A/N: so much for a drabble...and i'm sorry for advanced...this turned dark quickly... O.o
Words: 2,619
Restless
Korra's nightmares never stopped, but they became less frequent. However they've gotten more and more bizarre. It's been a few days since her last nightmare and she started to forget about them, she was off fighting crime in the city with Mako, Bolin, and Asami. She felt completely alive doing this and couldn't possibly think of having nightmares anymore.
...
Korra found herself in a black void, nothing but black for miles. There was no sound or light but she was able to see herself perfectly, from the folds in her clothes to every muscle movement in her body. She started to walk around trying to find something, but the scenery never changed. Nothing changed. She walked around for what she felt for miles, but she truly couldn't tell that she was moving.
An explosion erupted fully around her and flames raised 100 feet into the air; the sudden heat and light completely immobilized her. She was safe from what she could tell as the flames lowered down she started to get a feel of where she is. She realized she was on an island in an ocean of flames. She wondered how she was placed in the direct center of the safe zone. The ground beneath her was still black and the skies as well.
She heard a moan in the distance, even over the roar of the sea. She wondered how this was possible as she turned around to face the origin of the sound. What she saw horrified her, in an unexpected and no logical reason sense. It was Amon's mask, floating all by itself, staring her down with its empty black eyes. This unnerved Korra as she put up her guard, thinking endlessly of what could happen next.
What actually happened next she never would've thought, as it grew tentacles from its back. She found it revolting as the sounds flooded her ears as the brown and meaty extrusions continued to grow. They were many of them, too many to count and as they reached the ground they stopped growing. Korra backed up, unprepared for anything that might happen next. The tips of the tentacles then started to narrow until they made a very fine point. Korra could guess what their purpose was for; she tensed up, ready for it to send one of the impalers towards her. This can't be good, she thought.
But the tentacles didn't come shooting at her, rather the mask started to spin. Slowly at first but it quickly gained in speed, making the tentacles splat onto the ground, producing and unfavorable sound in Korra's ears. The mask spun faster and it rotated so it was horizontal. The tentacles now pointed straight out and at full speed, she could hear the roar of them, slicing the air around it. Korra knew what was going to happen next, so she shot a fireball at towards the mask, but the shot dissipated as soon as it made contact with the pointed edges. The mask didn't even seem to acknowledge it was under attack. She stretched out her arm and produced a stream of endless fire, thinking that it might do the trick, but the fire couldn't get past the tips of the tentacles. Again the mask showed no acknowledgement to the flames, she was in trouble.
The mask slowly backed up, preparing to ram directly at her. It stopped and charged full speed at Korra. Out of instinct she threw up a wall to defend herself, but hearing the buzzing of the tentacles she knew she wasn't safe. She forced the ground beneath her to quickly shoot upwards, accelerating her into the air and above the mask just in time, as the tentacles sliced directly through the wall she bended. She landed on the other side of the mask and watched it return vertical. She got a good luck of the backside of the mask, it looked like decaying flesh. If one were to touch it, it might could probably break off easily. Korra shot some more fire balls at it but the mask quickly about-faced. Korra knew where she had to focus her attack.
The mask stopped spinning, the tentacles continued in motion until they smacked against the ground. With the mask's empty eyes staring down Korra, she made her move. She shot fireball after fireball, sending earth bits towards it as well. The Mask stayed still, remained motionless, minus the recoil of being hit, but it made no effort to repel the attacks. Unable to think of what else to do she rushed at it hoping to slide under it and attack it's behind, but when she got close the mask spun around, stopping Korra in her tracks. The mask knew what to do to protect itself, the tentacles forming a wall in front of her.
Korra thought of an idea. She caused the ground to grab down on the tentacles which caused the mask to jerk back a bit suddenly and Korra threw and uppercut and sending a fireball in a parabolic fashion, hitting the back of the mask. It screamed, a blood curling, ear piercing scream. Korra covered her ears and eyes, trying to stop any of all input of that sound into her system. When she reopened her eyes she saw the mask withering on the ground. While she didn't want to hear that awful sound again, she knew she had to end it, she earthbent the ground beneath the mask into a sharp point and thrusted it upwards.
