There was nothing to grab, no way to stop myself, but I fell much more slowly than I was used to. I was still so distraught, the thought of Airbending didn't occur to me. I just fell face first through the void until I crashed (managing to ease the landing with a clumsily-executed somersault) onto another small, bare floating rock.

For a moment, I stayed on my hands and knees where I'd fallen, trying to get my breath, wondering if I was far enough to be safe from another soulless, heartless psycho who'd made himself incapable of love or bonds of any kind.

Once I was sure I didn't hear anyone following me (hopefully, he had his hands full with the guy I should have let capture him), I opened my eyes, rose to a kneeling position, and tried to get my bearings. Everything looked as bizarre and incomprehensible as it had when I'd first arrived. "Oh, what is this place?" I groaned helplessly. "How did I get here? What's going on?"

"Well, well, well, what have we here?" I jumped to my feet with a gasp when I heard the voice. "A human? All alone?" It was the voice of a woman, soft and sweet yet menacing at the same time. I spun around, looking in every direction, but couldn't see anyone. "Don't usually see many of your kind way out here." It spoke tenderly, playfully, like the Airbender kids would to a stray squirrelmunk they found in their yard.

"Who's there?" I demanded. "Who are you?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing. How did you get out here? Are you lost?" I didn't answer but kept looking around, trying to find the source, but it seemed to come from a different direction each time. "Yes, you're very lost," she said conclusively. "So much confusion... so much loneliness... so much fear..."

I have to admit, hearing a stranger instantly describe me like that unnerved me a little. "What are you talking about?"

"You've been through quite an ordeal, haven't you? It must have been dreadful."

I tried to ignore the chill that went down my spine. "Show yourself, and I'll tell you all about it."

"I know enough. Yes, I know all about you. All your pain, your grief, your doubt, your sorrow, your guilt, your suffering... hmm, it's been a while since I sensed so much anguish in one person."

What did that mean? "What do you want?"

The voice laughed at me. "Don't be afraid. I'm not here to hurt you."

"Then leave me alone." I tried looking for a new place to go, but it was impossible to concentrate.

"I can't do that. Your agony, your despair – it's irresistible... so powerful, so strong... so delicious!"

And then, right in front of me, where the voice was coming from this time but where there was nothing but empty space, out of nowhere appeared a shape – a solid shadow with a head shaped roughly like a human woman's, black all over except for fiery red eyes, its lower half shrouded in clouds of green and purple smoke. I screamed at the sight of it and reflexively shot a blast of fire at it, but it seemed to absorb the flame as it flew towards me, laughing in that sugary-sweet, mocking voice.

I dodged, spun around, and shot a blast of wind at her. It was as if she dissolved and separated, them came back together again. I shot fireballs out of my hands and feet over and over again, but she either dodged them all or they had no effect on her.

In-between dodging my attacks, she said, "Relax," as calmly as if we were sitting down drinking tea. "It'll be easier for us both if you don't try to fight." As she finished speaking, she circled around me and grabbed my shoulders in both hands, at the same time wrapping her flame-like body around mine, binding my hands in front of me. As soon as she touched me, all the fight went out of me. I lost all the strength to resist and went limp, feeling like a dark cloud was consuming my mind. Why fight? It didn't matter. Nothing mattered anymore.

In my ear, the spirit moaned in ecstasy. "Mmm... Your pain's like none I've ever consumed before. It's glorious! I haven't had such a feast in years. And you actually thought a weak, little coward like you could fight me? Look at you – you're nothing."

It was true. I was helpless, just like I'd always been. I was a total failure, worthless and useless to anyone. No one cared about me. No one needed me. I'd been an idiot to think I'd ever have the strength to be the Avatar again...

"Let her go!" A flash of green light, a burst of heat, a jolt, and the grip on me vanished. I fell forward and lay sprawled on my stomach. Whatever hit us seemed to blow the fog away from my mind; the smothering sense of hopelessness faded, leaving me feeling like I'd been pulled back to the surface after nearly drowning. What just happened to me?

Not feeling steady enough to stand, I pushed myself up on my elbows and raised my head. The spirit was now several yards away but flying back towards me. The boy from earlier flew down from somewhere above, coming between me and her, green flames burning in both his fists. "Stay away from her!" he shouted.

"You again? I should've known." The spirit began circling around and above us; the boy stayed where he was but never took his eyes off her. "Who's this? Another girlfriend?" At this point, she was to my left, about level with me and the boy. "She know you're still heartbroken over losing your catwoman?"

Thanks to her new position, I could clearly watch the boy's eyes widen in mock surprise. "Wow, I would've expected something a lot more original than that," he said in a matching tone of mock surprise before firing. He shot blast after blast of green flames at her, which she dodged each time. The two of them were moving so fast now, I kept still to avoid getting caught in the crossfire. Watching them made me even more confused – he looked like a perfectly regular human, so how could he fly and Firebend?

