AUTHOR'S NOTES: This is something of an unusual chapter, but it lays a lot of important groundwork for a story arc in the later future. I was serious about giving a lot more depth and dimension to the history of the Avatar, and due to Korra's fascination with her past lives, she's going to likely learn a lot of different stories and highlights of some of the things she did, for better or for worse. Also, this apparition Korra's meeting may or may not have been deliberately designed to be very close in appearance to the illusion we saw in "Korra Alone" (S4). Make of that what you will.
Happy Reading!

BOOK ONE: POWER

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN: ZOROKA

Korra's adventures didn't really take her anywhere that she hadn't been in the last six months, but she decided to celebrate her 17th birthday with her traditional mugshot photo, but also with a return to the Western Air Temple, which she hadn't visited in several months.

She had made eight journeys here in the last year and a half, and this would be her 9th. As much as she enjoyed Republic City (particularly the Little Water Tribe district, which Bolin had successfully gotten her hooked on by the 2nd time she had gone there), Korra always felt compelled to travel out to this large and mysterious Air Temple semi-regularly, and so that was what she did. She had spent money on a small boat a while back, which ferried herself and Naga (who accompanied her on her adventures when possible, of course) across the sea from the Earth Kingdom to the Western Air Region and back. A slab of earth against the cliff helped raise both Avatar and polar bear-dog up to the actual temple itself, where they roamed with impunity.

Up until this trip, Fukui had always been there too, and the two waterbenders would often converse about this or that, which was really mostly just Korra complaining and Fukui listening. A few times she met with her past lives—usually an Interregnum Avatar or two, although she also met a powerful Earth Kingdom woman named Isikiro who was said to be one of the heralds of lavabending. Apparently there were benefits to having too much time on her hands, although it later had come in handy against insurrectionists or the like. Korra thought of her own life in that regard, wondering if that would be her someday against the Red Lotus or something.

This time, however, Fukui was nowhere to be seen, and the pagoda she had been using as her residence was empty. It was clean, which made it appear that she had packed up and left rather than something awful happening to her.

Upon stepping back out of the building though, Korra froze and actually recoiled, pinning herself to the wall. In front of her, but not looking her way, was a sinister-looking woman in blue, hunched over worse than Korra was—but with a striking resemblance to her. The lurching way this woman walked made Korra wonder who she was and what she was doing here. She was about to call out, but the woman turned to face Korra, and Korra actually shrieked.

Her eyes were white and almost seemed to shimmer much like Korra's did as she instinctively entered the Avatar State as a panick reaction, but there was a striking difference between the two. Korra's eyes shimmered bright white with a notable bluish hue, while this woman's eyes were much duller, and were solid white, as well as featureless.

What alarmed Korra more than the woman's softly glowing eyes was her striking resemblance to Korra herself, down to the barefooted vagrant look she often sported, complete with her unkempt hair, blue sleeveless top and dark blue baggy pants. A noticable difference was that there were heavy shackles around her ankles and her left wrist, while her right forearm was wrapped in a similarly heavy chain. This entity had pointed ears and a slight greyish tint to her otherwise brown skin, but otherwise still greatly resembled Korra.

"Who are you…?" Korra wasn't sure if she was even seeing this apparition correctly. "Are you me?" She remembered a similar apparition she had seen in her dreams a couple of times, but this one had actual shackles instead of the gold braces that the apparition from her dreams had had, and this creature's expression consisted of low, harsh eyebrows and a prominent frown.

The apparition shook its head slowly before it zoomed off in a greyish blur. Korra raced after it, where it vanished into the Hall of Avatars as if it had just gone through the walls. Whatever this thing was, Korra was convinced it was definitely a spirit of some sort… but why would a spirit take the form of an older Avatar Korra wearing shackles and a malicious frown? She managed to exit the Avatar State as she calmed back down again, still a little winded both from the initial shock, and from her reflexive Avatar State abuse.

Korra opened the chamber and stepped inside. The Avatar Statues were all still glowing from her earlier incident, and Korra wandered over to where she knew her statue was to see if anything had changed. Despite her dressing more fully as of recent, her Avatar statue still had that barefooted ragtag look she sported for most of her 15th year—and that was now being sported as well by a mysterious angry-looking spirit.

The apparition reappeared, pointing at Korra until the Avatar looked up. When their eyes met, it gestured towards her, pointing off behind her and to Korra's left. When Korra did not move right away, it approached her, seizing Korra's right arm with considerable force.

"Hey!" Korra pushed the spirit-woman back, causing it to recoil slightly. "Get off me!" Korra was a little more selective about who touched her these days due to her own distrust and slight paranoia. Some weird woman masquerading as her in the Avatar State was definitely not to be trusted under any circumstance.

The apparition's frown became more prominent and she suddenly whipped her right arm so viciously that the chain unravelled. A moment later she flung it deftly at Korra's right arm, where the chain looped around Korra's wrist and elbow almost immediately. Korra gasped as she was yanked forward, the strength of such a fast, sudden pull almost making her feel like she dislocated her shoulder. Fortunately, nothing of the sort happened, but Korra found herself now being almost dragged along by this weird apparition off to oblivion-knows-where.

