A/N: Hello everyone. I am glad to be updating, even though it is way late, I know. Becoming a trend for me. I hope everyone from the U.S. had a good Fourth of July. I know that I enjoyed the excuse for nearly setting my house on fire. Pyromaniacs are a misunderstood sort. Right... I have nothing more to write really and I know you all don't really care for long author's notes, so yeah. Enjoy. Please review. I was ever so lonely last chapter without any feedback.
Disclaimer: I own the charred remains of ten sparklers which I have yet to throw away. Unfortunately, none of them give me any rights to Legend of Korra. Wouldn't it be something if they did?
Previously on Events Unexpected…
"The scarves must be their spirits," Aang thought aloud. "Their bodies were taken from them but their consciousness was preserved in those things. They keep the Faceless more or less… animate."
Tugging at Korra's shirt in the most inconspicuous manner, Kaji whispered into the other girl's ear, "Look at what he has embedded into his chest plate."
Korra's eyes equally widened as she too caught sight of the bone betrothal necklace.
"I have had enough of this," the centipede shivered, "It is time to end it."
And with that, Koh had arrived.
The Faceless used the distraction their master had provided to free themselves from the former Avatar's funnel prison. Nopperabou Ichi motioned to the red-scarfed puppet, indicating its orders to form a sort of scissoring movement from behind. The crimson silk fluttered as the greying muscles beneath it bunched and sprang out in a constant flux of movement as it silently slithered toward the flank of the still stunned human spirits. Nopperabou Ichi itself moved in a similar manner to the other side, hoping the grating of Koh's massive exterior skeleton would provide enough cover for it.
Korra gazed up at the writhing blackened hole that once held the dark spirit's many flickering visages. Her facial muscles twitched, longing to portray the overbearing anger and spite and, most disturbingly, fear that brimmed just beneath her fragile indifference. Her skin crawled with the exuding vileness spilling into the air around them, choking them in its thick heat and sharp cold. Beside her, gently brushing their hands together, Kaji stood transfixed. Her eyes felt as though they were not wide enough to fully take in the horror that was curled up before her. The razor legs that cut into the ground with such power as to get themselves partially stuck in the hardened earth; the plates of chitin moving against each other in a tight-knit pattern that left nearly nothing of the soft underside exposed; the darkness with which every fiber seemed to eradicate any light unfortunate enough to touch it. And she grew ever colder inside. Her inner fire billowed strongly within her chest cavity, but her fingers felt the familiar nerve death that accompanied the beginnings of frostbite. Both girls held their eyes upon the miniscule little bone circle that seemed so close yet so far away. Its whitened sheen was so foreign amongst all of the charcoal plate that it appeared to be hovering over the skin rather than embedded in it.
Korra felt a firm grip close around her neck an instant before her skin began to burn with a fire that was unnaturally cool and slimy. Her throat closed in as her flesh shriveled under the vice grip holding her in a choke that was quickly becoming more of a strangle than a submission. A softness behind her neck and a rustling of fabric revealed the assailant as one of the two remaining servants whom she had forgotten. Cursing her loss of concentration, the Avatar brought her arm back in a sharp elbow to the thing's abdomen. The Faceless was strong and held tightly to its captive, but Korra had been able to loosen the grip it had on her, thus alleviating some of the corrosive sludge that had been applied to her exposed throat. Her brain raced, already pumping epinephrine into her system in preparation for her body's fight for survival. Her foot grounded itself into the earth between the puppet's legs, burrowing into the dirt and rock for a steadier stance, whilst her arms hooked into the rotted muscle and strips of skin that clung to the arm that trapped her. Gritting her teeth against the flow of agony coming from her fingertips, now completely submerged in whatever substance oozed out of the thing's pores, Korra arched her back and rolled the creature over her as she fell to her knee. The Faceless, not expecting such a violent forward motion, was thrown clear off, landing in a pile of limbs and vermillion a few feet away. Korra's hands ignited instantly, covering the angry red blisters coating her hands with cleansing copper and bronze flames. The crumpled figure of her assailant lurched back into a standing position, rising spinelessly from the clusters of fallen leaves and bristles. Koh's servant hissed at the oncoming Avatar, having remembered the fate of its lower-ranking comrades.
Korra's first jab was dodged, pushed away lightly by a checking block from her opponent's right hand. Her next flaming uppercut nearly made contact with a fringe of the expensive sheet housing the thing's spirit, coming short when the Faceless dropped into a back flip. The legs, following the circular trajectory, came up quickly, pushing into Korra's chest and sending her stumbling. Her hand instinctively came up as the creature sent a left hook toward her head; turning the powerful attack against its owner, the Avatar spun on her heel and sent the monster careening to the floor.