The mask didn't break at all, this stunned Korra. She thought it would break in half with the speed of the makeshift spike. The mask made a short shriek before it freed its tentacles and slashed them at Korra, and while she jumped to try to dodge the attack, it was a bit too late. One of the tentacles successfully stabbed her in the shoulder, making her left arm completely useless. She screamed in pain and the mask returns to look, staring her down with the eyes that weren't there.
Agonized in pain, Korra got the strength to stand up fully and with her good arm she got into a fighting stance again. The mask then shot out a stream of fire from its mouth. Korra was able to bend the fire away, not even posing danger for her. It stopped its attack, seemingly calculating its next attack. In doing so, it levitated higher into the air, still facing Korra, its glare never ending. It then did something unexpected and unthinkable. It was growing a water ball in front of itself. When it felt satisfied with the size of the ball, it shot it directly at Korra's torso. In its descent it solidified into ice and formed a point at the end. Even if her amazement of the mask's ability to form water out of nothing, with her one good arm she was able to stop the ice before it made contact. She split the ice into many tiny pieces and pointed them directly at the mask. She sent them flying towards it and with her other hand she was able to change the direction of a few shards, forcing them to hit behind the mask.
The scream didn't come this time, instead the tentacles retracted back into the mask and it lowered itself to Korra's eyelevel. It grew in size, about five times bigger than its original form. It trembled for a while and then shot out a leg. And then the other. It stood up fully and shot out its right and left arms. A head lifted up from behind itself and it gave out a loud, terrifying roar. Standing at over 10 feet tall, the new monster took a step forward and showed off its new form and massive size. To punctuate its arrival, grey walls shot up from the black ground. The flames also rose higher to peak over the new formed walls. Korra just stared at this newly forming monster. Its limbs were not covered by skin, for all she saw was muscles and tendons. They didn't look healthy either; the flesh seemed to be burnt. Something slivered down its arms and to its fists. The tentacles before turned into 2 whips, attached to the monster's knuckles. The newly formed head was the same deal, no skin only muscle, but the biggest thing was its three eyes. The whites of the two eyes were indeed not white but purple, the irises was composed to two dark red rings which lead to the pitch black pupils. The third eye was on its forehead, and way larger than anything else on its head and had the same properties of Amon's eyes, just larger.
Korra stepped back in sheer disgust of this transformation; she didn't know how to handle this…this thing standing in front of her, it horrified her. She jumped back away to put distance between them, but it wasn't quite enough. The monster cracked its whip at her direction as she had to jump back again to not get hit by it. But the thing had somehow spawned a spinning eye top with spikes on the side from it. It shared the same properties as Amon's eyes as well, they were just starting at Korra, like they usually do, projecting fear into his enemies. All Korra could do was send a fire blast at it to make it go away, as it burnt to ashes the smell of rotten flesh overwhelmed her senses.
She began to throw everything she could at it. Fire and chunks of the earth were sent flying towards the monster and it nimbly dodged all the attacks. Even though it was grotesque, it was quite agile. Korra continued her barrage of attacks with her one good arm and legs doing all that they could do to try to keep the monster at bay. She then tried the tactic from before, sending a makeshift spike from behind it to try to pierce its body. The spike did strike the monster, causing it to shriek and lower its guard, but the spike broke upon impact. Korra once again sending everything she can at it, and while the monster just took most of it, it didn't seem to mind all that much. It stood back up and flipped away from her attacks.