Korra tried freeing her arm from the chain, but when the apparition noticed her doing this, she yanked it hard enough to throw Korra to the floor and continue moving forward by dragging her.

"Ow, quit it!" Korra naturally continued fighting it, only for the woman to yank it harder, with each subsequent jerking making Korra start to feel the pain in her arm. Her last attempt was to wrap her legs around the foot of an Avatar statue, and while Korra's legs were strong, whoever—or whatever—this entity dragging her was, was slightly stronger. It persisted, and for a moment it seemed like it would be a stalemate, but Korra knew it was in her best interests to let go when her right arm started to feel like it was about to be ripped out at the shoulder. That would definitely be sore for a while. She released her grip on the statue, and tried to get back to her feet, but it seemed the shackled woman had no patience for that, and so Korra sighed in defeat as she was dragged away, almost comically pouting as they went. She was fairly convinced at this point that this woman was not actually human—a malevolent spirit of some sort, perhaps? She considered using bending against it, because there had been at least 116 different ways she could have counterattacked, but if she was dealing with an entity that could pass through walls, she could only imagine what other abilities this thing might have, and she'd rather not take her chances if she could solve this either diplomatically or with her bare fists.

"So… can you talk?" Korra used her left arm to grip the woman's chain so it didn't put additional stress on her already aching arm, "or at least tell me what the big deal is and why you're abducting me?"

The apparition did not reply, short of glancing back only once with the same expressionless frown it had maintained the entire time. Korra craned her neck, and to her surprise, noticed the apparition was looking around as it dragged her through the maze of Avatar statues, very clearly trying to find a certain one.

"Y'know…" Korra sighed, "If you would just tell me what you're looking for, this would go by a lot faster and be much easier on both of us… especially me."

The spirit did not reply, and only after it pulled Korra down three more rows of Avatar statues did it finally stop. It pulled on its chain, which unravelled from Korra's arm much easier than it should have, allowing her to get up and see which status the spirit was now very adamantly pointing at.

"What did you want me to see about Zeruda…" Korra mused, massaging her now sore shoulder as she glanced up at the Avatar statue the spirit-woman was pointing at as her eyes bore holes into Korra's skull, "And what even are you?"

The woman's mouth did not even open, however, and in a flash of grey, had vanished.

"More importantly," Korra reached out and touched the stone face of Zeruda's statue, "Who were you, Zeruda? How bad was your conquest if it made the world want to strike you from history?"

Korra sighed, taking a deep breath and sitting down in front of the Zeruda statue, hoping to come in contact with this legendary nefarious woman. She knew that Zeruda was "the culmination of the Interregnums", but she had never actually seen firsthand what this malevolent Avatar had actually done in her life. She closed her eyes and meditated, letting herself get carried away into what would hopefully be a meeting with Avatar Zeruda, and hopefully whatever it was that this spirit in front of her wanted from her.

Instead of seeing Zeruda face to face, she saw the world through her eyes: the legendary Siege of the Northern Water Tribe that had ended her reign of terror from the world. She was a commander of legions, all wearing shades of gold and white. Here Korra had expected something darker in terms of motifs and themes. She saw the view of Zeruda's war room as her naval force approached the north. The entire world was painted in shades of silver and gold except for the Northern Water Tribe.

"With the Eastern Air Temple now under our control," Zeruda proclaimed, "this Water Tribe remains our only enemy… and soon it too will join us."

Even back then, the Northern Water Tribe was still a defensible fortress. The ice wall that was much smaller even during the 100 year war, reached nearly to the top of the cliffs that surrounded it, and was wide enough for siege weapons and entire military divisions to cross. It certainly would have given the Fire Nation a run for their money in Aang's day.

Almost like a dream, Korra felt like very little time had actually passed, and yet somehow she had still managed to see the attack pour out. They managed to infiltrate the tribe after Zeruda went into the Avatar State to destroy the defensive walls, but the waterbenders seemed to have done away with a great deal of their ethics to protect themselves from being enslaved by the Avatar. Bloodbenders were rampant, turning their foes against each other, and not even the Avatar was immune to this subjection, although she managed to break the grip many times, which usually resulted in a grizzly death for the target in question.

To Korra's utmost surprise, however, the real source of Zeruda's downfall had not been the Water Chief, his wife, or any of their most formidable commanders. Instead, it had come as the Avatar had attempted to infiltrate the spirit oasis, where to her surprise just as much as Korra's, the apparition from earlier had appeared and attacked.

Korra knew she wasn't really in this vision of the past, and so her own spirit separated from Zeruda's as she studied the entity in front of her.

But how was it possible? A spirit that took on the form of her, thousands of years before she, her parents, her grandparents, or even her great-grandparents were even a thought in anyone's eye? Was it a divine coincidence? Was this a spirit that could see the Avatar into the future? Granted, Korra did not have greyish brown skin or pointy ears; and unlike this creature, she still had blue irises and black pupils; but even then, there was still a striking resemblance.

