Hey everyone, I know this comes as a bit of a surprise but I had to rewrite my fic 'Shattered like Glass', but while I'm changing the plot around, what's been going on so far in that old one is still happening in this one. The circumstances are a bit different, but either way, it's still happening.

I also got the idea of mixing in a little comeback of the Red Lotus; you'll have to read along to find out what and how .

I don't own Legend of Korra, and I'd like to thank all my friends on Discord and my husband for helping bring this fic to life.

Enjoy!

Three years before:

No matter how many times she thought it over, none of it made any sense. How? How had she fallen into this? No, how did she not see it coming? How could she have seen it coming? Her own comrades, turning on her and selling her to…to some odd stranger? Who it was she didn't know, only that after she was beaten, bound, blindfolded, and gagged, they carried her away to a place that smelled heavily of beach sand, beach sand and blood she couldn't explain it.

It was also very warm, nearly humid, but when she was taken into this room the air suddenly felt cold, it almost made her head spin.

She remembered being carried in some strong arms, tight and nearly suffocating her, and then suddenly…lifting her through the air. She had struggled to get loose, but it was useless, and she remembered a voice in her ear, whispering the word 'sleep', and all went black. Now here she was, chained to a wooden bed by platinum chains her wrists on either side of her head, her ankles chained too, still gagged and blindfolded. Her armor was gone, she still had on her clothes but without the metal a part of her felt so vulnerable.

"Mmph!" she heard someone enter the room and shook to get her limbs free but couldn't. The person who entered laughed lowly, mockingly, and placed their own hand under her chin.

"You may be a great metal bender my dear, but even you can't bend platinum." It was a man; his thumb brushed against her chin and his fingers stroked her jawline, if her mouth were free she would gladly bite it off. All she could do was flinch her face away, but it only made him laugh again.

'Don't touch me you filth.' She wanted to scream at him.

"Don't turn away from me darling, it's not polite." Polite? He wanted polite?!

"MMMPH!" she struggled again, until she felt a hand grab at her right arm and hold it down.

"If you keep this up you're going to bruise your wrists, and skin as flawless as yours shouldn't be marked up too much. Wouldn't you agree?" her heart beat rapidly in her chest, his hand moved from her arm slowly to her shoulder and towards her chest.

'His hands, oh spirits…' her stomach dropped, the way he touched her made her skin crawl. His hands both went down her waist and to her legs, squeezing her thighs and calves tight enough to keep her from kicking.

"You have such strong muscles; I see now they weren't exaggerating when they told me how fit you were. A strong, athletic build, a bit masculine, but still…such exquisite earth nation beauty."

'Who is this man? What does he want with me?' fear creeped slowly in the pit of her belly, why did they give her to him? What had they said about her?

"You're incredibly attractive, it almost astounds me that you're untouched; and I will see to it no other will have you." Her blood went ice cold, she wanted the ground to reach up and swallow her whole.

'Stop…' she wanted to say, no thanks to the gag. The urge to vomit was high, but she swallowed hard to keep it down.

"You will be especially useful to my plans, and rest assured I will see to it you are properly cared for. I know this is all very strange to you now, but in time you will adjust." Before anything else could happen the blindfold was removed, and she found herself staring into a pair of lusting pale blue eyes.

"Mmm…" she let out a tiny whimper and received a smirk in return.

"I'm going to fix your chains, don't fight or you'll regret it." She wanted nothing more than to slug him across the jaw, and she would.

'I won't let him touch me…' Her shackles were removed from the bed posts, but her wrists were chained behind her back and her ankles just enough to walk. He put her in a seated position and she got a quick look around the room; it was bare mostly, a simple dresser, the bed, and a nightstand with one candle. No windows and only one door, one way in and out of the room; the man stood before her and stared, and it didn't take a genius to see what he wanted.

"It's nice to finally meet you captain, welcome you to your new home." He removed her gag, and she spat at him.

"Pervert…" she snarled, but he wiped the spittle from his cheek.