A sudden gale of wind assaulted them, sending them aloft. Korra's body quickly adjusted to the loss of gravity as she redirected the winds in a more controlled manner with her own airbending. Her cerulean eyes immediately picked up the floating form of the Faceless she had been engaged with. Her hands, wreathed once more in superheated chi, grasped the leather jerkin that covered the puppet's torso, igniting and melting through it as though it were made of wax. The fringes of the crimson scarf folded into themselves with minute hisses from the steaming threads. All of the unnatural power that had once been under the servant's control left the flailing body as the flames hurriedly licked at the flammable cloth, eating away at it in their own ravenous hunger. Korra's hands shook with the effort of keeping the struggling creature pressed into the ground where it could not escape. It only took a few more seconds before the gesticulations ceased and the remnants of the body crumpled into fine ash and blew away on the lingering winds.
Aang saw the Faceless coming up on him a split second before its weapon whizzed down toward him. The spines on the back of the head of Koh's servant stood on end in preparation for a battle. The gloved hands clutched at the long staff of metal, tipped with its deadly blade; silver talons glistened against the dark reptilian scales that covered the exposed flesh. The golden button showed no emotion, nor was there any movement of the brow or face to indicate the strategies passing through whatever abominable brain the thing possessed. Aang did not feel like waiting to find out the next attack, choosing to blow some distance between the monstrosity and himself. His monk's robes billowed out as he leapt into the air, levitating on a current of his bending until he safely came down on a sturdy branch of the closest fir. Nopperabou hissed within the stifling material of its worn spirit, glaring at the elusive bending master as though it could make him spontaneously drop with only its gaze. The Guan Dao's heft was a minor deterrent when it came to fighting above ground, even with the superhuman strength allotted to the servants of the insect spirit. Even so, the primal bloodlust coursing through the ashen veins that had long ago been dried of their red current made such small disadvantages less than daunting. With a scream that echoed through the lands of fog and shadow, the Faceless leapt up, swinging the bulky shafted weapon down against the branches of the great tree. Ten cracked under the blade, snapping with resounding claps of thunder and falling to the ground atop one another. Aang's evasion was enough to keep him from serious bodily injury, but even he could not ignore the sting of pain where the Guan Dao had sliced through his sleeve and the edge of his left arm. The blue ectoplasm filtering out barely made a stain against the similar hue of the light fabric. Still, it was enough for the command servant to notice and look upon him with a glum sense of satisfaction.
The airbender swung his hands in twin arcs, body fluidly following the spherical motions of the channeling gales at his fingertips. It looked more like a dance than an actual attack, but the Faceless was not fooled by the elegant motions. The crowns of the trees blew lightly at first, away from the force of the former Avatar's dynamic form. As his arms drew the invisible circles surrounding his body, the groaning of the limbs and trunks grew to a crescendo of straining wood until, finally, the giant roots rose out of their earthen beds and flailed madly in the storm. Nopperabou Ichi anchored itself against its perch on an exceptionally massive tree with the sharpened weapon deeply plunged into the rings of the pine's body. The mighty giant struggled against the hurricane winds as most of its family were torn from their ancient graves and sent into the vast beyond, crashing somewhere far away to decompose and leave behind parched white skeletons amongst the swaying grass and filtering sands. The creaks echoed loudly, bouncing off of the fog as it was swept away from the eye of the tempest, retreating to calmer spaces. The increasing volume was suddenly cut off; the only indication of what was to come. Aang never slowed in his intricate movements as the final remaining tree capitulated to the sheer force of his element, splitting in half as the top was carried away whilst the bottom stubbornly held its place as though Atlas himself was holding it there. The airbender slowed his gusts, silencing the roar of air whipping past his ears and allowing the blood and fluid to come back into his dried grey eyes. The arrow on his head glowed brightly for what seemed like decades. No sign of his enemy remained however, his skin still tingled with paranoid nerves awaiting a hidden strike.
The strike he had been anticipating occurred from above. The mists that had begun creeping back to engulf him burst open around the rapidly descending form of Nopperabou, Guan Dao raised and prepared to cleave in two anything unfortunate enough to be in its path. The ground broke apart creating a cleft in the bedrock three meters down, the split snaking its way from where the edge had impacted to a good hundred yards away. Dust and grass and rock all fell away into the dark hole, spread two feet wide. A growl escaped the puppet's ghastly lips, its teeth chattering against each other as it searched for the target that had once again escaped its fury.
