This fic is also on my tumblr blog where my username is Kuno-chan and my blog name is Dragoness Ramblings.

Disclaimer: Legend of Korra belongs to Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko

The Vault and the Vatqinokuro

She was alongside a cobblestone road, in the shadow of an alleyway.

There she was again, in the past as a twelve year old girl, but this time there was a wall at her back and a group of people in front of her. Swords were at their belts and daggers in their hands, ropes and chains at the ready. Between herself and the group of poachers was a girl with light brown skin, even lighter than Nima's, her jet black hair long and held up in a high ponytail. The elegant curtain of her bangs betrayed the cold, murderous look Nima knew was on her face.

She was strong, too. Tikaani was always strong. Strong and muscled and the peak of physical fitness. Just like her mother, Captain Korra. That being, former Captain Korra as it was in present day. But at this stage in life that Nima was watching, Auntie Korra was still captain of The Avatar and Tikaani was still just a girl Nima loved with all her the sister who would sacrifice through hell and high water.

"Captain Korra's kid, are you?" said the most forward man, clearly the leader. "Sounds promising."

"You take me," said Tikaani, the alto in her voice clear as day and as serious as a storm. "And you let her go."

The leader chuckled, scratching the stubble on his face. "And if I just take both of you?"

"Then we make a bloody mess." Tikaani looked him dead in the eye, intense amber eyes boring into his. "And you can try to stop me from making sure yours is the first on the ground. If you feel like that risk is worth it then so be it. Your throat is mine."

Even now, a chill went down Nima's spine. The threat, so deadly serious, would haunt her for weeks afterwards. Tikaani would have killed all those men just for her. Just like her father had killed Quil's men when Quil had her cornered in an alleyway earlier that same year. She was tired of people killing for her. Spilling blood to get her out of a mess she usually got herself into.

The leader considered it apparently, shifting on his feet. There was something in Tikaani's demeanor that always told other people that she was not joking. Nowhere in her statement was there not an iota of idleness. It was always rather obvious, be it by her eyes or her body, but it was somehow… intuitively obvious that the threat was as real as air and fully reinforced.

"Let her go," Tikaani repeated. "And I go with you. Captain Korra is my mother. I'm a higher price than she is. This one is just the poor bastard daughter of some nameless pirate."

Her younger self whined nervously. "Tikaani…"

Nima in the present watched with a resounding, dawning horror.

Don't.

The leader scratched his chin. Finally, he said, "Alright, kid. We got a deal. Captain don't need anymore nobodies on the ship anyway." He looked to Nima. "Go on. Get goin' before I change my mind."

Nima grabbed Tikaani's hand. "I can't leave you!" she whispered furiously.

Tikaani barely turned her head to look back. "Go."

"But-"

"Go."

Nima remembered at that moment Tikaani had squeezed her hand back before she let go and was accosted with ropes and chains right away. For once, listening, she remembered running as fast as her legs could carry her. Back home where her family could help. She could stop this.

Tikaani wouldn't end up like-

Yanking her back to reality, there was a yelp that didn't belong in this memory. She blinked a couple times as the world came back and she was once again standing in a room piled high with treasure. She was panting and cold and her nails hurt from clenching them in her arms as she hugged herself-

Dan.

Was that his voice she heard?

She looked up, at the ceiling so far away. Almost non-existent…

A lump formed in throat and curled in on herself for a self hug, her body was caving in on itself. What was this place? And what had it just made her watch? In all her life, she had never felt anything like that. Such a… rapid and brutal flash of some of her most dormant, vicious memories. Not all of them, but the ones that made her ache the most…

Was Dan going through what she had just been through?

She thought of his face. His grey eyes and ash black hair hair and that stony face. She couldn't get sucked into another one of those again, but if she kept her thoughts on his face then maybe she could navigate around and find him.

"Dan?" she called. "Dan? Captain Koika?

-:-:-:-

He didn't like the way this place smelled. He didn't like the way it felt. Damn it, it was all he could do to keep himself thinking straight. And what he'd seen back there…

Nevermind that. He shut it from his mind as thoroughly as possible. Locked it away and threw away the key.

Good.

"Dan?"

Nima?