One of the boy's attacks finally connected. During the second the spirit was stunned by the impact, he reached behind his back, only to pull his arm back as his eyes flickered with confusion and then recognition – the unmistakable gesture of someone instinctively reaching for a weapon that was always there before remembering, this time, for whatever reason, it wasn't. "Darn it," he said.

The spirit noticed, too. "Forget something?" she said smugly before flying towards him again.

He flew away from her; I had to sit up and turn to my right to keep an eye on them. "Okay, Plan B..." As he spoke, his eyes and hands glowed a bright, frosty blue. He shot a blast of blue light at her with both fists. I gasped as I saw ice quickly form around the spirit; in just a few seconds, she was completely encased in a block of solid ice! There was just enough time for me to see her scowl in annoyance at her condition before her frozen prison fell out of sight.

I finally started to wonder if I was hallucinating. He could Waterbend, too?! How was this possible?! I was the only one who could do that! The only human, anyway...

I stood up as the boy flew over to where she'd been and looked down to where she must be falling, I guessed to make sure she wasn't coming back, before floating over to me. I instinctively took a step back; he didn't come any closer. "You okay?" he asked with concern.

I'd seen enough to deduce I probably wasn't dealing with another Zaheer and thus wasn't as afraid of him as I'd been a few minutes ago, but I was still far too amazed to do more than stare at him in silence, looking him up and down, trying to reconcile what I'd just seen with everything I knew to be possible. No spirit looked so human... But then how could he do all that...? None of it made sense.

Somehow, I found my voice: "You... you can Waterbend? And Firebend? And fly?"

He raised his eyebrow as if he didn't understand the question at all. "Uh... sorry, what?"

At least such a ridiculous reaction helped break me out of my stupor. Okay, enough was enough – I was at the end of my limited supply of patience. "I thought you were human," I forced myself to say calmly. "How can you do all this? What are you?"

"What are you talking about? I'm..." he began to say, only to pause and say in a puzzled tone, "You... don't know who I am?"

How arrogant could someone be? "Sorry, should I?" I asked sarcastically.

"Bit of a relief, actually. I'm Danny Phantom."

Phantom, I understood (the word, if not how he got the nickname), but the first part... "Dan-nee?" I'd never heard it and couldn't place the meaning or nation. "Dan-ny... Danny..." I repeated the (I assumed) foreign name three times so that I was sure I pronounced it the way he did.

"Yeah – who are you?"

I sighed in annoyance, trying not to think of how this shouldn't be necessary. "You really don't know who I am?"

"Sorry, should I?"

Okay, now we were even. "Like I told you, I'm Avatar Korra."

He still must not have believed me because he continued to stare at me blankly, as if what I'd said meant nothing. "Is... your first name 'Avatar' or 'Korra'?"

"My what?"

"Uh, sorry, your, uh... what is it? Your... given name?"

I resisted the urge to reach out and grab his throat – I didn't deserve him making fun of me that way. To show it didn't bother me, I decided to play along and simply answer the question as if it were genuine. "My given name is Korra. I'm the Avatar."

"What do you mean you're an avatar?"

Now I know how Katara felt when she heard Aang ask, "What war?" The thought made me stop and consider... maybe he wasn't making fun of me... I decided it would be best to explain as thoroughly as I could. "I mean I'm the reincarnation of Avatar Wan, the human vessel of Raava, the Spirit of Light and Peace, the bridge between the human world and the Spirit World, the master of all four elements – Earth, Fire, Air, and Water."

Danny Phantom folded his arms and, with a short laugh, asked, "And Heart?" Not understanding that question, I said nothing, and he went on: "Sorry, couldn't resist. I was just gonna thank you for helping me and ask how you could do all that stuff, but I think you're as confused as I am."

"Glad you noticed. It would help if you could tell me where I am."

His expression changed ever so slightly – I couldn't tell if my request made him frightened, more confused, or both. "You... don't know?"

"No – I'm not joking."

"Uh..." Come on, kid, how hard a question could it be? Why was he so afraid to answer? "Where do you think you are?"

"I should be in the Spirit World, but I know I'm not."

With a shake of the head, Danny replied nonchalantly, "No, you found it. Don't think anyone's called it that for centuries, though."

I didn't believe him for a second. "That's impossible. Humans can't Bend in the Spirit World without going through one of the portals, and I didn't."

He didn't react at all to my statement – evidently, I still wasn't making sense to him. "Do you remember what you were doing just before you got here?"

"Meditating, of course." How else did he think I would have tried to get to the Spirit World without using the portals?

"Where?"

I didn't see what that had to do with anything, but I would assume mentioning the prison and explaining what I'd been doing there was irrelevant. "The mountains outside Republic City."

"Where's that?"

"What do you mean 'Where's that'?! Republic City! The capital of the United Republic!"

"The wh-?" His exclamation died as his expression shifted from cluelessness to suspicion to understanding. "No way, it couldn't be..." Finally, Danny asked, "Um, Korra, this might sound strange, but do any of these names sound familiar to you? United States? England? France? Germany? Japan?"

When I couldn't take any more of his gibberish, I stopped him. "What are you talking about?"