Aang glided away from the fatal onslaught. His feet slid across the land, barely grazing the earth as he circled around the menacing Faceless. His arms burst forth in a flurry of air, spiraling from his chest with a mighty exhale. The creature barely had time to turn its head and catch his eye with the one gruesome button attached to its festering face before it was sent spiraling into the abyss of its own creation. Aang, fully knowing that it would only temporarily deter the crazed killer, prepared his next attack. Looking around, he was disheartened to find himself alone. Despite the strength and dexterity of his element, it would be nearly impossible to permanently harm the creature without Korra or Kaji and their fire.
The shriek of wrath that came from the darkness before him shook the foundations of the field, sprinkling excess loose earth into the crevice. A hand reached out for the ledge, a few feet off from where Aang had positioned himself. The gloves were missing two silver tipped claws, one on the pointer finger and one on the pinky, revealing sickening broken nails that grew out in opaque curls. The creature had not even dug them in for traction when the ground gave a violent shudder that knocked Aang to his knees. The fissure trembled as the opening began to close in on itself, an ugly scar diminishing in the wake of the forces pulling it together. Nopperabou made a final effort to claw its way out of the prison, but it was to no avail. The earth resealed itself too quickly, snapping shut around the body and reducing it to nothing more than broken bone and imploded organs. The fingers still outside fell limply in separate digits, rolling along the ground until they settled like discolored little sausages among the grass and roots.
Aang looked up, thankful to see Korra's dirt-smeared face worriedly checking his condition. The two Avatars nodded their affirmed assurances, noting that neither was too hurt. Korra then turned her attention to the newly formed clearing, taking in the grooves left from the battling roots and the mounds of stone and sand that had been summoned from the dead earth during the upheaval. Her heart clenched, but not because of the state of turmoil that pervaded the surrounding area; her heart clenched because they were alone. Neither Kaji nor Koh were there with them.
It happening so quickly that even lightening would have seemed slow in comparison. One moment, Korra was with Kaji and the next she had been torn away by some blurred assailant. To her other side, the airbending master also vanished, leaving the stupefied Fire Lord facing the massive combination of insect and dark deity alone. Koh's mouth-less laughter filled the air, suffocating her; whether the effect was made better or worse by the obvious lack of a mouth from which to emit such a sound, Kaji could not have begun to guess. All she knew was that she had to pull herself together and replace the melting façade of indifference that was her only shield against the powerful Spirit. Koh's enormous body unraveled itself, allowing him to fall with an earthshaking thud to the forest floor. His centipede form knocked over a few hapless saplings in the way of its bulk as he came to slither up to the frozen girl. The Stygian gap that was his 'face' lowered itself down to sit just inches away from her, so close that she could feel the slight shift in the air as it inhaled and smell the rancid corruption as it exhaled. Her eyebrows quirked, drawing together slightly before she was able to regain any semblance of self-discipline. All of her teachings, her stratagems, her firebending prowess, all of it seemed so worthless to her now. She was facing something that no human had a sliver of a chance at defeating. Her masters had never had the ability to prepare her; who could know how to take down a god besides the gods themselves?
Two hands reached out from the ebony mass, pale things with perfectly lacquered fingernails that were just sharp enough to lightly scratch Kaji's pallid cheeks. Her mouth opened, wordlessly gasping for something to emit be it a scream or a final plea for help that could not reach her. The hands traced down her jawbones, grazing her chin before running down the length of her throat. They caressed her pulse, digging slightly against the skin, completely covered in gooseflesh. The thumbs stayed pressed against her trachea as the rest of the hands came to rest on either side of the milky expanse. Kaji's watery golden eyes widened in horror as the digits tightened around her neck, squeezing until all that she could get in or out were short gasps of air. Her crimson lips paled, turning a slightly darker shade of peach from her other skin, then taking on a mildly bluish tinge that came with the oxygen deprivation.
"That's it," the slimy voice coming from the pool that had birthed the hands slowly choking the life from her spoke, "Give in to the fear and helplessness. There is nothing that can keep you from me now… and since you have somehow managed to thin my ranks so much, it would seem a fitting punishment to have you as the first of the new order, would it not?"
Sweet poison dripped out of Kaji's ears and mouth, invisible tendrils of her body trying to reject the invading cold that travelled from the killing hands to the rest of her. Inside, she cried out to her limbs, bidding them to ignite with her magnificent gift from Agni, to devour the abomination that would harm her and her beloved Korra. Koh's grip was a prison to both her mind and her body however; her spirit beat against the cage of horror and despair, beating itself raw against the hardened shackles of her own weakness. All to no avail.