"You're a spiteful young woman, but that'll change soon enough." He looked down, and then his hand flew across her cheek; she fell back onto the bed, and he towered over her.

"Get off me…let me go!" she struggled under his weight, but he easily overpowered her.

"Stay still, or I'll do more than hit you." His hand moved between her legs and she went stone still. He pressed against her covered entrance, her breathing quickened as he bent towards her neck and kissed the skin under her jaw and licked up to her ear. "You taste good, yes I think you'll do just nicely."

"Stop…" he didn't, and she fought to move away. His hand rubbed against her again, and she turned her head away; she squirmed as he kept his ministrations up, her body was starting to fall into it. He kept it up, and she couldn't stop the whimper that escaped her lips, and the man chuckled in her ear.

"Easily quelled by a man's touch, just like any other woman." She turned back and glared at his smug face.

"I'm not any other woman, I'll kill you!" he laughed again.

"Kill me? Someone else already tried that, and they failed. This is your home now, and while you may think you'll gain an advantage over me, I have the upper hand here."

"We'll see about that…" that earned another smack to her face.

"You had best quell that tongue of yours captain, I know you were raised in some manners of etiquette." She glared again, and he hit her again this time cutting her lip. She'd been in worse fights, when he grabbed at her chin she spat blood at him and went to bite at his hand.

"AAGH!" she got his finger, but it angered him further as his hand turned into a fist. "Alright, you want to keep fighting, you got it." His fist pulled back and punched her hard, and continued to hit her face, but she didn't scream. She kept trying to shake him off, but his weight was strong on her; her fear increased when he started to tear open her shirt.

"No! GET OFF!" he tore off her clothes, leaving her in nothing but her undergarments until he ripped them off too. "GET OFF ME!" he held her down by her shoulders and sank his teeth into her shoulder. She held her screams back as she felt him draw blood, then he stopped and went down to her breast.

"You shouldn't have made me angry captain, now you must face the consequences." He bit down hard on her tender flesh, and she let out the scream that time.

She didn't beg, but she kept trying to kick at him until he pinned her legs and left more marks on her stomach, her sides, and both legs. Each bite felt worse, stung almost like salt in a wound; when he looked up his lips were covered in her blood. Her lips were swollen, her face bruised to where she could feel blood running down both sides of her head, her eyes were swelling shut, but she got a good look at the evil glint in his.

"Bastard…" one word alone was painful to say; every inch of her body hurt, she'd had some hard fights in her life but this was ranking in the top ten.

"I didn't want to hurt you darling, but you gave me no choice. I'd hate to do it again, so just accept your fate." He stood up and wiped his mouth, and his eyes followed each bite mark right up to her neck. She saw him walk around the bed and heard the creak of the door.

"You won't…" she struggled to speak. "You won't keep me here forever…"

"You think you can escape, well you're more than welcome to try."

"Someone will come looking for me…" he turned back to her.

"I don't think they will, and even if they did they'll never find you here." He laughed again, and Kuvira felt her consciousness failing to stay awake.

"Who…" she coughed a bit. "Who are you?" his eyes narrowed slightly and his smirk grew. Her heartbeat sped up tenfold again, this man was dangerous, it was clear as day.

"I am Unalaq, and you belong to me now." Those were the last words she heard before darkness overcame her.

Present time, Republic City:

Korra's mind couldn't comprehend what happened, she just couldn't understand or make sense of it. She stood there looking at the unconscious body before her, completely stunned and unable to move. How could it be? What happened to her? No…who was she? All sorts of questions ran through her mind as she began to recall the events moments beforehand.

Flashback:

Korra's entire body ached as she held onto the semi-unconscious body of Kuvira, dragging them both out of the rubble from the empire's giant mecha suit. Her friends had done well, Hiroshi sacrificing himself to cut a hole big enough for them to get in, Lin, Su, Mako and Bolin taking the machine apart from the inside, and Korra fought off Kuvira just enough until the entire thing fell to pieces.

