Day 2: Mythological AU
(Based off the Greek Tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice. Post-Book 2)
Warnings: Blood, Violence, Character Death.
Rating: T+
Word Count: 6,5k words
Prompt: Games
~~~~~~.:oOo:.~~~~~~
She couldn't believe it, she still could not process it in her brain for it was too much pain for a single person to endure at once- first the break-up with Mako and now… No, she couldn't even think about it.
Korra was ashamed to admit it but she felt a small shred of relief when Mako chose Asami, she was broken hearted but knew she had been irrational towards him and she still felt that bittersweet pang of first love for him yet at least when they chose to end what they had the guilt had faded away and that guilt had really been shattering her soul for months.
At first she didn't understand why she felt guilty at all, having Mako and dating him was what she wanted from the start and even though she knew she should feel bad for Asami she really didn't, yet each day the remorse grew bigger and bigger until she was forced to realize what was wrong- yes, she loved Mako, he had been in her heart first but he wasn't who she truly wanted anymore and now she was just with him to forget the other person on her mind which made her feel terrible for using him.
When the firebender first rejected her, Korra was heartbroken and the one who picked up the pieces was someone who just happened to catch her crying outside the area; she didn't even know him and he was probably old enough to be her father but he was kind enough to offer her a handkerchief and sit beside her so she wouldn't have to cry alone. She tried to act tough, stating that an Avatar wasn't supposed to weep over something as petty as an unrequited crush, but he saw right through her and told her to just be human for a night rather than the Avatar.
Korra liked that man and when he offered to walk her and Naga to docks so she could catch the ferry back to the island she accepted without a second thought but as they chatted she found out he was actually from the North Pole and they ended up sidetracked by the conversation so that they found themselves sitting on a pier, sharing fire flakes and talking about old crushes and stupid things from their youth in the poles. Those moments brought her smile back.
He said his name was Noatak and they met many more times after that night though always in secret because she wasn't sure what people would think if they knew she was hanging out with such an older guy. The ease she had around him turned into something more, she wasn't sure what to call it but lust won out and after a single night in his bed she began to wonder if fate hadn't crushed her heart through Mako just so she would have the chance to meet Noatak.
Even during the equalist uprising she still met with him in secret once or twice before she was forced to go underground with her friends after Amon invaded the island. Despite the growing spark that was blossoming between herself and Mako, confusing her feelings further, the one she kept thinking of was Noatak and whether he was alright during the war.
And then they found Tarrlok and the truth crushed her like a bug under a boulder; everybody just assumed she was shocked about Amon being Tarrlok's brother and a bloodbender but that wasn't it at all, what stunned her was the cold stab of betrayal in her gut which kindled in her a rage she had never before imagined. She was actually morbidly pleased when she managed to send Amon flying out that window but after the mask and makeup were off and he was staring at her, she felt her chest constrict with pain, longing and sorrow once more.
And then he betrayed her once more and ran away. She felt useless and broken without most of her bending, she felt tortured and stupid after discovering that Amon was her secret lover and had probably been using her, she wanted to give up entirely and hand over the mantle to a new and better Avatar but at that point of complete desperation she connected with her past lives and such a spiritual breakthrough brought back hope, she recovered her bending and threw herself in Mako's arms in hope that everything would work out and that she would forget Noatak.
Secretly she still hoped the equalist would return, for weeks she practically prayed to Yue to see him again; maybe he'd come with an excuse and she'd punch him to the ground for what he did to her, perhaps he'd come to finish what he started and then she'd resolve her feelings by fighting on equal footing and putting him behind bars, or maybe he'd simply apologize and tell her it hadn't all been a lie and he really had loved her like she still loved him despite how abominable that was.
Months passed and she was sure the coward would never come back. It hurt, it hurt so much but she couldn't admit it because everyone would think she was out of her mind if she did, it also made her feel terrible for clinging on to Mako and making him a frail replacement for who she was still dreaming of.