Dan's head snapped in the direction of her voice. He curved around a small mountain of treasure and, hearing the scuffle of coins on the ground, caught her as she rounded the corner right into him. She looked up at him, her eyes were red rimmed and her mouth fell open.

He frowned. "What happened?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing?" she said, her shoulders hunched between his hands. "Was that you?"

He let her go. "Me doing what?"

"That sound. The yelling? Like you fell…" When he only shook his head, she went still. "We need to find Captain Koika."

"Stay close then," Dan said, not even bothering to agree with her. This place was keeping him right on a sharp edge that he, frankly, didn't like. "I don't know what this place is, but it's not normal."

For once, Nima said nothing. He only felt her brush against his wrist and her heat at his side. They walked slowly, both of them obviously feeling the nerves of… whatever it was that lurked in here, intoxicating their minds with terrible things. It was at that moment he realized that the place seemed too vast for itself and the ceiling seemingly having no end might have very well been in a state of just that. Endless. If it so dared to be.

"We need to find Captain Koika and go," Dan decided.

Nima started shaking her head. "But the stone-"

"We are going to die in here if we stay," he said. "Call it a hunch, but you can't tell me that you don't notice something wrong with this place. It's time to go-"

"Nima..."

Dan couldn't have pulled his knife out any faster if he tried. That voice caressed the back of his neck like an unwanted touch. Melting out from between a particularly condensed area of gold, a young woman stood, hands clasped before her, her brown locks in a loose, messy bun that fell around her face and a gold coin necklace around her long, elegant neck..

It was the way she smiled that set him completely on that shape edge. There was a void to it. Blank brown eyes and perfectly curved lips and a lack of color not of this world. He knew that if someone stared too long they would never leave her gaze. Perhaps even waste away right where they stood. But that gaze was not for him.

She reached out her sickly white hand. "Nima…" Dan nearly shuddered at the way her voice scraped at him. "I haven't seen you in so long. You've grown."

"Nah Ja?" Nima's voice was weak, almost cracking through what little verbatim she gave. "You're okay…? H-How...?"

"I've been waiting for you, of course. Come here. Give me a big hug…" The woman opened her arms up slowly for Nima, but never moved. She didn't even seem to notice Dan at all. Glancing at Nima, Dan saw how her eyes locked on the woman. How misty eyed she became and how weak her breath followed. When she stepped forward, Dan did not hesitate to bring an arm around and pushed Nima behind him.

That woman's unnatural voice rang again. "Nima…"

Nima pushed at Dan. He didn't move. He didn't so much as budge.

Nima pushed again. "Dan, get out of my way!" she snapped.

He turned around and beared down at her. "Look. At. Me." He ordered. She tried to step around him and he got closer to her, her nose inches from his and growled, "Look at me."

Unable to quite step around him, she stared.

And the desperation left. And so did the sadness. Only their residue left behind in those eyes.

She blinked as that blankness faded. He looked away when he saw her fighting tears. "...is she gone?" she asked in a small voice.

He looked behind him. A mistake on his part, really. He never should have turned his back on that… thing. "Yeah," he said after checking.

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice breaking again. He stiffened. "I'm sorry… about everything. About what I said to you."

Still not looking at her, Dan started to say, "Look-"

She hiccuped. He froze. "You're not nothing to me," she said. "I know you don't really like me, but- it doesn't… it's not so lonely with you around."

When Dan finally looked at her, he didn't know what to make of the girl trying to decide between looking down at the ground or peering up at him with tearful eyes. He wanted to walk away, turn away, leap as far away from her as possible. It was suffocating him. This amount of… sensitivity.

And then he saw the outcast in her eyes.

He turned to her and sighed again through his nose.

"What I said earlier. I made you feel like stupid." he said, observing her. She looked up at him with those eyes. He almost stopped, but forced himself to go on. "That wasn't my intention."

She sniffed, then tried to smile. "It's okay…" She began wiping her tears away with her fingers. "Sorry about the crying."

Dan turned away again, taking a glance at their surroundings. "Don't apologize anymore," he said. "Let's go."

They moved on, encountering different types of treasures as they did. The more they looked, the more obvious it became that littered among all the gold and the glitter jewels also were wooden medallions and treasures carved from blue stones or lined with beads and gold or green objects that resembled hair ornaments and other such accessories. Nima picked up a green hair ornament and almost dropped it when she realized it was crusted with blood on one end.

