It was dark, pitch dark. There was nothing to be seen, just pure darkness. A feeling of unease crept up on the Avatar, fear slowly got to her. She tried to fight it, but it was hard because she simply couldn't see a damn thing. When she tried to firebend in order to create some light, nothing happened.
"What is going on?" the Avatar asked out loud, to nobody in particular. "Where am I?" There wasn't even an echo, there was just… nothing.
Suddenly there was a light in the distance, flickering, like a small flame. Korra started walking towards it and hoped she'd find someone there who might be able to tell her where she was.
"Hello?" Korra called out, but there was no response. "Hello?!" she tried again, this time with hands around her mouth to enhance the volume. But there was still no response, not a sound. Korra figured she was still too far away to be audible, so she adjusted her pace until she was running.
After a minute or five the Avatar's breathing became heavier, but she still wasn't anywhere near the flickering light. Korra didn't understand, which frustrated her. She had no idea where she was or what was going on.
.
When she still wasn't any closer to the small flickering light after another ten minutes or so, Korra stopped in order to catch her breath. Again, she tried to firebend. But to no avail. No matter how hard she punched and kicked, nothing happened. Korra wondered if she was in the spirit world, but if she was, it wouldn't be so pitch dark; would it?
"H-Hello?!" Korra called out, she noticed that her voice sounded shaky and almost broke. She couldn't deny to herself that she was scared, she was afraid and there was nothing she could do about it. It seemed like nothing she tried worked, she couldn't get out of this place and she wasn't able to bend. Because she has only tried to firebend, some hope returned to her. Korra inhaled deeply and tried to earthbend, but nothing happened. When she tried waterbending and airbending, there was the same result; nothing at all. Probably because there was no air nor earth to be felt, neither water nor fire to be seen.
"Where am I?!" Korra called out, collapsing; her legs gave out. "I don't know what to do…" she muttered. Tears escaped the corners of her eyes and slowly trickled down her cheekbones, towards her jaws and eventually off of her chin. She felt extremely powerless, vulnerable and weak. What was she supposed to do without her bending? Korra was pretty sure that without her bending she was practically worthless, she was the Avatar; master of all four elements. The only elements she mastered were her emotions, not even; since she couldn't control those.
"Why…?" she muttered, wiping away her tears roughly. Her skin felt sensitive, as if a few layers had been removed and now could barely handle any touch. Korra's throat felt raspy and hoarse, her body unstable and shivery.
The silence drove her insane, she could handle some peace and quiet every now and then, but this eerie silence was too much. It made it seem as if the thoughts in her mind were yelling, screaming; too loud.
The Avatar stopped trying to wipe away the tears, because it was like bringing owls to Athens. She felt lonely, scared, and helpless. Korra was actually tempted to just give up, although she wasn't sure if that would rescue her from this black hole. That was what this place seemed to be, Korra couldn't think of anything else that this place could possibly be.
.
Again, there was a small light in the distance, but this time it was significantly bigger and not really flickering. Korra dabbed away her tears carefully, to not damage or hurt her skin and looked— or actually focused on the light. But she was afraid to hope, scared that it would again turn out to be useless.
"H-hello?" Korra called, her voice raspy and trembling. She tried to get up, but her legs somehow felt too weak to carry her full weight. "Oh come on, please…" As she tried and failed again, Korra crawled instead; on her hands and knees. Slowly she crawled towards the light, which seemed to grow bigger little by little. With that, so did the tiny spark of hope inside of the Avatar. But the crawling went slow, it felt like she barely moved.
She got pretty close to the light and Korra felt like she was about to cry from happiness, she stopped crawling to catch her breath and tried to call out again. Her voice protested at first, so it took her a few times to actually call out on an audible level.
"Well, hello Avatar Korra…" The voice caused the hairs in Korra's neck to stand up and sent a shiver down her spine. She wasn't sure where she recognized the voice from, whose it was; but she knew it gave her a bad feeling. Her intuition was ringing all the alarms inside Korra, telling her to get away from here as fast as she could and as far as possible. It was clear that she made a horrible mistake and Korra immediately regretted her decision. How could she have been so stupid to not consider the possibility of the light meaning danger, she had gone straight towards the light like a moth wasp.
Korra hissed at herself and tried to get up again, with little success; her legs still felt extremely weak and unsteady. Eventually she was on her feet, although wobbly, and started to back out. She walked as fast as she could, in a random direction; away from the light. There was breathing audible very close to her, which only made Korra want to get out of there faster. It felt like she still wasn't fast enough… If only she could use earthbending or airbending, she'd be able to move at high speed.