She could sense the separation occurring between her physical and ethereal forms. Her eyes, which had seen nothing but black since her heartbeat had slowed to a creeping pace, began to formulate images again. Only, these images were not connected, more like she was flying over herself and Koh's grotesque body. The corpse, her corpse, fell away as it was released from the dead hands which retracted back into the obsidian mirror that was Koh. It was with a fine golden thread and two needles made of bone that they reappeared. The crochet needles spun the satin in quick rows, forming a small square, then elongating it into a rectangle. Kaji's spirit shrunk away from the spinning strings, instinctually shying away from the glimmering gold weaving. As the cloth grew into its intended shape, the ends began to levitate towards her. Her feet kicked at the air, urgently propelling her forward and away. The effort felt as though she was swimming in thickened molasses, slow and frustratingly lacking in progress. The threads themselves were slippery eels sliding through the dripping sweet mixture, gliding ever nearer until they wrapped themselves around her foot and up her leg. Kaji was finally able to scream as she was rapidly dragged down, back to Koh and his manic weaving hands. The strand of scarf edged farther up her body, covering and consuming one leg, then the other; moving up her lower body and then up to pull tightly around her chest. Her arms reached out, trying to grab a hold of anything to keep her from the prison of the satin. The fabric caught first her left arm, then her right, pulling them both flush against her prone body until she looked as though some giant golden spider had spun its deathly silk around her in anticipation of a meal.
Suddenly, just before her face would have been engulfed in the darkness of her cocoon, the fabric was torn loose. Her body spun with the quickly unraveling binds, flinging her in a spinning flight toward her prone body. The impact of her spirit reintegrating itself with the sinew and bone was nothing short of electric. Her nerves were alight with fire, only this fire was not warm and soothing but feral and fierce. Her eyes shot open, rods and cones alike igniting the fields around her in varying colors of grey and green and brown. Her mouth was wide, taking in breathes as a starving man would take in fire flakes. Her back arched up, supported by her elbows and forearms, legs kicking out as the stimuli raced through her veins and synapses. The familiarity of her fingers digging into the soft clumps of clay was enough to bring tears to her golden orbs; nothing feeling quite as welcome as the life flowing back into her cold cadaver. Then the world upturned on itself. Her body was weightless, flying through to air in a tornado of trees and clouds. Her hands reached involuntarily for any sort of perch they could find, coming up short and sending back waves of panic. Her hair whipped in her face, pricking at her sensitive eyes and tickling her nostrils. The bellows of the storm filtered out all other sound until all she knew was the gale. A rock came whizzing out of nowhere, striking her hard in the stomach and knocking the air from her lungs. The burning returned until the air currents were so strong that her diaphragm was not necessary for them to enter her lungs. It was exhaling that became an arduous task then.
Her unbidden soaring came to a swift end, sending the firebender plummeting to the earth, so far away and yet drawing close at an alarming speed. Her body quite suddenly missed the floating sensation, despite the fear coiled in her belly. At least it had been less definite than the accelerated plunge back to the ground below. Kaji's fists ignited, the fire spreading up her arms until she looked to be a phoenix, diving into the rock that would be its demise; until another draft hit her and the loose material of her shirt drew her hard to the right. Her back hit one of the trees falling with her, causing a brief spurt of agony from her spine. Still, she was able to clumsily turn herself around and reach for the splintered bark. Her fingertips bled with the many chips that embedded themselves into the soft flesh, but she paid them no mind. Her concentration was completely on the upcoming meadow. The grass, as soft as it would have been, would not cushion her when she was descending at such a velocity. Only feet away from the ground, Kaji used her firebending to push her away from the tree in a burst of heat and broken wood. She then somersaulted in the air, wreathing herself in sapphire flames as she hit the grassland with her shoulder and continued her roll for a few more yards. The fire died away as she just stayed, lying on her back with no intentions of moving. Her entire frame felt like a komodo-rhino had run her over and then sharpened its horn against her skin. Her face was a smattering of bruises and cuts, but they were shallow and would heal. It was the pressing discomfort in her lower ribcage that worried her. Nothing felt broken, but even a fracture would not bode well when she still had no idea where Koh and the others were. Despite the pressing urgency of her situation, Kaji's body simply refused to do anything besides the compulsory duties that kept it alive. Breathe in. Breathe out. Ignore the incessant itch on the tip of her nose. Breathe…
"Did you think it was over?" Kaji cringed at the sound. It was less sharp and menacing than before, indicating that the Spirit had not fully escaped the rage of the tempest either, but that did little to alleviate the Fire Lord's explosive panic attack. With much effort and a plethora of moments where Kaji felt that she would faint from either the vertigo or the pain, the firebender was finally able to manage to lift herself onto her feet. The huddled mass of legs and plate unraveling itself from a grove of fallen tree trunks and debris likewise found it difficult to come to an upright position. Koh's pincers minced an offending trunk into nothing but sawdust as he continued to disentangle himself. Kaji did not feel it in her best interest to give him the time to finish the job. Her legs were battered and weak, but she still was able to convince them to carry her as quickly as they could away from the writhing centipede.
