Chapter 7: Fallen Feather
It was as if another side of my heart had frozen over and created an oasis of destruction and turmoil.
"Korra" I heard my name being called by someone I couldn't recognize. I open my eyes in search of that voice belonging to the darkness surrounded by me.
"Korra" I hear it again as a light blue path brightens my way. I find my legs moving for themselves toward an unknown destination. My legs begin to pick up speed as the path begins narrower and narrower. I stop in a halt and find myself at a door in the middle of a white space.
"Korra" I hear the voice louder this time and this time clearer to the point where I can recognize it at a child. I hesitate before opening the door but once more I find my body moving by itself. I open the door to find myself in the midst of a huge battle smoke clogging up my throat. I hear a familiar laugh from the North West and I turn towards it only shocked that it belong to commander Suluk.
Suluk is covered with blood and dust and is carrying and slender sword in his left hand and below his feet bodies of the dead. I step back but before I am able to even think about what I stepped on I let out a loud scream. The last thing I remember is Suluk's blood stained grin and below me the body of a child.
I open my eyes as I jump out of bed in a cold sweat. After taking a few seconds to come to my senses I put a hand on my throat and rub it due to the pain. I look out the window and still see the moon still raised high in the sky so I decide to go back to sleep even if I have to fight through this reoccurring nightmare.
I wake up at the crack of dawn my eyes red from a restless sleep. So much for me fighting through it as I stayed awake for the rest of the night. I let out a yawn and stretch out my arms and get out from underneath the covers. It's been about two days since the incident at Aput's shop and she's been staying at the hospital. Today I start my "community service" at the police station and Mako is in charge of it. I walk down the hallway and into the kitchen where I smell food being prepared by Pema.
"Good Morning" Pema says to me when I walk into the kitchen still half sleep due to my night of torture. I wave to Asami and Bolin who are eating breakfast.
"Good Morning" I say to them both when I sit down and lay my head on the table and start to doze off.
"Uh is she okay?" Bolin asks them both but receives no reply. Flashes of my nightmare go before my eyes however, this time a new scene plays through my head. I wake up suddenly in a scream again frightening Pema who drops her spoon.
"NO" I shout to no one in particular as I put my hands on my head to stop the shaking. Asami drops her fork and grabs one of my shoulders and Bolin does the same.
"DON'T LET THEM DIE!" I continue screaming as if I was half in my nightmare and half in reality.
"I don't think she's okay" Bolin says as we all turn our heads at the sound of running feat. Apparently Pema called Tenzin in the middle of my scream.
"What's going on?" Mako says as he runs in alongside Tenzin.
"What's going on?" he repeats after Mako making me calm my nerves as I laugh at the two who are posed ready to jump into action. Mako folds his arms as I look up at the two who glare at me with an intense anger. He lets out a sigh and grabs a plate off the counter and Pema dishes him up some food as if everything has gone back to normal.
"I think she's gone crazy" Bolin says to Asami who looks at me with worry as I eat my breakfast rapidly. Mako sits down next to me ignoring my eyes and eats his food slowly. I grab my glass of water and chug it down in one swoop and put the dishes in the sink so they can get washed.
"I'm off" I say to them as if nothing had happened 5 minutes prior and walk out casually out of the door. I turn the corner and hide behind the wall and I hear Mako slam down his bowl as I let out a breath.
"Why are you all acting as if nothing is wrong with Korra!? It's getting real difficult hiding everything from her" I peak around the corner to find Asami grabbing Mako's arm and Bolin slurping his breakfast ignoring his brother. I duck behind the door again.
"Calm down Mako you act like we aren't trying everything we can. It's hard on us to especially Tenzin" Asami says as I silently slip open the door to hear the conversation better.
"So we all know that Korra has gone crazy right?" everyone glares at Bolin who finishes the last of his bowl and points to his brothers.
"Are you going to finish that?" he asks him and Mako gives him a glare that even I felt through my bones. Pema continues to ignore the argument as she collects the emptied dishes one by one leaving Mako's alone.
"I think you all need to calm down. You think you all are stressed how do you think Korra feels? She just went through a tough trail and on top of that she has to deal with a dangerous criminal once more" I smile at Pema who eyes me in the door making me hide in the side of the door again. I let out a breath and peak through the door again.
"Pema's right Mako we all need to stay positive and support Korra the best way we can. We don't want to give her so much information at once or it might corrupt her avatar state. I was surprised she was even able to during the fight near Aput's shop" Mako continues to glare at Asami who lets go of his arm. He lets out a sigh and heads to the door prompting me to run out to the court yard.
"Ugh" Asami says and she gets up to leave as well but out of the other door. Bolin smiles and grabs Mako's bowl and finishes his brother's meal.
I continue to run to the gazebo where Tenzin and I meditate every day okay I go to sleep while Tenzin meditates. I sit in the position he taught me and I close my eyes but I know I am unable to concentrate because I hear Mako's footsteps in the distance.
"I know your faking it" he tells me making me turn around catching him fold his arms and giving me an angry glare. I stick my tongue out at him making him glare even harder.
"I can take care of myself Mako" I say closing my eyes turning back around irritated and yet happy that he defended me. I take a peek at him to find him put his right hand on the column next to him.
"This whole situation is so messed up. I have to lie to my girlfriend in order to protect her…from herself?" I decide to get up and walk over to him but I pause misstep as I notice that he's talking to himself.
"You all honestly think it's not harder on me? To have my friends and my boyfriend lie to me right to my face? Oh how do you think that feels Mr. Policeman?" I put my hands on my hips in frustration and I give him the same glare back. His face softens up a bit and he walks closer towards me putting his hand on my cheek.