So the break-up was a relief, the civil war was over, her soul was once again complete with Raava laced in it, Unalaq was gone, her cousins were on the run but no longer a threat, the worlds were united and her role had changed, for the better she believed. Things were looking up… So why was she so depressed?
Just when she thought she could move forwards, months after Vaatu's defeat, new information came and shattered her reality once again.
After some time trying to adjust to a world filled with Spirits, Korra found one that sparked an idea in her mind, this was a Spirit that could travel through every reflection in every world- water droplets, the surface of the ocean, mirrors, window panes, even shiny satomobile hoods, this creature could see everything in every reflection.
Korra bargained with the Spirit, by then she had discovered that these beings were all about games so she gambled with this one; he chose a very interesting game called 'slice', he would shower the Avatar with reflective pieces of broken glass and he would travel around them all, if she could catch him before all the glass touched the ground and without bleeding by cutting herself on the jagged pieces he would do what she required.
There were no real rules but Korra practically cheated, she used waterbending to freeze all the shards around her in a block of ice as they fell and trapped the Spirit, she then used earthbending to cover every bit of ice capped glass in dirt so no reflection could pass except to a single flat piece where the being was forced to hide. She grabbed the Spirit with ease but nicked her palm and had to burn the cut shut before any drop of blood could seep from it.
The Spirit was forced to admit defeat and accepted her task- she wanted him to find Amon, to find Noatak, so she could chase him and finally settle her feelings and perhaps bring him to justice… Or so she told herself.
It took the creature less than a day to pop up in her bedroom mirror and inform her of where her prey was- in the darkest corner of the Spirit World, in the home of the Spirit of Death awaiting his chance of reincarnation.
He was dead and for quite some time from what the Spirit told her.
Korra was stunned at first, he hadn't returned because he was dead and not because he had simply forgotten her and ran away…
She didn't know how this made her feel but after days trying to put a lid on her feelings she broke down crying and decided she missed him too much, she wanted to see him even if just one last time, she wanted a chance to change him and make him only into the man he was when he was around her unmasked.
Without a second thought she grabbed Naga and left towards the South Pole. Once there and before anybody could stop her she was guiding the polar bear dog into the portal and seeking any indication of how to find the darkest corner of the Spirit World.
The creatures she met were never too forthcoming with the information she needed but after days of search she found the place she sought after. It was permanently night around Death's domain and the entrance was guarded by a massive three-headed spider-dragon, the monster spat fiery webs that trapped and burned down any soul that attempted to escape its fate in this ghastly underworld and twenty-four eyes ensured there was no blind spot to sneak through.
The Avatar sent Naga away out of concern for the animal's safety, prompting the beast to head back to the portal while she thought of a tactic to pass by the monster that stood in her path. There was no way she was going to get through unseen and bargaining wasn't option when the being seemed designed to do its job with ruthless precision but without any intellectual ability that would allow her to communicate with it.
She figured making a run for it was the best option and so she did but only got within five yards of the guardian before it noticed her and blocked her path, ready to fire a flaming web in her direction.
There was a river nearby, its depths glowed silver and swirled ominously like liquid fog but she managed to bend some water and shove it into all three maws of the monster before freezing them shut so that no flame could escape as she ran and bent the rock under her feet to tip the spindly sharp legs of the spider-dragon, it fell and while it struggled to stand or fly Korra airbent her way over it and landed in the black humid entrails of the strange pulsating castle made of dead-looking plant life.
Without fear, the Avatar explored her surroundings until she came upon a river, it was the same one she had seen outside but it cut into the castle and blocked her path, she tried going around it or finding a way to cross but there was nothing, she tried bending her way through the water but it wouldn't obey her power enough that she could cross the whole width of the river.
"It's not quite water… If you try to bend you might fall in. If you fall in, you might very well forget who you are." Said a voice not far away and when she followed the sound she found a little boat with a strange Spirit sitting inside ready to carry her across.
