Disclaimer: I do not own Legend of Korra.
Fire.
That was all he heard, the intense roaring of the flames that left his hand and shot out to meet its target. The sounds of the spirits screeches were silent, muted from his ears like a radio he had turned off. He knew that from their gaping mouths, a high-pitched, determined wail was resonating, but he tuned it out. All he could hear, smell, breathe, taste, and feel were the flames. He was completely in his element.
"Alright son, now I want you to fire at the rock target over there, got that?"
The South Pole was a hard place to handle fire, with its harsh temperature and biting winds. The waves pounded against the frozen ground with violent, earth shaking force. It almost seemed to want to knock them off, and Mako watched out of the corner of his eye as Bolin nearly went over the edge.
Mako's amber eyes glinted in the evening son, his lips exhaling a deep breath as he aimed at the newly-painted rock. His eyebrows tightened together in concentration, and his fist punched out into the air.
He barely registered that the spirit lashed out to attack, dodging almost as an afterthought. He fought as though he were playing chess, always two or three steps ahead of his opponent. It was the reason he and Korra were so evenly tied whenever they sparred. He was calm, calculating her every weakness, noticing where her eyes were trailing. She was irrational, always running head first into a fight, but somehow she always managed to surprise him in some way.
The flaming snake rushed out and slammed the rock, leaving the center of the target charred and smoking. The little boy's face lit up and split into a wide grin, a loud "Woohoo!" screamed into the wind like a battle cry. He turned and hit the target, again and again blackening its front.
Mako had always been led to believe that spirits were meant to stay in the Spirit World. That was the balance of things, Tenzin had said, that spirits and humans were separated in order to keep balance. There were stories of Avatar Aang meeting spirits over in their world, but not in a substantial form. How had they gotten through to this world?
"Did you see that, dad?" Mako exclaimed, eyeing the older man. "I had so much power on that last one, nothing could have stopped me…"
He trailed off, noticing the rigid stance of his paternal parent. His father's eyes weren't unkind, but they were stern, his face hard as he bent down to his son's level.
Mako slammed the spirit into the depths of water below and sucked in the cool afternoon air. These things were so powerful – normally he wouldn't be drained until he had taken down eight or nine opponents, but the spirits weren't like any Equalist or pro-bender he had ever faced. These were stronger, faster, and Mako had a lot less knowledge about them than he did humans.
"Mako…" He sighs, looking as though he was about to do something terribly hard for him. "I want you to fire at the straw dummy over there."
"Are you sure, Dad?" The little boy looks up at his father with excitement. "I mean, I want to, but that's Bolin's training dummy!"
"I'm sure, kiddo. Go ahead and hit it."
He took the scene in, and for the first time he noticed how his friends were faring. Asami and Bolin were taking two on together, their movements somehow synchronized as they backed each other up. They made a good team, he had to admit, as he watched Bolin duck and Asami put one hand on his back, launching herself forward onto the first spirit and shocking it. Its tall body shook with the electricity, and Mako was certain she had killed it, but the raven-haired girl wasn't so sure. She screamed something to Bolin, who suddenly made a punching motion with his fist toward her. The ice beneath the spirit shot out, and it landed in the water with a massive splash.
But Asami wasn't done; she turned and grabbed it by the tail, the Equalist glove sending off the highest voltage that it could. Even from a distance the firebender could see the volts literally zipping around the now limp spirit. This left only one for them to deal with.
Mako was reveling in the idea of a new target to aim at. Without a thought, he reared up and blasted the biggest fireball he had ever made at the straw dummy – and watched in horror as it exploded in flames.
He ran towards them to help, the ground crunching under his feet that worried away at its solid form. The ice was thick, yes, but they were getting pushed closer and closer to the edge where the water was beginning to roar. Waves crashed against the ground with earth shaking violence as though it wanted to knock them all down, and Mako could see clouds forming in the sky like a silent threat. While that worried him, he had to deal with the bigger, more violent problem that was attacking the group of two.
The boy fell in his rush to scramble away from the human-shaped torch. It had made a loud explosion sound, scorching his face with a blast of hot, hot air. He cried out to his father, who willed the flames on the dummy back into his hand. It crumbled into ash.
Mako looked, wide-eyed and trembling, into the face of his father, who suddenly looked many years older and a lot wiser
"Bolin! Asami!" Immediately catching his friend and brother's attention, he let two bursts of flame engulf his fists like burning marshmallows. "Distract it!" The two didn't even think, just dodged and rolled, blocked and slid. They never moved in for the attack, never made any signs of hitting it with any offensive resistance.