She had only managed a few steps when she turned back to the enraged and still trapped Koh. Her eyes landed on the patch of his plate that held the betrothal pendant that had brought her to the accursed spiritual plain, glimmering in an almost mocking way. Her better judgment begged her to keep running, to take advantage of the arthropod's sharpened rifts and spikes, each acting as hooks against the destroyed trunks and branches, holding the vile monster at bay; her mind, however, knew that she would most likely not get another shot at the only piece of hope still left to her. Giving a desperate and resigned scream, the Fire National turned on her heel and sprinted full pelt at the twisted form of the Face Stealer. Each stride nearer to the Spirit drew her heart closer to cardiac arrest, but she moved onward passed the tangled brambles and debris littering the clearing. Her clothing snagged against the deadened fingers of twigs; her ebony hair caught sharply on the sticks protruding out of the whitening ghost trees; her body fought passed all of the minor obstacles with a concentration resigned for those heading toward their probable demise. The pincers at the end of Koh's tail flashed past her, dripping with their foreboding poison, promising a slow and painful death to any who were unlucky enough to get pricked. Kaji weaved in and out of the frantic swings, rolling and leaping to the forty-five of the blind strikes, always careful to remain as far from Koh's field of vision as possible whilst also drawing nearer to the massive bug's chest plate.
Another twist of the giant serpentine coil and the armored underbelly was uncovered, grey scales dripping with dew from the crushed grasses they had been laying on moments before. Kaji performed a daring jump, using her fire to add a flourish to a series of cartwheels she used to gain a burst of speed before sinking her feet into the soft turf and unleashing a ferocious blast of fire underneath her that sent her rocketing into the body of the powerful Spirit. Her own body smacked into the unyielding chitin like a fly hitting a boulder, yet her hands somehow managed to grab onto one of the chinks in the plate despite her disoriented mind. The shriek of anger indicated that her presence had been noticed and that she had seconds remaining before the giant centipede rolled over once more, crushing her underneath its bulk with no chance of survival. The slickness of the moistened segments aided her in sliding her way down the rainbow arch that the Spirit had formed in its throws of frustration; her footing was far from stable however, and she found herself losing her coordination in vertigo as the solidity of Koh's belly suddenly was no longer there to support her. Golden eyes flicked briefly to the ever shrinking medallion as her weight pulled her down and away from it. Kaji clamped her teeth together, aware that the jolt of her next attempt at retrieving the infernal thing would more than likely cause her to bite threw her tongue; her arm shot out from its rigid place by her side, fingers splayed and prepared to catch one of the gigantic legs scissoring underneath her. Her grip was made at the joint- more specifically, the joint embedded itself into the center of her palm. Kaji refused to do more than moan out her displeasure as she had more pertinent things to focus on. Like the fact that she was still being spun rapidly toward the ground in the current twist that the enraged Spirit had initiated. The concern was partially unfounded as the ends of the razor legs hit the earth with force enough to shake the surrounding area in a minor earthquake. The aspect that went less than well for the firebender was the fact that the spike of the joint not only dug further into her flesh with the jolt but also cracked the bones in her hand as the leg straightened itself and the two portions of the bend snapped together over the fragile ligaments and tendons holding her fingers together. Kaji took several leveling breathes before the searing white spots of pain covering her vision cleared enough for her to notice the small bit of fortune smiling upon her: the leg she was currently tethered to was an arm's length away from the object she was after. Acting swiftly so as to keep from being blinded by the agony again, the firebender swung herself between the thrashing limbs and underneath Koh's torso. Her hand clasped the corner of the bone, finding the resistance it gave disconcerting but also useful as it held her aloft beneath the behemoth body.
