Chapter 2

A knock came at the door. Korra spun around in her chair and tried to shrug off her frown. Behind her, the towers of Republic city peaked over the waters of Yue bay.

"It's not locked," she called.

The door eased open as Katara let herself in. Dressed in her water tribe clothes, though without the fur overcoat in the warmer climate of the Earth kingdom, she was as elegant as ever, and smiling with such warmth that lifted Korra's mood instantly.

"Korra. It's so good to see you again."

Korra smiled. "It's good to see you too."

"May I come in?"

Blinking, Korra wheeled herself back to give the older woman space. "Of course."

They both settled close to the window and Korra found herself looking out into the waters, unwilling to meet Katara's gaze.

"And how are you going, Korra?"

Korra felt the silence between them, uncertain of her response. When the old waterbender didn't continue, Korra shrugged.

"I've been doing strengthening exercises every day. Half an hour in the morning, noon, afternoon. Stretches to keep myself limber. And the regular bend-"

"I mean how are you feeling?"

"Oh." That put Korra in a bind. Just what was she feeling? The question was too large to be contained in so few words and the longer the silence dragged past, the more unnerved Korra became when she realised that she didn't have an answer.

"I'm fine, I guess," she said.

Katra didn't seem to believe her but Korra held firm. If she wasn't fine now, she would be fine before too long.

"Well you know you can always talk to me. If you need to clear your thoughts."

Korra nodded, a thin smile stretched on her lips.

"Alright. Let me take a look at you then. What do you feel in your legs?"

Thankful that the conversation had moved to more concrete matters, Korra straightened her back. "There's no pain, only discomfort if I sit still for too long. Mainly my legs just feel weak. I can't put any weight into them, not for more than a second."

Katara hummed and uncorked her hip flask. She rolled a sphere of water in her hands and pressed it to Korra's hip. Between the elderly waterbender's fingers came a calming blue light as Korra felt her muscles ease. She blinked. Had her legs been that taught and stiff?

This was it. Katara was the best healer the world has seen for a long time. If she couldn't make Korra's legs regain their strength, no one can. Already, she could feel something changing. Her shoulders eased, the corners of her eyes smoothed from wrinkles that hadn't even knew existed. A tingling travelled down from her hips to the tips of her toes. She wriggled at the sensation.

A roar came from outside. A jolt of adrenaline flushed through Korra's body as she reached to a sound she'd heard many times before. A flying bison in distress. There was no mistaking it. Tenzin's bison.

Korra's eyes snapped open and she rushed to the window, gripped the rim and leaned all the way out. Her knees shook. With a gasp, she turned to find her chair back where she left it. She was standing with her own strength!

Korra collapsed on her bed before her legs could buckle out from underneath her. She drew them up, rubbing her thighs, trying to get the circulation flowing and stop the sudden bout of tingling that was travelling up from her toes.

Katara laid a hand on her shoulder but her gaze was at the window. "What was it?"

Korra narrowed her eyes. "It's Tenzin. He, Bolin and Mako left to take care of some spirits earlier today. It doesn't sound good." She gripped the trousers covering her legs. "I'm going to go check it out." With a deep breath, Korra pushed herself up and steadied herself on her two legs.

"Korra-" Katara stood as well, lifting her hand in an attempt to get Korra to stay.

"No. I need to do this." Korra braced herself and tensed her thighs. She took a hesitant step. It held. She looked up, for the first time since the fight that she could lift her head high. Step. Then step. It wasn't close to how she moved before, but this taste of healing was what she needed. She'd get back on her feet, literally and figuratively. She'd make it work and things will go back to the way the were before.

But for now, she made for the door, as the commotion grew outside. Tenzin needed her help, she knew it.

With Katara at her heels, Korra shuffled down through the Air Temple, leaning along the walls as she needed to, slowing when she felt her legs threaten to give. When they neared the entrance, Katara broke off and surged ahead, reaching for her hip flask. Korra gritted her teeth. If Tenzin was injured, then she was needed as well. A grim smile twisted her lips. The Avatar was needed.

A space in the centre of the court yard was cleared where Tenzin landed. Katara bent over him already at work attending to a slash along the man's arm. Mako and Bolin, thankfully, didn't seem too injured but each nursed little grazes and bruises. Mako limped to sink into the fur of Tenzin's bison. Bolin met Korra's eyes. His jaw dropped and she spared a second to flash him a genuine smile.