It landed right next to her and her eyes immediately widened in fear; it clearly had enough of her attacks. It slapped Korra in the chest with its thick whip, sending her flying and crashing into the wall. She heard something snap when she landed on the ground. With the last of her will, she formed a room around her to protect her from the monster. Though she knew it doesn't matter, she wanted to scream in horror and in defeat, but nothing escaped her throat. This…thing was going to kill her right now. The only thing her body could produce now was tears of fear. She couldn't move her body, she wanted to escape this thing and this fight, but her body wouldn't listen to her mind. Frantically yelling at her body she tried everything in her current power to do something. But she noticed something, it's gotten quiet. The roars of the flames and the monster seemed to have disappeared. She tried to listen closely for any sounds. The smell of blood was the only thing that filled the air at the time. Was it over? Was the nightmare finally over? She slowed her breathing, and relaxed.
A large, soul destroying thud was heard from above. Her eyes widen again in fear and her breathing picked up again. No no no no no no no no no no no no no no. Move body move. Do something! Hurry! Go! Move! Get up! Run! Do...something! As much as she argued with her body, it was unresponsive. The thud returned, this time shattering the makeshift ceiling. Korra wanted her body to bring up another wall, but still the body ignored all signals from the brain. The whips horizontally smashed through the walls and bits of the earth landed on top of her. Tears began to stream down her cheeks as fear set in again. She didn't want to die. A whip came and hovered over her, she mentally prepared for the worse.
It never came though; it just hovered over her for a while. But suddenly the whip unraveled itself to become many tentacles once again and each went to a specific body part. Her thighs, ankles, forearms, wrists and her neck were all wrapped in tentacles as it pull her out of the rubble. She was placed in the center of the room and was put into position. Her legs behind her, her arms forced straight down and her head pulled back. She wanted to scream, but again her body failed her. She closed her eyes; it was the only thing she could do in this situation to protect herself. Her breathing was quick and shallow as she prepared for her death.
"Open your eyes, Avatar." Amon's voice echoed through the abyss, the roars of the fire died down. Korra indeed opened her eyes in shock, and there, standing over her was Amon. Tears continuing to fall from her eyes as her enemy stared into her very being.
"This is how it will all end between you and I. You, in this position before I take your bending away permanently."
She couldn't imagine anything more powerless. The Avatar, the strongest person in the world, brought down single handedly by one man. She thought she couldn't be the Avatar, she couldn't be good enough. She wanted to scream, to fight back, to resist, but all she could do is watch as Amon circled around her. She noticed that there was nothing constricting her anymore, the tentacles were gone but she still couldn't move her body. Amon was in front of her, looking down at her, she felt disgusted with herself.
"The almighty Avatar, driven to her knees, her only great act ended quickly as her life was taken away from her." Amon moved his thumb towards her forehead. Korra was helpless as she left his thumb.
...
"Korra! Korra! Wake up! Please wake up." Asami tried to shake the trembling Avatar awake. Korra opened her eyes and took a deep inhale. She thought she was under attack as she was constricted by something. She took a few deep breaths before her rationale returned. She was in her room; there were no attackers, just a girl, her friend. She was drenched in sweat and her eyes were stinging from her tears.
"Asami I—" she tried to explain what she just endured.
"Ssssshhhhh. It's ok now. It doesn't matter. You had a nightmare and it wasn't real. You are a great Avatar, you are not helpless. You're one of the most powerful people I know, and not because you can bend three elements." Asami pulled herself away from her to look deep into Korra's eyes. "Please stop thinking those things, you're amazing. This world needs you, more than ever, Korra." She pulled Korra back into an embrace. Korra clenched onto Asami's nightgown and tightly closed her eyes.
"Thank you. And sorry for worrying you." She softly spoke into Asami's ear.
"Ssshhh. It's ok. Let's go back to sleep." She slightly pulled down Korra back into her bed and cuddled next to her. And even though the sheets were damp she didn't mind, she wanted to help Korra in any way she could. Korra moved her arms around Asami and gave her a squeeze before attempting to sleep again, thankful of her friend.
A/N again...this is all on top of my head w/o much editing. Feedback will all be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much