Mako jumped into the air, barely hearing his brother bellowing an order, fully focused on the last spirit. He slammed into its back, his flaming hands burning against the spirit's flesh. It let out a roar, and he shot fire against it, using the momentum to leap off.
Good thing he had, too; the moment his fingertips had left its skin, Asami sent an electric volt running through its vein. Mako watched, entranced, as it shook violently in place, before Bolin encased it in a block of solid rock and ice.
"Remember this feeling, son." His father said to him, his voice cracking with emotion. "Fire is reckless, and destructive. If you're not careful, you could burn anything up, anyone. Firebending needs control, and focus, and restraint." Mako could feel his tears spilling over onto his cheeks, his chin, his shirt. He had failed, before he had even begun to know how to firebend. He couldn't look his father in he eyes and see the crushing disapp –
Soft, soothing thumbs wiped his tears away. "Now, now, there's no need for that." The man smiled at his son, encouraging, warming. "Only the strongest and most honourable people can become firebenders. That's why you're one, Mako; you know responsibility, you know the limit to everything. You will be one of the best."
Hands on their knees, the trio took deep, ragged gulps of air. They looked at each other and grinned, their breath hanging cloudy in the space between them.
"I think…" Bolin panted, "that was… the last of them." Asami nodded, her hair plastered against her face. Mako was about to agree with them when a pit in his stomach opened up.
"Where's Korra?" He demanded, his heart in his throat. Asami and Bolin looked at him, their momentary triumph giving way to panic.
Asami managed to stammer, "We thought she was with you –" before a brilliant white light ripped through the increasingly dark sky and blinded them all.
Mako chanced a glance out into the water, eyes squinting into the harsh brightness. About a hundred meters into its depth was an iceberg floating in solitary confinement. The source of the light was directly above it, and suddenly the fire bender got a sick, horrible feeling in the pit of the stomach. He'd seen that light before, and it scared him. Not because it had ever harmed him, but because of the implications it meant for the girl responsible.
Her vision was murky.
She could still see, but barely. It was like looking through hundreds of layers of glass; everything was distorted and dirty. Her ears were assaulted with voices coming from everywhere, none of which she could fully understand. Snippets of commands, of advice, of reminders, floated through her ears, but none of them matched up.
"Kill the Dark Spirit…"
"… the Avatar cycle will cease to exist…"
"Protect yourself…"
Korra could feel her skin burning like a fire, her whole body heating up as though she had been injected with lava. If she could just think clearly for a moment, if she could just regain control of her body…
The Avatar was really only conscious of two thoughts; one, she had gone into the Avatar State. Two, the Dark Spirit was the cause. It was much stronger than she, even with all the four elements at her will. Korra wanted to devise a strategy for once, wanted to –
She lost control over her body completely. Whatever little bit she had before was gone, replaced with a feeling of melding. She was unwillingly giving up her body as a vessel to all her past lives, letting them take control.
"Defense mechanism…"
"Let us help you…"
"…Kill it!"
Korra lifted her arms, seeing her opponent. Thousands of litres of water suddenly crashed against it, solidifying into ice. The Dark Spirit fought against it, thrashing around as it traveled up its legs, fire licking up with rocks to hold its limbs in place. Air cooled everything, and soon her adversary was entombed from head to toe in all four elements.
Korra could feel herself beginning the slow process of fully regaining control, but she couldn't help but think that was too easy. She watched with a wary look, and for the first time she realizes it has begun to snow. Not a light downfall, but a violent storm, the howling in her ears suddenly hitting her.
The cracking of the rock prison never reached her ears.
Quick as a flash, the Dark Spirit shattered the rock-and-ice case, hurtling towards Korra like a cheetah-dog. She didn't notice until it was too late.
No, she thought as its claws dug into her back, this can't be happening! She hadn't fully regained her control, hadn't stopped glowing like a lighthouse. She no longer noticed anything – not the snow, not the water churning hundreds of feet below. The pain was all she felt, both physically and mentally. It tore at her veins, her muscles, her heart.
She knew what would happen.
She had failed.
"If you are killed in the Avatar State, the reincarnation cycle will be broken, and the Avatar will cease to exist."
Everything went black.
"Korra!"
Mako watched, unable to get to his girlfriend, unable to help. The storm had picked up; it was screaming at them, taunting their view of the fight, of their friend. He stood there, squinting through the snowstorm, as she attacked the Dark Spirit and trapped it into a thick encasing. It went rigid, as though the fight had gone out of it.