Her legs started to feel less fragile and more steady and Korra was almost able to run, it ended up being a weird paced jog. Anything was better than walking, she was moving faster now; but the breathing was still close. The Avatar was scared for her life, which was extremely rare, since she barely ever before had to fear for her life. Right now she could feel her heart pound in her chest and throat, she was absolutely terrified.
.
"Don't… give… up…" Korra panted, frustrated with herself. This was pathetic, she was the Avatar. She put her previous lives to shame, all the previous Avatars; what would they say? Probably nothing, disgusted by the shame Korra put onto the Avatar as a status and in general. Tears trickled down her face, which felt like it was burning. It took its toll on her, Korra collapsed again and felt something or someone clutch onto her ankle. It tried to drag her, back into the direction Korra tried to run away from so desperately.
"No! Let me go!" Korra cried, panicking. She tried to claw into the ground, although there wasn't any, just pitch black darkness. "Let go!" the Avatar pleaded. But the thing that had her ankle in its grip was stronger, far too strong for her. The more she tried to fight back and escape, the more powerful and stronger the thing seemed to get. Korra was tired, exhausted. Her entire body cried in pain, her muscles set aflame, her veins about to burst by the extreme speed of her blood rushing through them. Even though Korra desperately tried not to, she felt herself giving up; her body gave up on her. Moving seemed impossible, it was as if her body was shutting down and preparing itself for— Could this really be it? Korra was absolutely exhausted and couldn't find the power to do anything anymore; she would just give in and let it happen. Maybe this was for the best, maybe if she gave in it would be over quicker. Probably she would not be in pain anymore and no longer so tired and find peace…
'So this is it...' Korra thought and closed her eyes, trying to ignore the terror inside and not be scared. It wasn't easy, actually it seemed absolutely impossible, but Korra had no idea what else to do. She thought of all the people she'd leave behind, all these souls she'd disappoint and probably tons of people she'd infuriate by giving up like this. She thought of Asami, the love of her life. The woman she was married to, who she promised to spend her entire life with. They would grow old together… Asami…
Korra cried, let her tears flow freely; there was no point in trying to hold them back any longer. She didn't have the strength anymore to hold them back any longer. It actually felt kind of nice, so strange. It felt like the tears slowly washed away her pain, layer by layer, until Korra couldn't feel the tears anymore.
.
There was bright light, bright enough to possibly blind Korra. She shut her eyes to protect her eyes from the brightness and slowly and carefully opened them again when the light seemed to have dimmed a little. It was still bright, but it was bearable now. As Korra's eyes focused, a silhouette came into view. The Avatar gasped and squeezed her eyes shut again, scared. But as nothing happened, she opened them again, somewhat hesitantly. The silhouette was still there, now getting better into view and getting less blurry as Korra's eyes refocused. Korra now saw that it was Asami, but it didn't make any sense. How could Asami be here?
"A-Asami?" Korra stuttered, not hiding her confusion. "How… What—?" but Korra was cut short as Asami kissed her, very softly.
"It's okay, Korra. I'm here," Asami whispered before kissing Korra again.
"But, what—? Asami, what are you doing here?!" Korra felt horrible, she left Asami behind and lead Asami to—
"Korra, you had a nightmare. Apparently a really extreme one…" Korra shook her head, still in total disbelief.
"I was— You— But—" Asami leaned towards Korra again and gently pulled the Avatar into a warm and comforting hug. "I don't understand…" Korra stuttered.
"I don't know what you dreamed— I can't possibly know what happened in your nightmare, Korra, but you are safe now. I'm here and I won't let anything happen to you, it's over," Asami said in a soft and gentle voice. It sounded so reassuring, comforting and calming.
"The afterlife is strange…" Korra mumbled, accepting it as it was; not having enough energy not to.
"Babe, please… You're not in the afterlife, you are very much alive and so am I. You were sweating a lot and I couldn't bear seeing you suffer, so I woke you up as gentle as possible."
"Wait, I'm not dead?!" Korra asked, sitting up rapidly and bumping her head into Asami's. "Ow…"
"Ouch, Korra— Silly, lay down," Asami said, gently pressing a hand onto her forehead. Korra looked away and bit her lower lip.
"Sorry… I didn't mean to hurt you," she mumbled, lying back down as Asami told her to.
"It is okay, my love. You are forgiven, just… Know that you are safe, I'm here and nothing will happen to you. I will not let anything happen to you, by nobody." Korra looked up at Asami again and felt her heart flutter inside her chest that was now warm.
"Asami, I love you," Korra said and caressed Asami's cheek gently.
"And I love you, my lovely wife," Asami answered and kissed Korra again, over and over again; until Korra felt truly safe again.