"Can you take me then?" Korra almost pleaded.
"I shouldn't, you aren't a deceased soul, Avatar… But I shall aid you, I do not care for the rules of this place." The Spirit nodded dully.
The strange ferrymen looked almost human but she could not see his face under the heavy cloak he wore, he was missing an arm and shackled to the tiny boat, his remaining burnt hand extended to her not to help her in but waiting.
"What?" Korra asked before she could consider any manners.
"You must pay the fare if you wish to cross the Lethe." The boatman's voice was familiar, a little too familiar…
"Tarrlok?" She asked nervously.
"You have to pay or I can't take you, Korra." He repeated in a tired tone, confirming her suspicions.
"Why are you here?" The Avatar enquired in complete confusion.
"I died. I took my own life and my brother's in the speedboat we escaped in." He sighed and glanced at the slow swirling waters with their almost-sentient glow. "Suicide is not looked upon with very good eyes down here… This is my punishment, until I pay my debt for the life I wasted I must be the ferryman."
"You… You killed Noatak?" She had wanted to express sympathy for this man that she had hated and then pitied, a simple 'I'm sorry', perhaps a promise to aid him too but instead all that came out was the incredulous question tinted with a red hot anger she didn't know she possessed.
"You say that as if he didn't deserve it." Tarrlok chuckled darkly. "Don't worry, he's paying his dues as well."
"You manipulated me, you arrested my friends, you acted exactly the way Amon accused benders of being, you bloodbent me, you kidnapped me! You hurt me so much and now you admit to stealing him from me too?" Korra shouted before she could stop herself.
"Stealing him from you?" Tarrlok's hooded head tilted curiously, wondering if she meant stealing the chance of revenge from her or something else; he began to think aloud- "I thought it was strange of him to simply run away and surrender once unmasked… He took most of your bending, he could have just bloodbent you to death in an instant as revenge or taken you with us as well and you wouldn't have been able to fight back… He preferred to give up and even let me kill him with remorse on his face… My, my… I never knew Amon had a heart but here it is standing before me."
His snickering tone was the last drop, with her heart wrenched and twisted in her chest Korra stepped inside the vessel and grabbed the man by the heavy cloak he wore, shaking him with such blind rage that his hood fell revealing his face- the right portion of it was gone and the rest was lacerated into a charred mangled mess, his lips had burned off to reveal his teeth in a gruesome smile, his nose was gone, his only remaining left eye was bloodshot and milky and his hair had melted into his scalp.
The Avatar was so horrified by the sight that she let go at once and stumbled back, falling into the river with a massive splash.
He was right, the water wasn't quite water- it really was sentient and swirled around her like the coldest ice she had ever felt, whispering nonsensical words in her ears and sneaking into her lungs to choke her while her mind went numb and white.
Something hooked in her clothes and pulled her back into the tiny boat, it appeared to be an oar. She lay there, choking on air and feeling empty and numb, her body felt too frozen too move and she trying to speak but realized she had forgotten how to form words.
"I warned you. The river of forgetfulness wipes souls clean for the next life." The ferrymen she no longer recognized muttered darkly. "Have you forgotten everything?"
She opened her mouth but it flapped like a fish out of water because not only could she not remember the words, she also didn't know the answer.
"You don't know who you are?" He questioned, getting only a blank confused look in return that made him sigh. "No idea why you're here?"
She opened her mouth again and hesitated. Why was she there again?
Her trembling hands rose to her face and she clutched her own head, trying hard to remember, it was something important… Very important… What was it, why was it even more important than her own name and why did it make both her head and her chest hurt?
A face floated to her mind, bobbing in her consciousness like an apple in a swamp and the sight of it sparked a chain of recognition inside her throbbing skull.
"Noatak!" She cried out the name and moments later she was crawling to her knees and snarling with determination. She had to get him, she knew that much and she wouldn't surrender until she had him, such a thought spiraled until she began to remember everything and immediately resented losing time in this disgusting river.