With on final look around. Korra pursed her lips. Time to get to work herself.

She took her hand off the sides of the door, stood over them all on top of the stairs, then gathered the airbending frame and launched herself into the sky.

"Korra!" came Bolin's startled shout.

But she was already caught by the wind as it's ferocious pull dragged her too far away to hear. The air parted in front of her, wrapping around her sides before joining at her feet in a slickstream. Beneath the wings of the glider she wove threads of high pressure, and above them, drawing away the air to build her lift. With a twist of her shoulders, Korra angled the nose straight towards Republic City.

She narrowed her eyes. Ever from the middle of Yue bay, she could make out something that rose above the residential buildings downtown. It was large alright, rising easily twenty stories and from the smoke coming from the rooftops nearby, it had already done some damage to the homes in the area. Lit from the street lights below, Korra made out a thick half-dome of a head, studded with misshapen polyps that migrated over the surface, shifting colours as they went.

The skies around the spirit was abuzz with small planes, from which metalbenders threw out steel chords in an attempt to trap the spirit in place. Korra gritted her teeth and in another burst of speed passed the docks of Republic City. She was just in time to see two tapered arms peel away from the spirit's central dome. The whipped out, thicker than a grown man's waist and struck the metalbenders' chords out from the air.

Korra spied familiar streets below as she scanned for a place to land. One rooftop called out to her with its small luxurious garden, complete with fountain and pool. She let the air pressure drop, dipped into a nosedive, wind whipping past her as she fell through the air, supported by nothing but confidence that she'd catch herself in time.

She timed her descent, took careful measurement of the speed and the distance she needed to pass. There. The wings of her glider burst open, she shot a plume of air at the rooftop and slowed herself enough to land in a roll. She tucked her head in, readied her arms to take the brunt of the impact and flipped herself over.

The jar of the landing shocked up through her arms but she sprang around before the force could do any damage.

Korra righted herself, brushing dust off her clothes and rolled her shoulder in its socket, knowing full well she could have stuck the landing if only she'd had her legs.

Beneath her, the spirit raged on, bellowing out a white noise of a roar, unaware of her arrival. Two more arms spiralled atop its head, dashing away the metalbenders' attempts to restrain it with seemingly little effort. From within the rapid thuds of a newly arrived helicopter came the faint sound of raised voices, orders being called and followed. This helicopter, larger than the ones already in the sky, was reinforced with sheets of metal and had blades twice as long. It dashed into a space right on top of the spirit and before the four arms could react, dropped a package through an under hatch and sped off. The small ball, no more than a meter wide at first blossomed out as it fell, unfolding a thousand interwoven metal fibres until a net met the flailing arms and pinned them down against the domed body of the spirit.

Seeing the spirit momentarily trapped, Korra drew her still weak legs into a lotus position, pressed her hands together and tried to drown out the sounds of mentalbenders shouting, of buildings crumbling from the combined assault, and the spirit as it made a deep chatter filled with an uncountable tones. It was almost like the drone of hornetbirds, only if there was a hundred of them crying all at once. Korra grimaced, then took a deep breath and cleared her expression. She had to be at peace. At peace.

All became quiet. Her breath slowed, became measured. She opened her eyes, her arms sweeped over her head, drawing a trail of water from the rooftop pond and stretched it over to the base of the spirit. Then, another strand, winding them up in two helices.

The spirit stilled, ceasing its struggle in the net and Korra could feel as the focus of its attention shifted, seeking, searching until it found her at the end of the water trail. The arms sunk deep into the dome, as if the spirit, too, was made of water. Then, in a giant bulbous shudder, it sucked the net through its body and reformed, whole on the other side. The net sank, useless, to the ground. Its arms reformed and the spirit lashed out at Korra's water helix, but readied, Korra sweeped her helix into multiple strands and arms passed harmlessly. Not good. She needed time to calm and banish the spirit and the metalbenders' net had only bought her a fraction of a second.

With grim determination, Korra sent another strand of water.

The spirit ignored the steel cables and tentatively swiped at the water. The strand burst but Korra didn't lose concentration. She reformed the helices, stretched them further up to the bulbous head and secured the two strands in place.

Half a dozen arms split off from the main body, slashed at Korra's water. A trail of sweat dripped down her forehead and into her eyes. She clenched her fist, gathered herself and tried again. Three thundering thumps nearly startled her out of focus as three huge columns of metal latched into the ground around the spirit. They passed within meters of her water and, several times thicker than the regular cords used by the police, served as ample distraction for the huge spirit.