Whatever it was, this spirit proved to be formidable enough to that defeated Zeruda in single combat, subduing her and allowing her to be captured. Suddenly, the tribe around her melted away, and Korra found herself face to face with the villain from the story. She was still too shocked or upset to really know how to introduce herself, and so she took what could best be described as "the Korra approach", which involved getting right in the target's face and demanding answers.

"Okay you," She had to stand on her tippytoes to get in Zeruda's face, for Zeruda was rather tall and imposing; while even as an adolescent, Korra was still fairly short. "Start talking."

"Do you see now why I've taken such a great interest in you, child?" Zeruda spoke with a firm, commanding tone that almost reminded her of that metalbending officer Kuvira. "I found it most curious: a humanoid spirit who could mimick bending the elements… attacked me and ended my reign over the world. And now, through the eyes of an adolescent girl nearly 4000 years after my death, I am seeing her as an incarnation of this spirit."

"That spirit ain't me though," Korra shrugged, her lip sticking out innocently, "she literally dragged me to you, so I'm pretty sure we're different."

"And yet she takes interest in you as well," Zeruda riposted, "and even then, it is not enough to stop me and your other past lives from taking great interest in you nonetheless. It seems Zoroka has taken great interest in you if she was willing to interact with you without trying to kill you."

"Zoroka?" Korra tilted her head. The name did not ring a bell.

"Apparently the thing has a name," Zeruda explained, "I do not know its origins, let alone why its chosen appearance resembles you so strikingly, but there may be a connection here. Unlike you I was not very skilled at contacting my past lives short of a few particularly wily Interregnums, and so maybe the story is in your past—in our past, Avatar Korra."

"So you're using me to find out then?" Korra frowned.

"Of course I am!" Zeruda replied, "I 'used' everyone else I came in contact with during my reign, and now I'm condemned in the same spiritual limbo-prison that 16 of my predecessors and 3 of my successors are in. I know little of Zoroka, other than that she purportedly tends to show her face and attack in times of great imbalance."

"So why didn't she attack me?" Korra tilted her head. Sure the spirit had been rough, but it hadn't outright attacked her. "And do you know if it can speak at all?"

"If it does, I've never heard it utter a word," Zeruda shook her head, "as for why it did not attack you… that is a mystery that many of us have taken great interest in. Perhaps there's a strong sense of balance inside you that many of your past lives—including myself—lacked. Perhaps it is something entirely different. Would that I knew Zoroka's motives, but alas, I do not."

"So what am I supposed to do? Why did it want me to see you?" Korra narrowed her eyes.

"Perhaps it arranged this meeting to explain why your Interregnum past lives have taken such a great interest in you." Zeruda suggested, "or perhaps it has its own motives entirely that just happened to coincide with some of ours. The other Interregnums view me as the culmination of their own misdeeds, and while it is true, to realize that there is an Avatar Incarnation that bears a striking resemblance to a spirit I fought thousands of years before your birth is too phenomenal to ignore. Would that I could give you more advice on that thing or what it wants, but it never spoke to me any more than it spoke to you… so you're on your own there…"

"Wait, where are you going?" Korra realized Zeruda's spirit was fading.

"I have said my part for now," Zeruda whispered, "From here it is in your hands…"

"Seriously!?" Korra shouted as Zeruda's spirit dissipated into a wisp of blue dust. "You drop that cryptic message and then just poof away like that? Fuckkkkkerrrrrrr…!" Korra shook her fist in disappointment, but soon returned to her body with this new revelation. She stood up and looked around, realizing the Avatar statues had gone dark. If Zoroka was anywhere nearby, she did not interrupt Korra as she left the Avatar Chamber, and despite the rockiness of the events that went down, or the pain in her right arm and shoulder muscles, she had with her a new revelation. Zoroka—this spirit of balance, or whatever it was—was the primary reason the Interregnum Avatars had taken an interest in her. If it had existed in the past, then surely one of Korra's much older past lives might know of it. Perhaps it was older than Avatar Isikiro even, although Korra would have to find out. She had a surprisingly easy time contacting many of her past lives, and so how difficult could it be to connect with a few more?

Compassionate and caring as Korra might have been, she was also very much a thinker and a ponderer, especially when it came to delicate matters such as the Avatar, the Spirit World, or other such things, and so all in all, this information would require a great deal of mulling over before Korra would know what she wanted to do with it. As such, what she intended to do with this newfound information remained to be seen...

PAST LIVES DISCOVERED:

Isikiro (Earth Kingdom, Female): An Earth Kingdom woman from centuries before the Interregnum Cycle that was famous for being a pioneer and prodigy in lavabending. She was somewhat quirky in that she was very much nocturnal and that she enjoyed a great deal of meat, although most people just chalked that up as a developed affinity for the Water Tribes. While she attempted to keep the art of lavabending from spreading, she was unsuccessful in this regard, but still managed to keep most upstart would-be renegades in check throughout her reign.

TOTAL PAST LIVES MET: 27