"Oh? First time I see this happen." Tarrlok snickered, hood back in place. "They rarely remember… You must want him very badly indeed."
"Take me there!" The Avatar demanded angrily, still dripping glowing silvery threads of liquid.
"Pay the toll and I will." He replied with ease.
"You seriously want money?" She shot him a flat look but to her frustration Tarrlok only nodded. "I don't have any!"
"It doesn't have to be money… A piece of you would do just fine." The ferryman retorted with malice.
"A piece…" She trailed off considering his words and then bent an air blade to slice her hair short, handing him the shorn locks. "Here."
"How boring, usually they offer an eye or fingers." Tarrlok chuckled but accepted the payment that vanished in his hands.
"You probably only ferry dumb people, that's likely why they're dead." She retorted snippily.
"Good point." He stated, already sinking his oar into the mysterious waters of the river to seamlessly guide the boat across.
It took so long to get through the wide expanse of water that Korra began to grow impatient and fidget in her seat but at last the vessel docked on a beach of ashy sand and Tarrlok extended his only hand to the right, telling her to follow the path. She didn't even pause to thank him and hopped onto dry land at once, running down the winding stone path, often meeting crossroads and forks that a appeared promising but not tempting enough to distract her from her goal.
Finally she reached the massive poison-ivy doors of a room, she kicked them down and waltzed right in as if she owned the place, seeking the person she had to bargain with for Noatak's soul. At first, she believed nobody was inside, it was only a massive room with a wide arched ceiling and an enormous green fire burning across the walls.
"We seem to have a visitor, darling…" A soft wispy androgynous voice caught Korra's attention and she turned to spot a Spirit whose form was in constant change so it possessed every physical trait she had ever seen in a living being, it was hard to look at and trying to understand it gave her a headache.
"I don't often cater to the living." Another genderless voice made her turn and she saw another Spirit, this one tall and shrouded in dark mist, it revealed only overly long dark skeletal fingers and pinpoints of light that resembled something shining at the end of long tunnels, she assumed those could be eyes but the creature didn't look at her and ignored her completely, speaking to the other instead.
"Which one of you is Death?" Korra demanded at once.
"What exactly would a human want with me?" The mist-wrapped creature asked the other with no trace of emotion, still ignoring the Avatar. "Tell it to leave and die when it wishes to see me."
"Forgive my consort, Avatar." The ever-changing being appeared to smile. "Death has a stony heart."
"And who are you?" Korra asked suspiciously.
"Your kind calls me Reincarnation. You should know, you've met me time and time again." The Spirit responded. "What brings you to us?"
"I want Noatak's soul back, I want to bring him back to the living." The Avatar replied without hesitation.
"Impossible." The Spirit replied though displaying some curiosity.
"Has he reincarnated yet?" Korra asked, silently begging the answer to be no.
"Not yet, he has much to atone for first." The Spirit of Reincarnation replied softly.
"Prove it." She demanded.
For a long silent moment Korra thought they were just both going to ignore her altogether but then the ever-changing creature gestured to the flames on the wall and from them sprouted a massive bobble of water, the equalist was suspended inside it, permanently drowning and struggling with unseen visions but never losing consciousness although his skin was deathly pale and his face was sunken and cadaveric.
"Noatak!" The Avatar shouted and ran to the massive globe of liquid, finding its surface too hard to penetrate but the sound of her fists on it made the trapped man notice her and reach out to her, still struggling in agony.
"You won't be able to reach him." The Spirit that was willing to speak to her informed.
"Give him back to me!" Korra shouted angrily and demandingly at Death itself.
"Don't bother. Death will not listen to you." The Spirit of Reincarnation explained, impressed by the girl's bravery in face of the one thing all mortals feared. Its consort had apparently taken perch on a stony surface and appeared to peer into the flames, watching something not visible to human eyes.
"Then you help me!" The Avatar shouted at the ever-changing Spirit.