Her fingers must have sent some sort of nervous stimuli to the Spirit, betraying her intentions, as the legs around her began to bend themselves and quickly lower the length of the anterior of the centipede to the floor. Kaji's hand was unlocked and her skin tore between her middle and ring fingers, dropping her in a mad swing which would have been halted by the betrothal pendant had the blasted thing stayed in its place. Instead, Kaji found herself sailing onward, undeterred, as the bone circle unlocked itself with a tiny pop. Her fall was broken by her shoulder and the side of her head, knocking her nearly unconscious in the process. Her cranium swam, but her feet were somehow able to carry her out of the way of the colossal body on its collision course with the ground. Her frantic run was converted into a desperate flight as the waves of impact propelled her a few yards away from Koh's gruesome form. Heaving a sigh, the Fire Lord dropped to her knees, readying her body for the inevitably rough contact with the ground beneath; such contact was unexpectedly halted by two gentle arms wrapping around her battered frame and pulling her into a comfortable embrace.
Korra and Aang had run the moment they heard the crashing noises coming from far to their right. The expanse of level landscape gave them a foggy view of a familiarly large shape twining itself around a mass of grey shadow concealed by the mists. Korra pumped her legs faster than she had ever expected they were able to go, knowing in her gut that where Koh was, Kaji would surely be as well. The Avatar skidded to a standstill as the deadly end of Koh's tail crashed not a centimeter in front of her. The tip of her hide boot split under the knife's edge of a pincer though she was thankfully saved from any exposure to the Spirit's toxins. Veering hard right, she circled the beast, keeping one eye out for her lover and the other safely scanning Koh's movements so as to not become one of his victims through sheer lack of vigilance. Her pupils dilated as she saw a blurry flash of red and black sling itself out from under the mass of legs and exterior skeleton. Her breath caught as the figure was sent sprawling in the dust when Koh crashed all of his weight down onto the earth. Korra kept her balance only because of her earthbending, absorbing the impact and redirecting it outward. She then wasted no time in charging toward the falling body of the Royal, managing to catch her just before she hit the floor. Holding onto Kaji tightly, afraid that she would somehow turn to dust and shadow were Korra to let her go, the Avatar pulled them both up and started half dragging half carrying the barely conscious firebender away from the deity swiftly regaining his bearings.
Aang was there not a moment later, helping Korra with the stumbling girl. Kaji's eyelids flickered, heavy from drowsiness but also fighting for wakefulness because of the adrenaline still burning through her veins. Korra felt the Fire Lord's lips graze against her ear, a sliver of air escaping from them and making her shiver. There had been words within the exhale, but they had been too soft to comprehend. Kaji's feet hitting the floor and jerking them to a stop, however, was clearly understood. Korra placed her on the ground, wondering if it was pain that had caused the unwise break in their retreat. Her hypothesis was discarded as Kaji opened her left hand, revealing the small necklace adornment that was now covered in blood and sweat but still managed to keep the majority of its sheen. Her fingers closed over it, then held it up for Aang to see. Her mentor's uneasy smile at their change of fortune quickly vanished as he was thrown back by a sudden powerful force.
Korra grimaced, coming to stand protectively in front of the still body of her beloved. She felt Kaji's hand wrap loosely around her ankle, giving a small squeeze- but whether the squeeze was one of reassurance or a plea for her to flee, she was unsure. The Avatar steeled herself, deciding that it mattered not. All she needed was the affirmation that her firebender still lived and breathed. Nothing could give her more incentive to hold her ground than having someone she loved to fight for. Koh's being was marred by protrusion of trees that had forced themselves into his flesh by the winds that had carried him to the scarred section of the meadow. His movements were less fluid, clumsier through injury to tens of his hundreds of legs. Still, it was not nearly enough for Korra to have believed that she held a fair chance at beating him. He was a Spirit and could not be killed within the ethereal world. Her own body would also regenerate itself, but a blow strong enough could send her reeling back into her body, or sever the connection to it leaving her trapped within the Spirit World forever. Neither of those outcomes was an option.
Koh gave a battle cry that was so unlike his usual silver-tongued voice, charging her with the velocity of an iron train screaming down the railroad tracks. The few straggling remnants of pine were crushed like so many pieces of pottery, the chips becoming little doves in flight as they were haphazardly thrown aside. Koh's black depression opened to unleash the pale hands, only there were more than before. Instead of ten outstretched fingers, each grabbing for a hold of flesh to tear apart, there were now one hundred, connected to ten hands and five bodies leaning out. The bodies were hideous. Some had large portions of their pallid skin and pink muscles torn off, showing the stained beige bones of their ribs. Others were missing parts of their heads or necks, causing the things to loll to the side or bend back against their bumpy spinal knobs in unnatural ways. They had no faces, just ridges and valleys where a lip might have been or an eye socket belonged. The nostrils were likewise covered by an expanse of papery epidermis, smooth and indicating no breath as though the figures had already been suffocated by the abhorrent membrane. Korra's hands flicked out as her stance deepened into the earthbending horse, bringing forth a series of walls of stone and crust. The first one held no visible effect; shredded by the sheer speed and mass that hit it. The second buffer held more than the first, but not by much. Each stone aegis lasted longer than its predecessor, using friction if nothing else to slow the advance of the creature of nightmare. Once Koh's straightforward trajectory was no longer worthwhile, the Spirit used the expanse of pick-axe-like legs to lift himself over the bulwarks, crawling over them as though it took no effort at all to haul his immense body up the high walls.