She carefully laid Kuvira on the ground, seeing her completely exhausted from the fight. Kuvira breathed in and out a few times, but she was still strong. This wasn't a total shock, this woman had taken on the task of rebuilding an entire nation on her own when Korra was gone, and even a pile of rubble couldn't pin her down.

"It's over call off your army and surrender to President Raiko, and then you're…" Korra was cut off as Kuvira bent a giant brick her way, knocking her back several feet. Korra turned over, spotting the dictator moving away, holding her side or no…her ribs.

"Stop!" she called out, but she kept on going. The avatar stood up fast, following her as she went deeper and deeper into the vines. "Kuvira, give up!" The woman had vanished just a minute, Korra had to find her quickly before things got worse.

'Come on, she can't keep going like this…'

"Please stop this madness Kuvira, it has to end!" she looked around, but still no sign of her.

"If you really want to end it then come and get me!" Korra ran towards the direction of her voice but stopped when she was suddenly face to face with the suit's discarding spirit cannon, and Kuvira at the controls. "Now it's over!"

"DON'T!" Korra tried, but the switch was pulled and the cannon came to life. Korra barely dodged the ray, but it kept firing at her, and then…the vines began to glow around them. The longer the beam was on, the brighter the forest became.

"It's over Avatar! My victory is in my grasp!" Kuvira cackled at her, but Korra didn't give her the satisfaction. Before she could retort however, the cannon began spinning out of control and firing at everything around them.

"SHUT IT DOWN! NOW!" Kuvira glared at her with such hatred Korra almost flinched.

"NEVER!" she screamed until the cannon suddenly shifted and knocked her off. She rolled onto the ground and gasped as the beam started coming towards her; Korra jumped in front and went into the avatar state, but just as she went to deflect the ray a sharp pain suddenly hit her lower left side, and a small beam of light flew past her before all went black.

How long she'd been unconscious she didn't know, only that when she came to both herself and Kuvira were being levitated down, her surrounded by blue light, and Kuvira by a dark purple light. They were on the ground in just seconds, and Kuvira fell into Korra's arms; when she regained consciousness she tried to run, and almost succeeded until she took a good look around.

"What…what is this? Are we dead?" she looked again, and then back to Korra. "You…you were supposed to die! And you brought us here!"

"No, we're still alive but we're in the spirit world." Korra held her hands out to try and placate the woman, but Kuvira kept up her glare. "All the energy from your weapon somehow opened a new spirit portal and brought us here…"

"So what? You thought you could play hero by saving the big bad dictator Avatar? Well too bad…" Kuvira suddenly bent the metal on her arms, forming them into sharp blades before getting a good aim at Korra.

"Stop! You're in no shape to fight anymore, Kuvira just give up already!" Korra got into a defensive stance as the metal was thrown at her, dodging as much as she could but her body was exhausted, she wasn't sure how long she could keep it up.

"I won't give up!" the general staggered as she tried to earthbend at her. "I've fought too long and hard to surrender now! My army will fight beside me, and no one will stand in my way!"

"What're you talking about?" Korra dodged another boulder, but she noticed Kuvira slowed her pace, her body was shaking. She also noticed a wound on her side, bleeding heavily but the general didn't seem to notice. "Kuvira stop! You're injured!" she pointed at the wound, but Kuvira only laughed.

"It doesn't hurt Avatar, you should be more concerned about yourself!" Korra barely dodged another metal sheet that cut her cheek, but she took the opportunity to punch Kuvira in the solar plexus. It was only enough to knock the wind out of her, but when Korra felt something crunch under her knuckles she pulled back. "NO!" Kuvira's face turned horror-stricken, her hands flying to the spot Korra struck and began to hastily undo the front.

"Kuvira what…?" she watched as Kuvira suddenly pulled out a necklace and stared at what appeared to be a broken charm attacked to a black woven string.

"NO! What've you done?!" she screamed in terror as the charm in hand started to glow, and then crackled in red and purple sparks. "My power!"