"You've never heard of any of those countries?"

"You're kidding, right? Those aren't countries."

He cleared his throat. "Okay..." he said to himself before speaking up to address me again. "Look, this is gonna sound even crazier, but... could you name some of the countries in your world for me?"

"What do you mean, my...?"

He could obviously tell I was at the end of my rope. "Please. This is important."

I sighed in frustration and said rapidly, "The United Republic, the Northern and Southern Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation... look, what are you getting at?"

"Oh, boy..." He needed a second to get a grip on himself before he said whatever he was preparing to tell me. "Look, Korra, geography was never my favorite subject, but I know for a fact there's nothing called the Fire Nation or Earth Nation or..."

"Earth Kingdom," I instinctively corrected him.

"Earth Place, whatever!" I felt some gratification in seeing the first sign of frustration from him. "There's never been anything with that name or any of those in my world."

"Your world? What..."

Danny didn't let me finish. "I've never heard of the countries in the world you live in, and you've never heard of mine. What does that tell you?"

My anger at him evaporated as the truth began to sink in. "You... you mean...?"

"I'm not from this world, but you're not from it or mine. I don't know how, but you came here from another world. And apparently, you didn't know mine or this existed."

No, I didn't, and despite how used I was to traveling to the Spirit World, being told there were still other worlds out there, that no one from the two worlds I'd known had ever heard of or had the slightest hint existed, would have been impossible to believe if it didn't make so many other things suddenly make sense...

No. It was ridiculous. It was impossible. I had to be sure. I closed my eyes and took a few seconds to collect my thoughts before I opened them and looked up at the floating boy. "Danny Phantom, tell me – can anyone in your world do this?" I raised my left arm and lit a flame in my hand.

"On Earth? No, definitely not. I'm guessing everyone can do that in your world, right?"

Letting the flame go out, I said, "No," as if I was just helping Ikki with her lessons, nothing odd going on here. "There are plenty of non-Benders, but my world's full of people who can Bend either Air, Water, Earth, or Fire, but none of that makes any sense to you, does it?"

"I get what you're saying, but in the world I've lived in my whole life, no humans can do all the stuff I saw you do back there."

"So I really..." There was no point in denying it. I could feel my heart racing, I was dizzy, and it was hard to breathe. This couldn't be real... but it must be. It explained everything. "When I tried to go to the Spirit World last time, I... somehow, I came to a completely different world instead." Nothing I'd ever learned had prepared me for this. No one I'd ever met had any idea it was possible. It was more unbelievable than the first time a flame had burst from my fingertips.

"I'm sorry," Danny said gently. "Do you know how to get back?"

"No," I whispered. Nothing would be more foolish than trying to return now – who knew what world I might end up in next?!

"Look, I..." Danny was interrupted as we both reflexively turned to the sounds of screeching, scraping claws, and blows that had started in the distance (if I'd had to guess, I would have said dragons). "Ugh, not again, Aragon..." Danny looked only mildly concerned, but no matter how common an occurrence fights between dragons or whatever giant creatures they had in this world were, I had no desire to see one up close.

This was too much. I needed to think. "Is there someplace safer we can talk?" I asked him. It would be nice to have a decent sized ground under my feet, at least.

"Uh..." He looked as if he was calculating where was closest. "Yeah, there's a place nearby. It's pretty cold, though."

"I grew up in the South Pole."

I was prepared to need to explain how cold it was there, but he smiled in complete understanding and said, "Well, then, you should love this." He floated closer and held his hand out to me, but I shrank from him and took a step back, frightened against my will by the gesture. I couldn't fly, he'd seen I couldn't fly, there didn't seem to be any other way of getting around this world, so I knew how he must be planning for the two of us to travel, and even though I rationally knew there was no reason to be afraid, my body wouldn't cooperate – it didn't want him to touch it. It was humiliating, being as scared of him as if he'd been Amon or Tarrlok or Zaheer, but my body apparently couldn't tell the difference.

Danny showed no sign that he was offended by my reaction, as if he was used to it. He pulled back and dropped his arm. "I won't hurt you, I promise. I just want to help. You can trust me."

Could I? He wasn't an Airbender, so I could rule out what I'd first thought of for being the reason he could fly. He'd saved me from that dark spirit. He'd come to help me even after he was perfectly safe himself. He was obviously powerful, but so was I. He must be five or six years younger than me. Even if he turned out to be dangerous, I bet I could easily take him. "Okay, let's go," I said softly, but with my eyes narrowed harshly to warn him not to try anything, and held out my left arm.

Danny floated right up to me and held out his arms. I put my left arm around his shoulders and let him lift me up, his right arm around my back, his left under my legs. I shivered at the contact at first, but once the feeling passed, I felt secure. I couldn't help thinking he'd done this before. "Hold on," he said. I reached across his neck and gripped his shoulder with my right arm, too. I'd figured he would jump off the rock, but he rose gently, turned left, then flew down (I allowed myself a small gasp) before leveling off and flying straight, as effortlessly and as naturally as any hawk.