"And why would I?" It replied distantly but not unkindly. "Such a thing is against the laws of nature, what could you possibly give us in return for breaking such unbendable rules?"
Korra wavered as she stared at the beings and used the only card she knew- "…Your kind likes games, don't they?"
"If they are entertaining enough." The Spirit nodded vaguely.
"Then let's gamble for it." The Avatar stomped her foot. "Any game. I win, you give me Noatak. I lose and you get me."
"That's hardly entertaining." The changing creature waved off her offer.
"…Please." She ended up stumbling to the being and kneeling before it. "Please, I'm begging you, just give me a chance to get him back! Please!"
"Why?" The Spirit surveyed her with intense curiosity, never had an Avatar willing come to them while still alive.
"Because I love him and I literally dragged my ass through hell to get him." Korra retorted with unmovable resolve.
"Well… I for one do not want your life, Korra. It's hardly enough when I will just have to help you reincarnate in the next Avatar." The being watched her reaction with mild interest.
"Then end the Avatar Cycle, I don't care!" She offered desperately.
"That's impossible too, Raava's cycle is unstoppable even by my hands." The Spirit paused as an idea was born. "But… Your bending could make a lovely memento."
"My bending...?" The Avatar's resolve wavered at last, her bending wasn't just something that mattered to her, the balance of the whole world hung on it and it defined her completely so could she really give it up?
"Is that too high a price?" The Spirit appeared to be testing her.
"It… Well…"Korra glanced at Noatak's agonized expression and then back at the Spirits, feeling lost.
"He was going to take your bending anyway before and yet you still followed him here to rescue him, doesn't that mean he is more important than your skills?" The ever-changing creature questioned.
The Avatar grit her teeth, the words made sense, she was no longer the 'bridge' after all and she hadn't made that whole travel for nothing. With a stoic air, Korra swallowed the lump in her throat and said- "Fine, take it but give me Noatak."
"I will give you… My consort's ear. That is all I can promise." The Spirit offered, it sounded truly apologetic for not being able to do more.
"…Do it." Korra reluctantly accepted and closed her eyes.
The Spirit placed a palm on her head, it felt like condensed wind and kept changing shape over her skin but she was distracted from it by a bright glow that pierced her closed lids and the a sudden hollow sensation that made her soul feel mangled yet it wasn't nearly as painful as the pain she felt when she heard of Noatak's death so she found it worth it and secretly hoped she might still relearn her bending someday.
"Such a lovely soul. Almost too lovely to tamper with." The Spirit practically sang as it took her abilities away and finally stepped back. Korra resisted the urge to crumple to the ground and stood her ground, watching the being waltz over to Death itself, cooing and caressing it amorously. "Darling, listen to the human, for me."
The Spirit of Death didn't not react for a long time but after an exchange of cryptic looks between the beings, the creature turned and acknowledged the Avatar at last.
"You cannot have him back." Death stated stonily.
"I'll give anything I can in return." Korra offered.
"No." The being did not budge.
"I will not stop badgering you until you comply. I may not have the Avatar State anymore, my threats may be empty to you but I will turn this corner of the Spirit World inside out with my bare hands if I have to until you at least give me a chance to win him back!" Korra's voice grew louder and louder at each word until she was shouting her threats and gesturing violently at everything around her, having completely forgotten the power of who she spoke to.
Death was… Well, impressed might be too strong a word but it was intrigued by the feisty little human and it was aware of what tended to happen to Spirits who defied the Avatar, bending or no bending it didn't want to be hassled by such a trivial matter because of a single corrupted soul.
"I will give you a chance." The Spirit of Death declared at last.
"What do I have to do?" Korra squared her shoulders and prepared for the challenge, hoping it wouldn't be too lethal.
"Sing." Death requested.
"What?" She was stunned and thought he was mocking her.