"Korra" he says my name softly as we lean into a kiss but we are interrupted by the sound of two sets of footsteps walking. I look over and so does Mako who still holds my cheek and find Asami and Bolin coming towards us.
"Ooo s-sorry bro bad timing I see" we all glare at Bolin as Mako breaks me from his embrace and I walk towards Asami who is still catching her breath.
"What's going on?" I ask her as she stands up straight and I put on my serious face.
"S-Suluk is dead" she says quickly so quickly that I couldn't understand what she said. I look over to Mako whose eyes grow wide but what she says. She looks at me again and she notices I didn't hear her the first time.
"Suluk was found dead in his prison cell his heart frozen solid" my eyes mimic Mako who rubs his head in frustration Bolin puts his hand on his shoulder.
"How is that even possible? What do you mean by his heart was frozen solid?" I ask her and she shakes her head as she points to the air balloon coming down from the sky. I look over and find it belonging to the police station's forces from the symbol.
"Beifong just dialed Tenzin on the radio not so long ago and she wants you and Mako to go down to the station along with Commander Aika" my eyes shift back to Asami who stands up tall and shields her face from the force of the wind from the air balloon. The balloon comes down from the sky letting a walk way out so that Aika and her comrades can walk down it. The four of us walk over to her and we salute her.
"Avatar Korra nice to meet you again" she says as she lets her salute down and I bow in respect.
"We must move swiftly before anything else happens. Mako we are putting you on duty even though it's your off day and we are also hoping that you and your friends can help us out as well. The station is currently going through a lot as you can tell" she says and motions us into the balloon.
My squad was put on duty in the underground chambers where Suluk was being held. I only put my four trusted soldiers on the front line with me but little did I know it was not enough to fight what was going to come. The switched off every 6 hours because of the cold environment thanks to Suluk's water bending.
"Alright it's my turn Ryuu" Haruko opens the latch to the hallway that leads to Suluk's cell but stops midway and looks down to see the broken lock.
"What's taking so long Haruko?" Haruko looks over to her partner Haruto and his eyes grow wide as her hands turn a deep purple color.
"Haruko your hand what's happening to it?" Haruko stands frozen near the door as a gust of cold wind knocks them back to the basements steps. The gust of wind also knocks Haruto's lamp in his left hand causing it to go dark.
"HARUKO are you OKAY?" he shouts to his partner which whom he cannot see in the dark. He searches around the cold basement floor in order to find the lamp. He takes out a match in his pocket and attempts to light it on the floor.
"Come on! Come on!" he shouts at the match to start lighting and five seconds later it does producing a small light of fire. He puts it in the lamp and shuts the small door compartment on it and shines it around the room.
"Haruko" he calls for his partners name as he flashes the light around to the east side. He moves his hand along the floor until he touches something cold. He swallows saliva back as he shines his light on the object he touched which turned out to be a boot. He continues to scale the light upward to find a frozen Haruko on the wall her body frozen solid.
I heard the scream immediately and called for more troops from my squad however, we were a bit too late and Haruto was also frozen. I commanded a larger group about five more men strong and we headed down the narrow pathway avoiding the ice as much as we could. I put a glove on my hand to protect me from whatever was in there and turned on the lights to see none of the cells damaged but the windows and doors where.
However, we were a little too late and saw fragments of what was left of Commander Suluk.
"What do you mean by fragments of what was left of him?" I ask Commander Aika who stares out the window of the police blimp as it lands near the station. She turns around and faces me and her facial expression sends me a chill up my spine.
"You'll have to come and look at it yourself" the blimp lands down in the center of the station's roof top and we all climb out one by one. I look down below and find yellow police tape stretched down by the back of the station.
"What's going on over there?" I ask Aika who is was talking to one of her subordinates. All of sudden the world around me stops and I feel my body being brought over to the door.
"Korra" I hear Mako say but it's too late I have already dropped down off of the building and on to a window on the side.
"What does she think she's doing?" I hear Aika half yell have scream at both my group and her subordinates. I feel Mako's hand on my arm as well as Bolin's on the other but I ignore them both and jump down next to the door and run through the tape.
"AFTER HER" I hear Mako yell and I ignore them as I lock the door behind me. I run pass the guards who try to grab my arms to make me stop but I bend them back and continue to run. I jump down the stair case and slam the door shut ignoring the officers as I cross through to see her.
"Korra" I hear my name get called by a sweet and familiar voice and I follow it through the dimly lit frozen path. I continue to walk pass the unconscious bodies as I make my way to Commander Suluk's former cell.
"He was a fool he thought he could possess the power that only you can have Korra" I start to bend all four elements earth, wind, fire, and air and a mysterious purple fire as well.
"You have the power of eternal balance that is hidden within our plasma" she continues to say as I get nearer and nearer to her. My focus starts to break as I hear Mako and the other's voices. When I hear the door burst open and I turn and begin to attack them.
"HEY" I hear Bolin yell as one of my rocks fly before him and Beifong bends some metal to doge it.
"Korra snap out of it" I glare at Mako and bend water at him but he doges it and Tenzin bends air out at me. I hold up both my arms and bend the purple plasma out of the ground and aim it at all of them. Tenzin bends a ball of air and doges all of my plasma attack and goes behind me and taps the back of my neck with his fingers making me faint. Mako catches me in his arms before I am able to hit the ground.
"Are you guys alright?" Asami says as Mako carries me up the stairs in his arms with a blanket wrapped around me. Several other police officers are carrying stretchers to the basement pulling up the unconscious.
"Mako put Korra down this instant!" I hear her scream at him however, my eyes where closed so I couldn't see what's going on.
"She's turning to ice!" I open my eyes at the sound of my blood boiling only to find myself in a hospital bed.
(Yeah it ends like this)