"Somebody died for this to be here…" Nima said weakly. Gently, she put it back in the pile where she found it.

Dan was well acquainted with the Fire Nation's history of violence during the war. His people had not forgotten. Their wall had kept invaders out, but that hadn't saved their sister tribe from near total annihilation at the time. Despite a strained relationship between the Northern and Southern wall, the Water Tribe had never forgotten that on top of the Air Nomad genocide. Of course, modern relationships were much better after Fire Lord Ozai was defeated and ousted.

But still.

He had to agree with the horror that probably ran through Nima's mind as they continued and her stare lingered. People died for all of this to be here. Dan wanted to leave as quickly as possible. Not only did he not want to be caught or encounter anymore… phantoms, but he didn't like walking along on the ghosts of human history.

This entire place made his skin crawl.

Nima stopped beside him and crouched down to pick up a wooden medallion that had rolled onto the floor.

-:-:-:-

The world needs you. The spirits, the gods… all of them foretold you. You have a destiny. One beyond us.

Please… don't do this… please!

I love you, Aang.

"What is it?"

Nima blinked slowly and looked up from where she was crouching. It took her a minute before she realized that Dan was staring right down at her. She finally stood up. Dan raised his brows.

"Nothing," she said, shaking her head. She still had the wooden medallion in her hand. It was old, the wooden beads a little worn with age, but well made. Three swirls were carved in: the symbol of the Air Nomads. "I just… I've seen this before."

"The necklace."

"No, the symbol on it." She turned it around. "My grandfather has all kinds of Air Nomad things. And he's pretty well known for preserving Air Nomad cultural items. This was a monk's medallion. That's what this is."

"Well… put it down," he said, eyeing it warily. He reached out for it as if to push it down and away from them.

She held it closer to her. "No! I… I want to keep it."

"You want to keep it?" he asked. It was the most incredulous she'd ever heard him sound. "Did you not just see what almost probably tried to kill you? In this vault? And you want to actually take something out of it? The only thing we should be here for is that comet stone and at this point I'm ready to leave without that."

"You don't understand. I-I can't explain it." She looked down at it the medallion in her hands. It almost seemed to stare back. "I just feel like I'm supposed to have it. It's not mine. It's just… supposed to be with me now that I've found it."

Dan just stared at her. Okay, maybe it sounded like madness, but he didn't know how this felt in her hands. It called to her. This was living history right here in her hands. Hands that had been brought into this world, in great part, by someone who owned this. It didn't belong in a vault so far from home. And… she couldn't explain it. She couldn't. But something about this one made her feel like it was meant to be with her for now.

"My grandfather will love it," she said finally. "He would really want it."

Dan rubbed his forehead, then his eyes. She was ready for him to turn around and walk away from her, but he only turned his attention back to her, tired. "Fine," he said. "But if it starts causing trouble then see if I won't toss it in the ocean."

She nodded, slipping it over her head. "It would still be better off there then sitting in here."

They moved on. The air in the vault felt more and more wrong the longer they stayed. The farther they walked, the colder the chill running along Nima's spine went. She shuddered. "I think we're going the right way..."

He only put a finger to his lips. She took it that he agreed with her - and sensed the danger. Being a pirate all her life had given her a single gods given sense of an intuition that flared up when real, honest danger was creeping around the corner. A very clear sign to stay light on her feet and be ready to move at a moment's notice.

In reality, that sense had probably heightened since she met Captain Quil. Nothing could ever shake the feeling of helplessness that encounter of when she had first met him. Even if she often preferred to look at life with less of a paranoid lense on, she still would never forget that feeling of just… real danger. Not quick, panicking danger. Slow, dawning and slowly creeping apprehension that evolved into the realization that something was bearing down face to face and ready to sink it's teeth right in. That's exactly what Captain Quil had been prepared to do had it not been for her family.

For the first time in her life he had truly shown her that monsters roamed the earth.

Dan stopped in front of her.

- and she felt cold as ice when they saw it too. It was large and spindly, white and black and no color at all. A translucent thing with a mouth that wasn't a mouth at all, but she could see gleaming eyes in it's not form on what seemed to resemble a human face.