"Sing for me, sing of him with all your heart, sing about why you are so desperate to save the man that betrayed you, sing until your throat bleeds and if I find it heartfelt enough then perhaps you can have him." The mist-shrouded being announced coolly.
"I… I can't sing…" The Avatar stuttered nervously, did Noatak's fate really hang of a skill she never had possessed?
"Then I guess this matter is over." Death began to wave the globe of liquid that imprisoned the equalists soul but Korra got in its way.
"Alright! I'll sing! I'll sing until my voice dies out!" She shouted frantically, standing before the globe where Noatak was trying to claw his way towards her to no avail.
"I'm waiting." The dark-misted creature urged her on.
Korra had no idea how to start, she didn't know a thing about poetry, she could rhyme to save her life, she barely knew the words to a couple of children's songs, she couldn't keep a steady rhythm either and singing just felt pointless and stupid when it came to something so important, it felt like they were mocking her with their worthless requests.
And yet she still sang, the words weren't her own but they felt appropriate and she spilled them out with as much emotion as she could, telling the story of her thoughts and feelings ever since she met him, chanting about the ways he had marked her and often repeating her sung arguments in a loop, thinking not of Amon but of Noatak, remembering all the times they spent together and how much she missed him, how much it hurt to be without him.
She was out of key and tone deaf, her husky voice was deep and pleasant but not at all suitable for song and she knew it, she knew it so well that she was aware of how pointless this effort was and such knowledge made her sink to her knees and cry in despair even though she never stopped singing, not even when her hiccupping sobs got in the way, not even when lyrics kept repeating themselves in a near hysterical manner, not even when her voice began to crack as her throat dried up and started to hurt after days of that humiliating scene- or at least what felt like days, it was likely just hours.
Eventually her voice gave out altogether though she still tried to sing, she still tried to force out the tune past her parched lips but all that slipped out were raspy breaths. She looked up and saw that other Spirits had gathered around to watch her, she saw that he staring at her too through the torturous waters of his prison with some unidentifiable pain in his eyes, but she focused at the two creatures she was trying to impress, feeling wholly defeated and ready to crawl at their feet for another chance.
The Spirit of Reincarnation stared at her with pity in its ever changing face and then glanced at its consort. The Spirit of Death had not moved an inch but glittery liquid like molten gold slid from the pinpricks of light that were its eyes- where those Death's version of tears? Did it have enough of a heart to cry for anyone?
A moment later the Spirit raised a dark bony hand, flicked its wrist and Noatak was released from his watery cage, splashing to the ground and coughing up massive amounts of liquid.
Korra tried to reach his fallen form and he appeared to be reaching out for her too with pain, hope, love and admiration stamped on his pale sunken face but Death got in the way and stopped her.
"There is a stipulation." The Spirit announced.
"What?" Korra discovered that her voice was returning at an usually fast pace but it hurt to speak and she feared the reply she'd get.
"You will leave this place and return to your world at once, he will follow silently behind you but you mustn't look back until you are both in the Human Realm. If you have the strength of will to do this once there he will return to being living flesh and blood but if you so much as glance at him early and if he ever returns to this side of the portals he will be condemned to wander the Spirit World forever as a lost soul with no chance to move on or to be saved or reborn." Death explained the rules with no space for argument.
"How will I know he's really following me?" Korra whispered the question suspiciously.
"You won't." The being announced and turned its back on her, floating away and acknowledging the Avatar no more.
"Another game then?" She hissed irritably, tired of how these creatures played with human lives.
"Go, Avatar Korra." The Spirit of Reincarnation instructed, coaching her to turn towards the doors. "I hope not to see you again for a long time."
Korra left without looking back, she walked out the poison-ivy entrance and used all her self-control to avoid looking back as she followed the path, hearing only her own footsteps tapping on the stone beneath her. Once at the beach, she hoped Tarrlok would show some sign of recognition towards his brother to let her know she hadn't been tricked but the boat was empty and waiting, she had to be the one guiding the oar until they reached the other bank.
