"This is madness!" Long Feng raised his voice, struggling against his Dai Li captors. "You need me more than you know!" His comments went ignored by the King as he was taken away.

Although the two agents were hesitant for only a moment to arrest their Director, they followed their King's order without question. The team released a collective sigh of relief as Long Feng was dragged away.

No more spys trying to take them out and no more unwarranted espionage. Out of all of them, Sokka looked the most smug.

"Looks like Long Feng is LONG GONE!" he shouted towards the retreating form of Long Feng and his captors.

"You tried..." Toph sympathized, much to the amusement of the rest of the group.

Korra watched as Long Feng was dragged away, with no small amount of satisfaction.

Then they stopped moving. In mid-pull, the two Dai-Li agents halted so suddenly and unnaturally. They weren't so much as breathing. Even the Grand Secretariat was still in his unheard complaint, as if she were oberving a full color photograph.

"Like time is stopped..." Korra whispered to herself, realization slowly coming to her.

"Astute observation, young lady."

Korra tensed and whirled around.

As if turning a corner, a man appeared from behind Aang and the rest of the team, seemingly materializing out of nowhere. The young monk and the water tribe siblings were frozen in whatever pose they happened to be in. Aang was holding in a laugh, while Katara seemed to have been shaking her head at Sokka. The latter looked like he was shrugging.

Korra noted all of this quickly, not letting her eyes waver too long from the elderly man that materialized.

He was tall, greatly so. He managed to look of average height only because he was hunched over, a cane in hand. Draped in large violet-colored robes, they were adorned with jewelry of some foreign origin. While his long, flowing beard made him look kindly, something in his eyes only impressed a sinister aura.

Korra put two and two together. "Stopped time...old man..." she pointed at him accusingly. "You're Hundun."

The old man smiled. "In the flesh," he replied amicably. One hand gripped his cane and he ambled on to the side where the outer ring's ledge was. "Seeing as you are not in proper place, I can presume you are here to stop me?"

Korra hesitated to answer, glancing at her frozen friends. "How did you..." Korra paused mid-sentence, noting the smug grin adorning his face.

"Whatever you're doing, stop it," she demanded. "Time isn't something to be played with."

Hundun regarded her as if she'd said something unintelligent before chuckling lightly. "My goal requires too much sacrifice to be halted by you simply..."

Hundun gestured his free hand as if calculating his next words. "Demanding it." He chuckled. Which brings me here."

"I'm going to stop you," Korra promised, raising her arms in a ready stance. Oddly, Hundun didn't bother bracing himself.

Then this would be easy. Although something at the back of her mind was telling her this was too easy.

For now, she ignored the gut feeling, filling her lungs with air. Exhaling through her mouth, she punched forward with one arm extended while her other arm was chambered above her head, forcing a stream of flame toward the old man.

The fire failed to hit its mark, instead colliding with the earthen railing that Hundun was standing next to only an instant ago. The flames persisted as it licked at the stones and the old man seemed to quickly hover towards her.

'What in the world..?''

"Did you think simply bending at me would be enough to stop me?"

Korra stamped down the shame at the thought. Korra only needed to glance at the frozen form of her friends to know that there was no merit in listening to him.

So she responded with an aggressive roundhouse kick, a fiery wave slamming toward the ancient king.

Without exerting himself, Hundun stopped Korra's kick short, holding her ankle in a vice like grip that contradicted his apparent age.

"Let go of me!" she ordered, launching off of her remaining leg to catch him off guard. Her second kick was brushed aside by a lazy block before she was tossed like a discarded doll.

The impact with the ground did her recently healed injuries no favors, knocking the breath from her chest.

Korra was baffled. First, being defeated by Long Feng, and now some old man she's only recently heard of?

You don't scare me, Hundun!" Korra declared, remaining resolute. The old man didn't seem bothered by the statement.

"Killing you now would not complete my revenge," he suddenly said.

Revenge?

"Your spirit must be broken first and I need you out of the way for now." Hundun smiled.

"How delightfully ironic it would be if the Avatar's soul was trapped in the body of it's own enemy..."

With fingers spread wide, a net of purple spread from Hundun's outstretched fingers. It looked akin to a web, deceptively thin. Korra twisted and turned, it didn't matter. The web held fast, as if she were a caught insect.

"Now who to transfer it to," the old man said, seemingly speaking to himself. "Ah, yes." He seemingly paused, as if talking to someone. "That'll do..."

"Let go!" Korra grunted. She flexed her arms, but the web of purple seemed to only tighten in response. Any time she made headway, the webs would pull her arms back to the original position she was caught in.

Korra's eyes grew heavy. She couldn't mutter so much as a cry of protest before her consciousness threatened to escape.

She didn't know if it was through sheer force of will or not, but she managed to stay awake.

The old man sneered, finally showing signs of strain, which seemed to surprise him. "You're more resilient than I thought..."

Korra still could not move, attempting fruitlessly to break free. She could feel as if something was exiting her body. As if something were escaping her body and she was exiting her body at the same time. "W-what did you do to me?" she demanded, sagging against the otherworldly restraints.