Captain Koika was in its spindly, wrong arms.

Nima's eyes widened. "Captain Koika…!"

But he wasn't listening, entranced in that thing's gaze. His arms were limp at his side and he almost seemed as if he wasn't breathing. Picking up a discarded dagger near her feet, Nima made to lunged forward, but Dan grabbed her and yanked her pack into place.

"Are you insane?" He gritted. "Look at that thing. It could tear you to pieces."

For the first time since they'd met, Nima growled right back at him. "I don't care. He's going to die if we don't do something." Before he could say anything else, she wrenched herself out of his grip and raced to Koika. She ignored Dan when he called her and stood between Koika and the thing - she honestly didn't know if it was a beast or a spirit or nothing at all. A small part of her now, facing the creature in all its horrifying glory, wished she had listened to Dan and maybe thought this through for a minute.

She remembered a remark her Uncle Lefty had once made about her when she was a small child after she decided to try and save a turtleduck that she thought had lost it's mother- and almost drowned doing so.

"Just like her daddy," he'd said, sending a half-pointed look at her parents when Uncle Longshot was making sure she didn't have water in her lungs.

And by that, now, she knew he more or less meant doing things rather… suddenly, without thinking about how one might better approach the situation first. Yeah. She could see where she had a little bit of that.

This felt like a bad idea now that she was surrounded by spindly tentacles for appendages, most of which were concentrated around her face. She quickly examined it's face, it didn't seem to have anything visible inside it's mouth, just a gaping hole with what looked like human lips surrounding it. All in all, it actually… resembled a human, albeit morphed and somewhat deformed, as if it's been distorted in the process of a transformation. It's body was long and winding, hunched and fragile, but clearly nimble. It's eyes glowered like freshly polished smoke diamonds. She'd never, in her sixteen years of life, seen anything like this that she just couldn't quite… describe.

She wasn't even sure if it was of this world.

"Iluq…" Captain Koika weakly uttered behind her. "Son…"

Nima would have been more shocked if she weren't face to face with something that was probably about to have her for dinner. For all this dagger she had raised up in front of her, the hilt fisted in it palm, her muscles were torn between completely freezing up and wanting to just move. Move anywhere. Her instincts were screaming to the heavens: run.

"Kaonaine."

Dan.

"Kaonaine," he said again. His voice was getting closer and she dared to slowly - slowly - turn her head in his direction. Just enough to see him approaching them. The creature didn't seem to like that. Shyness or whatever it was, it began to… shrink. Shrink back into itself.

"Kaonaine." Dan said more strongly this time.

Whatever Dan said, the creature seemed to be listening and shrank back completely.

Into a human form. Just like the one of Nah Ja they had encountered earlier. This human form was of a young man, large and solid. He had dark hair falling around his shoulders, several braids tied in it. The clasps of his braids and his fur-lined attire resembled that of a man from the Water Tribe. His skin was brown - like Dan's and Captain Koika's - and now that he was… human again, his eyes were a blue. Not a smokey brown. But like Nah Ja's, they were vacant and no warmth radiated from them despite his amiable face.

Before Nima knew it, it had fled into a nearby shadow, but she still had the unnerving feeling that it was watching them.

Nima let out a huge breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. Captain Koika was standing one minute, then fell to his knees the next.

"Captain?" Nima crouched down, putting a hand on his arm. "Are you okay? Please say something. Are you hurt?"

"Fine, lass. "He nodded weakly, almost out of breath. "I just… need a minute. Not as young as I used to be y'know… do you know what that was?"

Nima shook her head.

"Vatqinokuro." Dan said, glancing around.

"Black Ghost," Koika added. Nima helped him onto his feet. "In our language- languages. Depends on how you look at it. They have all kinds of different names in different parts of the world, but they're rare either way. Don't like people, see. I think that's what spooked that one. You and Dan came along and it got scared."

"Oh…" Nima frowned. "So, it's shy?"

"Kind of. I've heard of them before. Even encountered one before to my misfortune. Most people never see one in their lifetimes. From what I know they're just kind of shadow dwellers. Mostly harmless - unless you're alone. Like a cornered animal, I guess. Get too close and it feels threatened. Probably what's going on now."