Peace. Overflow with so much peace it transferred from her to the spirit. The helices started to glow gold and with them, the base of the spirit. It stopped still in its tracks, tilted its head down to consider this new phenomenon. Though it didn't have eyes - not that Korra could make out from all the colours - it stared down, as all the multitude of colours became a single hue. The gold washed over the spirit as it dropped its arms and slumped.

Around them, the constant whirling blades of the helicopters were drowned out. All that Korra could hear was a single crescendo of a note. Her fingers tingled and a lightness in her chest made breathing difficult.

The edges of gold flowed above the spirit's dome and merged. Dark spots blinked through the gold and Korra held her breath in concern. But then she saw that the spots were everywhere, and a wave of light-headedness washed over her. Keep it together, she thought. Just a little more-

Then, from the base of the spirit, ting golden flecks started to disintegrate. In layers, the spirit fell apart and disappeared into the spirit world. The world spun and Korra let her control of her water helices slip. They fell to the ground as the last of the gold had faded into the air.

Korra slumped to the side, the world went black and she fell into the warmth of exhausted sleep.

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The smell was what woke her. A horrid, putrid stench of rotting meat and bog gas. Korra slitted open her eyes and gasped. She threw up her arms in disgust, only to overbalance on the tree branch, slick with moss and tumble over the edge. She hit another leaf strewn branch before splashing to a stop.

With the remnants of her dry clothes, she wiped her face clear and picked herself up from the waist deep swamp water. Around her rose columns of straight, uniform trunks, their roots twisted in a mesh that extended as far as she could see. This wasn't Republic City, no way. Korra wasn't sure where exactly she was, but the furry eared spirit peaking out at her from a treehole certainly gave her a few guesses.

Why was she in the spirit world?

With a squeak, the small squirrel-like spirit sped out of its hole and twisted up the trunk to the next branch up. It alerted Korra to a sound, blurred as if from afar. She narrowed her eyes and took the small spirit's lead and took cover behind a trunk. From beyond the mists, a shadow loomed. A familiar voice rang out through the mist.

Korra blinked and a smile lit up her face. She stepped out and started at a run. The mists cleared before her and from them emerged the green-robed stocky form, the bald head, the friendly eyes of Iroh.

"Oh, Korra, I didn't expect to find you here."

Iroh held in his hands a lantern, raised to illuminate the swamp. Despite his words, he held up his hands and welcomed her with a hug.

"Iroh!" She pulled back. "I'm glad you found me anyway, but if you weren't looking for me, then what are you here for?"

Iroh smiled and opened his hand to reveal a set of four glistening blue berries. A chattering squeak came from directly overhead before the small squirrel spirit dropped out of the branches and latched onto Iroh's arm. The man guffled and scratched the spirit lightly between the ears.

"I was looking for Scratcher here, helping out a friend of mine." Iroh opened the draw bag on his back and placed the spirit on his shoulder. "Go on in, there's plenty more inside."

Korra eyed 'Scratcher' as it slunk curiously into the bag. Iroh pulled it shut promptly and swung it around his shoulders with a satisfied smile.

"I need to go back to the human world," Korra said. "There was just a battle and I should go help them with recovery."

Iroh turned back to her and leaned close. "I sense you are in a hurry. I know of the battle you speak of and some information from my friends that may allay your concerns. You need not be the answer to all of Republic City's problems. The metalbenders and the everyday people manage well enough now that the spirit is returned." He handed the lantern to Korra. "Please, my arms are getting tired. I would appreciate if you could carry this a while for me. We should walk, Korra." Iroh wrinkled his nose. "Let us walk and get out of this stinky swamp. I must return Scratcher to my friend and we have other matters to speak of. The spirit world is restless, Korra, and for once, I have no idea why."

AN: Firstly, thanks to everyone who reviewed! Opinr, SKARMORY57, Le Diablo Blanc2, Far Away in Wonderland, ksunik97, ChaoticallyAwkward, MsMusicLover, Itns, , kageshini, Victorules, Akela Victoire, alia00, Snargluff Pod, Guest, and FunnyDs1! Thank you for all the support and for being my first reviewers for this story. Hope you enjoyed this chap. Not much Harry yet but we're getting there.

Until next time,

31st