Bolin whooped with joy, and Asami grinned with relief. "Thank God she's alright…" The heiress said, her face pale. "I thought for sure –"
She was once again cut off as a loud crack! filled the air. Mako could no longer make out anything but the silhouettes of Korra and the Dark Spirit. He watched in horror, as a large blot in the snow broke through its prison on the iceberg, and go for something much smaller hovering in the air.
"Korra, watch out!" Bolin screamed, but the wind snatched it up and carried it in the opposite direction. The three teenagers were powerless as they watched it connect with the glowing silhouette, and a second later they all heard a scream so full of pain that their hearts broke.
The light went out.
The figure started to fall.
"Korra!"
Something inside of Mako snapped. Gone was the part of his mind that thought logically. He ran to the edge and jumped out.
"Firebending needs control, and focus, and restraint."
Mako lost his control.
Fire shot out of his arms, stronger than anything he had ever used before. Just like when he was eight, he didn't restrain the fire; he made it as strong as possible, letting it propel him towards the rapidly descending silhouette. The larger one had long since disappeared.
Korra was less than hundred meters away from the ground, and Mako could feel his heart breaking, crushing itself. Snow – or was it tears? – burned against his eyes, and with one last desperate effort, he pushed with everything he had to catch her.
She fell into his arms right before she hit the water, and Mako pulled her close to his chest, his feet long ago taking control of the firepower.
Her eyes were closed.
They landed back where Asami and Bolin had been waiting in tense hope. The earthbender had made a cavern into the side of a cliff face about ten feet away, and Mako crashed into it, the last of his energy spent. Korra never stirred.
Asami went to the Avatar's aid but found a hand on her shoulder, holding her back. She turned and gave Bolin a questioning look, her tears matching his own. He shook his head and nodded towards his older brother.
Mako had scrambled to where her body lay, watching in horror as the blood stained the ground beneath. Gently, and with his tears rolling across his face, he turned his girlfriend's body over. He nearly retched at the sight.
Two deep puncture wounds were on either side of her hips, oozing red as they wept onto her ripped clothes. He thought for sure Korra would be showing signs of pain, whether she was unconscious or not.
Mako's mind stopped as he realized: what if she wasn't unconscious?
He put his ear hastily to her heart, listening for something, anything. Nothing. Her heart was still, her chest unmoving in a way that screamed volumes to Mako. Korra wasn't, couldn't be this still. She was the opposite – loud and energetic, always moving for some reason or other.
"Korra," he whispered, his lip trembling. "Korra, please… Wake up, Korra. Korra, please!"
His mind was in panic mode – he knew she was gone, knew there was no way anything did could bring her back, but he had to try. He ripped off his scarf, the one connection he had to his parents, and pulled Korra onto his lap. He didn't care if the cloth was ruined, didn't care if he couldn't wear it anymore and had to throw it away. It didn't matter. She mattered.
He had to try, even though he knew it was for nothing.
He was wrong.
As soon as the scarf touched the pulsing wounds, Korra's eyes flew open. Mako's heart almost stopped, he was so shocked. Light filled the dark cavern – her eyes were once again bright with white light. The Avatar's back arched against him, her mouth opened in a silent 'o'. Asami and Bolin shielded their eyes away, but Mako stared, transfixed.
It was over in seconds, the light fading as she fell back into his arms. It was as though nothing had changed, and Mako felt the last of his hopes flee. She sat there, unmoving. He bit his lip, tears cascading down his cheeks, and held her, knowing for certain that –
Korra suddenly sucked in a lungful of air.
Mako looked at his girlfriend, hardly daring to believe it. He pressed his fingers clumsily to her neck, and found by some miracle that there was the faintest pulse.
"M…Mako…"
Her eyes were open, looking at him in pain and defeat. He could do nothing but stare at her in shock.
When he didn't reply, she croaked out, "I'm dead, aren't I. I failed you, and Bolin and Asami, and the world. There won't be another Avatar, and I fai –"
"Shhh," Mako whispered, a grin breaking out across his face as he hugged her to his chest. "You didn't fail, Korra; you're alive. You're alive!" He kissed her hard, relief running through his veins. She weakly reciprocated.
When he pulled away, she clumsily wiped her thumb across his face. "Have you been crying, Tough Guy?" She asked, concern laced into her teasing.
He laughed shakily before sobering and whispering, "I almost lost the woman I love. That could make any man cry." Her eyes betrayed her, and she snuggled deeper into his arms.
"You aren't getting rid of me that easily," she murmured. "You see, I think we were meant for each other."
"So do I, Korra, so do I."
...
Wow.
Just... Wow.
I think that is the crappiest thing I have EVER written.
Why am I putting this up here?
Wow.