Korra used the distraction to pick Kaji up and drag her as far from the oncoming attacker as possible. Her path moved toward Aang's body, leaning against an outcropping of boulders and the carcass of a fir. His eyes fluttered open as she drew near; hands reached out to take the broken girl from her arms. Once the Fire National had been propped up as much as her limp form would allow, Korra took out the necklace and held it out for her mentor to take. His fingertips grazed it, sending a small fountain of canary sparks fizzing out of the point where his skin met the bone. Korra fumbled with the necklace as Aang's hands instinctively let it go and curled protectively into his chest.
"It appears as though only you and Kaji are able to touch this," he mused.
"Why?" the Avatar traced the curve of a wave with her little finger, marveling at the cool smoothness of it.
"Perhaps it is because it is a tool to travel between worlds," the airbending master peered down at the intriguing artifact. "That would mean that anything of the Spiritual World, those who belong here, will be rejected by it as we are eventually rejected by the corporeal world that is bridged through it."
"So anything living would be able to use it to go back home, but no dead may be transferred back?"
"Precisely. I believe Koh felt that it would be a failsafe in case Kaji was somehow able to get her hands on it after he separated her spirit and body. With the body killed in the Spiritual World, she would not have been able to use it as a transit."
"Very good Master Aang," three sets of heads turned to the looming shadow of the cruel Spirit towering over them. The faces of his prisoners stretched in mock smiles, frighteningly grotesque when there were only the folds of dimples and the thin lines stretched wide to show for the grins. "It seems that, once I have taken the body from your firebender, there will be little hope for her left… not that she had much hope in the first place."
"I won't let you touch her!" Korra stood, shifting into her favored left cat stance. The light, lithe pose was perfect for the beginnings of a waterbending form; her element of birth.
"You may try," Koh chuckled darkly before lunging at her. Korra knew that she could have easily evaded the slow strike, but it would have likely hit those she was trying to save. Instead, she gathered her arms to her centerline, calling forth a torrent of condensed mist and dew into a formidable ice wall. The frictionless surface cracked under the weight of Koh's body slamming into it, but it held, sliding his attack to the side. Korra melted her redirecting slide and released her hold on the water, allowing it to splash back into the parched earth. Her stance shifted into a more solid half-horse as she propelled a series of large spheres of earth she had torn from the ground at her feet in two conjoining arcs. The orbs of rock collided with the fore of Koh's centipede body, raining the remnants of broken stone and compacted sand in a wide diameter. The arthropod shuddered, but looked to be without a scratch on him. There was only a thin layer of dust to show for Korra's efforts.
Koh's tail came like a whip, crashing through the air where Korra had been standing only moments before. Her lungs heaved with the effort of keeping up with both her offense and defense when the Spirit showed no signs of fatigue or injury. Even the stalks of wood sticking from him were visibly not piercing through his hardened inner flesh; rather, they were being held aloft by the curve of the outer armor plating. The pincers dripped with the vile venom, measuring her location and the best possible way for it to catch her unguarded. The centipede swung high right with its body, aiming to crush anything too slow to evade it. Korra made the jump out of the way with relative ease, but her escape was short-lived. The spiked tip of the Spirit's poisonous tail struck out, directly aimed at her turned face. Korra's irises pulled back, widening her pupils to an anomalous size as the reflection of Koh's finishing attack bore down on her. There was no time to block. No time to gather her bending. No time to even call out for help. There was only the quickening of her blood as her death approached. And then, when there was not even a hair's breadth between the Avatar and the Face Stealer, the world erupted.
Fire and heat spilled out from all corners of the meadow, falling from the sky like a meteorite. Koh's massive form was thrown clear of them, landing in a charred heap across the expanse of grass. His shrieks of rage echoed clearly across miles, but a heavy mass held him down, not allowing him to break free from the sweltering warmth.