Getting out of the abode was easy, the three-headed guardian sniffed her suspiciously but let her pass without a fuss, even though it snarled and obviously desired to uphold its job and not allow any soul to escape, not even hers.
Walking back out of the Spirit World was harder without Naga but at least now she knew the way and she was determined to make it back without having to stop to rest because she feared that if she stopped she wouldn't resist the temptation to look back. However, she still often passed out from pure exhaustion and woke hours later to drag herself up again and keep moving forward with only water and whatever fruit she found on the way as fuel. Already she was feeling foolish and almost completely sure that she had been fooled, it was immensely difficult not to turn and make sure Noatak was really there, she even talked to him through all those exhausting hours of walk, hoping to hear some sort of reply but none ever came.
"Please give me some sign, please tell me this wasn't all for nothing…" Korra begged time and time again and when he never replied she always fell back into the same rambling speech. "Please, Noatak… I feel so shattered and worthless without my bending, my soul feels physically broken. Tell me this pain is worth it, tell me it's not wasted… I know I should hate you, I know you probably hated what I am, what I was, but I know you loved me too. I dragged myself through hell and back for you because even though you bloodbent me, betrayed me and took my bending I still couldn't bear the idea of your death, I still missed you too much and it crushed my heart… Please don't let me go."
He still never replied and she would often break down into silent tears that lasted as long as it took her to start pleading again or faint of exhaustion.
When she finally saw the portals her feet were bleeding, her boots had long since been discarded when her feet swell too much to fit them after days of walk but she still broke into a run to reach the closest portal and step out of it.
She knew she should wait, she knew she shouldn't look back until she heard him or felt him but as her bare feet hit the snow of the South Pole she couldn't stand it anymore and turned back.
Noatak was there as promised, standing on the threshold of the portal and slowly gaining a living corporeal form again. He had been holding back his tongue the whole journey because to test her Death had made him promise not give any sign of himself until they were out of the Spirit World and each time she begged for him to talk, each time she cried, each time she fainted he felt his resolve waver and his heart broke in his bodiless chest, each time he resisted the urge to touch her, to care for her, to thank her, to kneel at her feet and beg for her forgiveness, to just love her.
"Korra…" He said her name as if it was a sweet blessing and reached out to touch her.
Korra was about to pull him to her, determined to embrace him and never let go but suddenly a blast of water hit them both and forced them to topple into the portal. Noatak was still on the threshold, he hadn't fully returned to the Human World and when thrown back into the Spirit Realm, Korra saw her arms go right through his almost consistent body, just before he turned as glassy eyed as the lost souls she had seen before in the Fog.
"No… No! No, no, NO!" Korra screamed, ignoring whoever had thrown water their way and trying to pull him into her world but to no avail.
As she struggled to get ahold of him or regain his attention, a water whip wrapped around her legs and pulled her back through the portal and away from him. She was dragged screaming across the snow and struggling with all her might but with her bending gone she could do nothing but squirm.
"Not fighting back, cousin?" Desna asked, coldly and darkly just before manipulating the whip that bound her in order to slam her into a nearby rock.
Korra hit the stone with a smack that made her gasp when the air was forced out of her lungs, her eyes watered and her whole body vibrated with pain. She was like a ragdoll being thrown back and forth in the watery embrace that the two blank-faced twins manipulated with dangerous ease.
"All the better." Eska stated in reply to her brother, flinging the Avatar so much harder onto the rocks that she coughed splatters of crimson blood onto the snow when some internal organ ruptured from the beating.
"Please…" The Avatar pleaded, unable to breathe from the pain as they smacked her around with blasts of highly compressed liquid. She kept trying to crawl back into the portal.
"You killed our father." Desna snarled, showing a flicker of furious emotion at last.
"We will show you no mercy." Eska added icily.