"Power…?" Korra stood and prepped herself for another fight, but she froze as a light surrounded Kuvira's body, and to her own shock, her face began to change.

Kuvira's face shifted as if being covered by an illusion, her face became thinner and more pointed, her eyes darkened from green to dark brown, and her hair, it shortened to her ears turning black from dark brown and the beauty mark vanished from her cheek. Korra stared at the woman before her, watching as the rest her thinned out in the uniform, and more wounds began to appear with blood seeping through the material.

"Whoa there!" Korra bent the ground underneath, but it only made her stumble slightly and forced her to drop the necklace.

"Stay back…" the woman tried to sound fierce but her voice faltered, tired. Korra carefully walked towards the woman, seeing her about to collapse she ran and caught her before she hit the ground.

"Uurrgghh…" the woman struggled but was too weak to fight as the blood loss started taking effect.

"What…what's going on? Who are you?" Korra was so stunned she felt her entire blood run cold when the wounded woman leaned up and whispered the words that shook her to the core.

"Hail the Red Lotus." Her eyes rolled to the back of her head, and she was out like a light.

End flashback.

Korra had been staring at her for several moments, still unable to figure this out. One, this wasn't Kuvira, two, she had some odd broken necklace that still had small traces of dark spirit energy, and three, she was part of the Red Lotus? She was obviously Earth Nation, and a fighter, but who was she? Where did she come from? Korra shook her head, she could ask questions later but for now she needed to get back to the human world. This woman needed some serious healing, and it wouldn't do her any good if she ended up dead.

'Let's go.' Korra was mindful of the woman's wounds, but as she lifted her she quickly stashed the broken necklace in her pants pocket and then headed towards the spirit portal. The light was bright going through, but as she reached the other side she got a clear view of her friends, the police, the airbenders, and several of Kuvira's soldiers.

"Korra! You're alright!" Bolin was the first to reach her, but he stopped when he saw the bloody woman she held. "Is that…?" he leaned in closer and his eyes widened. "That's not…!"

"No, it isn't." Su and Lin raced forward, but Su's eyes went wider than Bolin's when she saw the face.

"Korra…what's…where's…"

"Korra are you alright? What happ…" Asami stopped when she saw Korra lay down the body. Everyone's eyes had the exact same expression, shock and disbelief, all Korra could do was stare. No one moved a muscle until the sound of large metal machine footsteps grew louder and surrounded them all.

"Release Kuvira, or we'll attack!" one of them shouted, while the others started surrounding the two Korra stood her ground and held up her hands.

"Everyone please calm down, we've got a bit of a situation here…" before she could say more a soldier without the metal suit got a closer look.

"Wait…who the hell is that?" he saw the woman and then aimed a metal sheet at Korra. "What did you do Avatar?" she glared at him hard.

"Put that away, I'm just as confused as you are right now." The soldier didn't seem to believe her.

"Stand down, everyone stand down until we get to the bottom of this." the same soldier who shouted before waved the arms of his mech suit around. The others did as told, but all of Korra's group stood on guard.

"Korra…I know her." Suyin spoke up. "That, that's Nan Tao, she's one of my former guards and dancer, but she left Zaofu some years ago…"

"Tao, wait Tao as in the Tao clan? Our family's rivals?" Lin looked at Su and she nodded.

"Friendly rivalry but yes, how is she here though?"

"I've got a better question than that…" Bolin spoke up. "Where's Kuvira?"

Whoa, I got this done faster than I thought I would. It's a short prologue here but I will make the other chapters at least two pages longer.

So obviously it's seen that 'Kuvira' is Nan Tao; but who is Nan Tao, what's her motive in this and better yet, where is Kuvira? You'll have to wait until the next chapter until answers are given, and I'll be getting on that after I update my Korvira and baavira fics. Or heck maybe I'll update one of those and then get back to this one lol, anyway, I hope you like it so far and I would love to hear your thoughts!

Comments are much appreciated!

Later!