"So, our presence makes it feels threatened?" Dan asked, watching the space the Black Ghost had disappeared to.

Koika nodded. "I think so. And since we separated, they're probably just trying to pick us off to defend their territory."

"They?" Nima raised her brows, but her stomach lurched. Then the one she had almost walked straight to was a different one than the one Koika had encountered.

"Some of them like to live together. They just don't care for humans. And, you know, others not of their kind."

"...what happens if they catch you?" Nima ventured.

"Stories always tell of people who waste away in the gaze of people they've lost," he said quietly. He pursed his lips, seemingly half lost in his own thoughts. "It's… befitting to their nature, really. A bittersweet death, really. Do no harm, but let the wounds already there just bleed. They don't want to hurt you exactly. They just want you to not be there. That's why we call them Black Ghosts in the Water Tribe. Rare as they are, they never come out when there is a moon. Full or otherwise."

Nima's chest tightened. That sounded… horrible. And yet, not so bad all the same. "We need to go," she finally said. If they didn't want them there, then perhaps they should listen. They could rethink this through later on.

"What about the thing you were supposed to find?" Koika asked.

"I don't even know it's here and I won't risk you or Dan getting hurt," she said. "Let's just leave."

"Good," Dan agreed, clearly having enough for one day. "Because the only thing I want to see right now is the exit."

"We don't want you hurt neither, lass." he added. "Honestly, it was my own greed that had me in that thing's clutches."

Nima gave him a small smile. "Not really. You were only thinking of your crew."

Koika shrugged. "Path of good intentions. If we're being honest, wise people don't go looking for treasure. Happy people don't go looking for treasure."

Something inside Nima just… stopped.

Happy people don't go looking for treasure.

The only thing I want to see right now is the exit.

Exit. Treasure.

Wise people. Happy people.

There was that gut feeling again and it was just whining at her inside.

Go.

Go.

"Lass?" Nima looked up at Koika and Dan, both looking some part concerned. Koika put a hand on her shoulder. "You alrigh'?"

"We need to find the door. Right now-"

"Yeah, we know," Dan began.

"No, you don't understand. Where is the exit?"

They combed through the vault for the path they had taken in - another measure of security that was convenient for anybody wanting to keep away treasure stealers. It was- gods, it was so damn clever. Roku was a man who never wanted his stone to be found. At least, certainly not by grave robbers or treasure thieves or people looking for it for the sake of looking for it. For the sake of having the advantage over other people. Her grandfather - her mother's father - would add on to the stories of heroes her mother would tell her before bedtime when they visited her grandparents in Republic City: "A hero is measured by the strength of his heart. Not by the strength of his own ego. That applies to regular people too though. Measure people by their heart. Not by what they think or would like to think of themselves."

And the ideal person would have turned right around when they stepped in the vault. The ideal person wouldn't have even gone any further to meet a vatqinokuro or see all the treasure the place had to explore. But people were only human.

The right person would turn right around, despite having seen what the vault had to offer, no greed or gold in their arms to distract them from the real treasure of this vault.

Finally, they reached the exit, those black doors that promised doom to all those who entered and salvation to those who exited. On top was a stone wedged at the very center, like an eye looking down on it all. She didn't even have to see it to know that it was special, red gleaming ripples subtle compared to the gold surrounding them. She could feel it.

She almost grinned staring up at it. "Happy people don't go looking for treasure."

Face to face, she felt a pulse of relief from the stone.

Ah, it seemed to sigh. At long last.

I really liked this chapter, honestly. It was fun to write despite how long it took and I couldn't wait to post it. Hints and little clues were poked into here, but also a big highlight for me was Dan and Nima's conversation. Despite it's short nature, it's a really important one for them to have. Another step in understanding, but a very true and honest one. Probably the most honest they've had with each other so far. Also, I hope enjoyed my little teaser of Aang. That's important too.

As always, guys I love it when you leave those reviews! Those reviews really motivate me and keep me writing so that I can get these chapters out in a (semi) timely manner as life permits me. But they really keep me going and keep me feeling like I still have a story to tell. Thank you for reading! Tune in for next chapter!