The male rose a wall of water in front of them and his twin stabbed through it, sending a volley of rapid ice needles that Korra could not dodge and without her bending she was sitting turtleduck- they sliced and pierced into her flesh in the most agonizing way until she couldn't even feel the cold, only the pain.
Nonetheless, Korra dragged herself to the portal through the agony, she could no longer move her legs but she could see Noatak's wandering form just on the other side of the light. She no longer cared if she couldn't bring him back alive, at the very least she just wanted him to regain consciousness even if she had to stay with him in the Spirit World forever.
Desna caught her and yanked her back by her now short matted hair, there was blood pouring from her nose and mouth and dripping down her chin as well as multiple injuries on her body, her legs had no feeling in them whatsoever, one of her arms was definitely dislocated, a cut over her eye kept her from opening it fully and she could barely move to struggle but she still snarled furiously at her cousin and punched him in the face hard enough to make him bleed too.
"Don't kill her Desna." Eska's voice interrupted as the male twin hissed in pain and raised an ice blade to her throat. "I have a better idea."
Desna stopped and dropped her. Korra fell with half her body in the Spirit World and half in the Human Realm, she saw Noatak again and screamed his name. A hint of recognition flickered in his eyes and Noatak turned, slowly staring at her with confusion and longing, she screamed his name again and stretched her only working arm, trying to reach him as his eyes regain some of their old shrewdness and he began to move her way.
The ice encircled her too fast for the Avatar to react to it, she was frozen solid in that position, silently screaming for him, desperately reaching for him as the massive block of clear ice grew around her, trapping her, smothering her, killing her until the surface became too thick and frosted to see through, though by then Avatar Korra had already seen the last thing she would ever see- the face of the lover she was never meant to have.
~~~~~~.:oOo:.~~~~~~
Epilogue Extra:
Eska and Desna didn't survive to see anyone else ever again. Once their revenge was through they ran away but Korra's father decided to hunt them down once he discovered that his daughter had been frozen to death on a spot that trapped her between worlds and made it impossible for her body to be salvaged.
Unfortunately for Tonraq he never got his revenge because when he found his niece and nephew they had both died bizarrely in the snow- apparently they had contorted until all their bones broke and their hearts had slowly been crushed under the pressure of their own blood by some mysterious unseen force that haunted the land around the portal. They died holding hands and were found being chewed on by wild animal Spirits and artic wolves.
Until this day nobody dares approach the Southern portal and much less touch the eternal block of ice where the once Avatar rests, they claim the land his haunted, cursed by a trapped vengeful spirit with a thirst for blood and whose longing cries of sadness mingle with the howling of the wind.
~~~~~~.:oOo:.~~~~~~
(Author's Note: It's been a long time since I wrote such a tragic ending… I'm sorry.
This story isn't exactly inserted in a mythological setting as the AU implies but rather based off the Greek mythological tale of Orpheus and Eurydice- in the original Orpheus's talent is music (which obviously doesn't fit Korra, nor does his peaceful nature) and when his love dies he travels to the underworld, puts Cerberus (the three-headed dog that guards Hades) to sleep with a lullaby, pays Caronte (the ferryman) with a song instead of coins, sings to charm Persephone (Hade's wife) into getting her husband to listen to him and then sings a song so lovely that Hades himself feels his hard heart thaw and cries iron tears. In the end Orpheus's downfall is that he is impatient and looks back too soon and although he was in the realm of the living already, Eurydice didn't have time to walk past the threshold and ended up crying in desolation as her soul vanishes back to Hades.
The part of the story that is often neglected to be told because the moral of tale had already been delivered is what came next- Orpheus was so saddened that he disdained all gods except the god of the sun and music Apollo, he sang a song in salute to his god, attracting the maenads (wild women who worshipped Dionysus, the god of wine and madness) who fell in love with him but where angered that he tried to worship Apollo in their lands and in a fit of insanity fought over him until they tore him to pieces. As punishment the gods turned the maenads into oak trees to mark Opheus's grave, his soul joined Eurydice's in the afterlife.)