of everything," said the figure as he waved a skinny, pale arm and suddenly everything around them turned white.
"Where are we? Why are we here?" asked Bolin as he slowly stood up and took in the new lack of atmosphere.
"Couldn't have you pass out from seeing too much. That would only make guiding you take longer and I have a schedule to keep," responded the figure as he pulled an old leather bound book from his robe.
"Guide me? You still never said where we are? And who are you?" Bolin demanded realizing he no longer had anything to fear.
"Feh, getting used to the idea of being dead are you? Well good, because it's permanent. Now here, sign this book for me. Write your full name and your birth date and then I'll tell you everything you want to know," the figure of shadows responded while holding the book out to Bolin. Bolin took it and noticed that the leather had a strange feel to it.
"This leather seems strange…" mumbled Bolin as he held the book.
"What do you know? It's the finest binding one can get. It's bound in human skin," the man in black said with a definite proudness in his voice.
"Wha!" Bolin yelped as he pulled his hands away from the book and dropped it.
"Be careful! That book is more important than you could ever understand!" the figure scolded as he rushed to the book and grabbed it from the floor. "Now, let's try this again and this time I'll hold it out to you," he said. Bolin reluctantly took the quill given to him and wrote down the required information in the book. The man in black slammed the book shut and took back the quill. Both items vanished into his cloak.
"Now, I know you wish to know the name of this place. We are currently in Limbo," said the man. Bolin raised his hand and was about to interject with a question, but the cloaked figure didn't let him. "And because you clearly don't know what that is, I'll tell you. It's another plane separate from the world of the living and the world of the dead. Souls aren't usually sent here and if they are it's only to talk as we are," the billowing phantom said to Bolin who was now sitting cross-legged on the ground with shinning wide eyes. "Er, don't look at me like that," asked the figure.
"Yeah sure," Bolin responded with a nod, while still continuing to unknowingly stare down the figure in his child-like way. "But who are you? What's your name?" he continued excited now to be learning new information.
"I asked you not to look at me that way, boy! Don't take me lightly!" shouted the shadow man as he revealed his face to Bolin. Bolin recoiled as maggot eaten, pus-filled flesh fell from the man's exposed face. When he saw Bolin begin to turn green he quickly covered up his face. "My name is Chardon," he replied quickly. "I am the ferrier of souls to the afterlife. I'm rather sure it's not so nice to meet you.