Korra's eyes felt like they had just been opened to the sun. The burn was uncomfortable, but it sure as hell beat being skewered at the end of the giant pincers. Her legs buckled and she would have fallen had a soft breeze not gently pulled at her. The caressing winds stubbornly pushed her, stumbling, until she could just make out Aang and Kaji sitting to her left. Without the support of the air around her, she could no longer keep her body from sinking to the soft grass next to them. It was nice to feel the pulse running through her mentor's body and grip the uninjured hand of her firebender.
"Korra?" Kaji spoke up after a few seconds of quiet, "Korra, what is this? Did you go into the Avatar State?"
Korra shook her head, knowing that if she had, she would have surely ended the line of reincarnations- a price even she knew was too high when bartered for the slim chance that she might have come out of it alive. Their unspoken question regarding who their mysterious savior happened to be was answered by a deep, melodic voice coming from seemingly everywhere, "It is good to see you all again, though I do wish it were under better circumstances."
The light filtering through the fields gradually dimmed in intensity until the three benders were able to take in their surroundings. Korra's intake of air was matched by Kaji's gasp and Aang's cocked eyebrow. A ways across the expanse of grasses, a glorious golden dragon tussled with the charcoal cylinder that was Koh. The fire wyrm had completely wrapped itself around the centipede, trapping it against the ground like a massive sunlight shackle. The talons digging into the armor produced streams of tar-like blood, deepening the furrows as the dragon's prey fought to dislodge it.
Kaji's smile beamed with the light of the animalistic form of her deity. Her voice rang out on the tides of crisp blue sky as she called out his name, "Agni!"
"Yes little daughter," he welcomed. "I do apologize that I was not able to come sooner for you. Koh's world is one of darkness and dank morbidity, but it was also one of water. Tui and La were eventually able to open a channel for me to come through."
"You're here now," Korra sighed in relief, noticing that her leaden body was far too heavy to lift at the moment. The fear she had felt dripped out of her pores and fell away leaving her tired more than anything else, "That's all that matters."
"So it is," the dragon's growl nearly made the words unintelligible. Koh was not done yet and his struggles were becoming ever more violent. The Sun Spirit and the benders alike knew that the more time they wasted, the more chances they afforded the dark deity.
"Grab the necklace, the both of you," Aang beckoned. Korra picked up the talisman from where it had fallen to the ground, holding it in the palm of her hand so that Kaji was able to make contact with it as she laid her own palm over Korra's.
"Now, think of your world, your home. Imagine yourselves transposed there through the medallion."
The air rushed around them, sending their hair flying in streams of brown and black. Kaji's free arm wrapped around Korra's waist, careful not to upset the torn flesh of her hand. Korra mimicked the gesture with her own, holding their bodies flush against each other as the world melted away from them and they were sent into the swirling abyss. The wind took the breath out of their lungs until colors began to blot out their vision. The disorientation was too much and the girls had to squeeze their eyes shut against the growing nausea.
And then they were still. Soft carpet gave out underneath their feet and curtains billowed against the skin of their arms. Korra untwined their arms, miffed that she was still blue and ghostly. A sharp tug drew her in the direction of a small couch where her body was lying on its back. The welcome familiarity of her essence slipping back into its shell was beyond relieving, it was cathartic. Kaji held out her hand, helping the Avatar regain her footing and remedy the soreness of her joints. Shy smiles graced their lips for a brief moment before they burst out into shouts of joy. They were back. No more endless deserts of sand and grass. No more careful seclusion due to burning body temperature. And- the most gratifying- no more Koh to haunt their every waking thought. Opening her palm, Kaji glanced at the key between worlds nestled in her skin. The magic was wearing off, leaving the thing cracked and ugly until it completely disintegrated, pouring through her fingers onto the plush carpet.
"That's the end of that then," Kaji beamed. Korra returned her smile, drawing the firebender's face gently into her own. Their lips met in a chaste kiss, tentatively seeking out the blissful company of having the other near. Then the embrace became more feverish, possessive and overwhelming. Korra pressed Kaji into a nearby wall, tracing her arms and hips while the older girl ran her hands through her silken hair. They broke only to take in air, taken aback by the fire curling in their bellies.
It was then that the door to the room burst open and ten Earth Kingdom soldiers filed in. The man in charge pointed a calloused finger in Kaji's direction, yelling, "Seize the firebender!"
P.S: That is the end to the Spirit World arc of the story, but don't fret. I still have a couple more chapters to do to wrap up this story and I am still thinking of writing the Prequel under A:TLA with an Azutara pairing. Hope the chapter was to everyone's liking, but I will never know unless you put in one of those magical reviews by clicking on the button at the bottom of the page. Thank you to everyone still favoriting and following this story. 'Til next time.