"If I could simply kill you I would," the man spat, weaving his arms in some strange pattern. "Until I have the strength to end the cycle completely..." The man stood still and smiled. "This will do."

Korra's eyes widened upon seeing...something being drawn out of her. It was of a blue hue, and it vaguely looked like a person.

Was that her spirit? The vague shape seemed to resemble her, and as it gazed upon her, the same look of confusion was on its face.

"What the..." Korra and the blue mirror said at the same time. Suddenly, the shape that looked like her was pulled from her. Korra's perspective suddenly shifted and she was looking at her own sagging form as it collapsed next to her still frozen friends.

Before she could even ruminate on the strange display, her "body" or whatever the blue shape that she was now inhabiting seemed to be getting forcefully pulled in random directions. Her view was constantly changing angles; the sky was suddenly the ground, the ground was suddenly above her head. Buildings past by her at breakneck speed as some cosmic force guided her without her consent. The impressively large Inner Ring blocking passage toward the Earth King's palace zoomed towards her and she flinched, fearing this would be where her life would be cut short.

Fate had other plans, however.

She phased right through the wall. She phased through every solid object in her way, in fact. As if she were a ghost with no motor control, she sped through the busy streets like an uncontrolled arrow, no doubt the hapless civilians thinking that a gust of cold air had past them.

...

Korra could tell that she was again in some sort of dream-like state. She was surrounded by darkness. Impenetrable and uncaring darkness. Thankfully she could see her own body clearly, as odd as it looked. While everything was steeped in the deepest of shadows, her own form was visible as if she were in a well lit room.

"I do not need this right now," Korra muttered in tired resignation. She's already had her life changing dream experience.

She sighed, wondering what the universe wanted to show her this time.

Then again, Hundun had did something, she remembered. This put her senses on edge, and now she began to walk, arms poised for a sudden ambush. As soon as she blinked, the scenery changed.

Suddenly she was in a room she didn't recognize. The room was covered in reddish tints and gold accents. There was a vanity in one corner, a mirror lying atop it. Korra blinked at the sight. She was never really one for makeup, so it was odd seeing one.

To her left was a much too large bed, already made. The sheets were red just like pretty much everything else in the room. The bed looked large enough to hold three people comfortably, though the room looked like it was for one occupant.

"Fire Nation?" Korra asked aloud, palming the walls and trailing a finger along the gold accents decorating it. Belatedly, she realized her clothing was different.

Frowning, she backtracked to the vanity, resting her palms on the table.

Fire Nation armor, indeed. It was ornate too, by the looks of it. And her was done up in a topknot, with a loose bang framing either side of her face.

She didn't recognize the hairstyle. The strange hairpin, however, drew her attention as she studied her hair.

Then the darkness returned and it felt like her consciousness was being pulled elsewhere.

...

"-la, are you there?" a strange voice seemed to enter suddenly into her range of hearing.

Korra groaned, a mild pain in her head as she attempted to sit up.

"Woah, take it easy, you just woke up," the same voice instructed. It was soft, and sounded pleasant enough that it didn't immediately ring any alarm bells in Korra's mind that she didn't know who the voice's owner was.

She opened her eyes, briefly observing that she was able to open them with no issue.

And she shot up, much to the protest of the girl hovering over her.

Korra was about to ask if everyone was okay before she realized that she didn't recognize the woman in front of her.

Korra attempted to think back on what Hundun said. Something about one of the Avatar's enemies? She couldn't seem to put in proper context what might have been the ramblings of an evil, senile old man.

"I'm fine..." Korra spoke, immediately realizing her voice wasn't her own. Hiding the shock, she instead looked around, studying her surroundings.

"I didn't see you faint, but we heard a crash a few hours ago," the woman volunteered.

Korra returned her gaze to the girl next to her. She looked like she might have been a year or two younger than her, if it was someone she had met in her own time. She wore a pink uniform, something that looked like a dancer would wear.

She smiled nervously at Korra's seemingly intense staring.

"You probably knew that already," the girl said, as if attempting to placate her.

"Fainted?" Korra asked, still unsure of why her voice sounded so different.

"It's probably stress," another voice cut in. It sounded calm, almost bored.

"We are in the middle of Ba Sing Se...Maybe we should take today off?" came the suggestion.

Korra looked to her left, spotting another teenager standing next to the door, idly spinning some sort of blade in her hand.

While the first girl she woke up to see gave the impression of positivity, the woman standing next to the doorframe was much more subdued.

Korra was silent as she mulled over her options. The other two spoke to her as if she knew them. She didn't want to cause a scene by questioning who they were either.

Where is Team Avatar? came her final thought. Whatever had happened, she needed to return to them.

"Excuse me for a moment," Korra said in way of a reply, getting up from the bed to search for a bathroom. Once finding one, she slide the panel closed, affording her privacy. A mirror stood in front of her and she examined it.

A stranger looked back at her, mirroring whatever expression she had on her face. Namely, confusion.

It was the same hairstyle she remembered from that strange dream.

"Who is this?" she whispered harshly to herself as she toyed with this stranger's hair.

She had no idea who this was.