To be honest, I was a little disappointed. The spirit world wasn't as beautiful as I had hoped, however it could just be the fact that the land was plagued by dark spirits. The sky was murky and everything below seemed dead, burned and barren. There was a static taste to the air and a murkiness which made my body feel a little heavier than usual. "Tenzin, go find Jinora!" Korra directed so my two uncles and my mom hurried away to go and look for Jinora, leaving the rest of us with an entire swarm of dark spirits and the jerk of the century, Unalaq.
He came at us hard and fast however Korra instantly slipped into the Avatar state, eyes fully aglow and slashed at the air to form a wave of wind which pushed most of them back, allowing Mako, Bolin and I to move forwards and strike out at Unalaq. He had created a slide of ice, allowing him to gracefully slide to the ground however I was already preparing for his oncoming attack. He sent a stream of powerful water directly towards us so I spiralled around and caught it with my foot, redirecting the flow and cutting off the supply as Mako struck with fire and Bolin came at his sides with mounds of earth.
I have to say, we made a pretty good team. All that work with Pro-Ball must have seriously helped our coordination skills because we were completely in time with one another. I focused primarily on blocking and stopping Unalaq's attacks, keeping the boys free to return fire. "Mako, look out!" With a dive towards the ground I rolled up in front of him and thrust out my hands to cut through the water like the slice of a blade, shielding Mako from being hit before then channelling the water back around me and sent it back towards Unalaq as a distraction, allowing Bolin to get in a hit with a mound of earth.
"Yeah! We rule!" Bolin cheered as we started to gain some ground, the three of us starting to move together. "Does this bring back some memories or what? Am I right?" Just then Unalaq shot ice shards directly at Bolin, making him yelp and hurriedly bring up a wall in front of him as I focused on the ice mound behind Unalaq.
"Focus bro, now is not the time." Mako scolded, a powerful burst of flames erupting from his fist as Bolin dropped the wall.
"Yup, I got that." Punching his arms forwards Bolin shot Mako into the air, trying to give him a vantage point however Unalaq expertly smashed him from the air before I could help him, leaving just me and Bolin for a brief moment before he was taken out too. Now it was just myself and Unalaq.
"They must really be desperate for benders if they have sent someone like you to fight me." Unalaq called as I rolled on the ground to avoid one of his blows, my body angled low with a leg stretched out to cover both Bolin and Mako who were recovering on the ground. "You are not even a real water bender, just some half-baked failure of a girl!" Gritting my teeth I rose back to my feet and focused my emotions, letting them flow and move through my body as I kept my temper from snapping. He's just trying to antagonise me, I'm not going to fall for it, I'm going to stay calm and make sure I defeat him. "Come now, is that the best you can do?"
"You haven't seen anything yet." Opening my eyes I quickly made a series of movements, grasping onto the ice mound that was situated behind him and with a yell of sound, tore it forwards. It slammed against Unalaq who had not been expecting an attack from behind, causing him to fly forwards and crash into the ground where my feet began to circle around, hands and arms moving like swaying willows as the water spiralled upwards then crashed down in an icy funnel, trapping his arms and legs. "Checkmate."
"Yeah! That's our girl!" Bolin cheered and I was just turning around to smile when I suddenly heard a dark and ominous voice speak, causing my entire body to freeze.
"You're running out of time, Raava. I know you feel it coming." Spinning around my eyes turned towards a large tree which was completely dead and bare, seeing a large reddish light glowing which held a shifting shape inside. In my distraction I failed to notice Unalaq get himself free and the sound of smashing ice was all I had to forewarn me. The blast of water slammed against my side and knocked the breath from my lungs, tossing me through the air until I crashed into the ground rather heavily, coughing and spluttering just as a burst of light appeared overhead.
Instinctively I curled up, sensing the boys both lunge for me and we grabbed onto one another tightly as the world seemed to shatter around us in one brilliant light. When it finally subsided, we all lifted our heads and stared in horror as the two portals began to arc towards one another and converge together in a harmony of sound which was both glorious and terrible to my ears followed by the bellowing of thunder and a high pitched wail. I lifted myself up a little further, the boys' arms dropping down to my back as we watched the light crackle around the portals before it shot down towards the tree, causing it to brighten and glow before another wave of intenseness shot outwards and I instinctively grabbed onto both their heads and pulled them to me, ducking down to cover them until we heard the laughter of sinister evil.
The thing that emerged from the tree was unlike anything I could imagine. It was huge and black with red patterns and symbols, long snaking tendrils trailing from the paper thin body as it levitated in the air, laughing all the while at its freedom. I'm taking a wild guess here and assuming that this is Vaatu, the dark spirit of all dark spirits and will plunge our world into eternal darkness. Wonderful. "Raava, nothing could stop this moment. Harmonic Convergence is upon us again."
"I'm not going to let you fuse with Unalaq. You're going right back in that prison."
"Hold up, did Korra just say fuse with Unalaq? This guy wants to actually fuse with that thing?! Why didn't anybody tell me?!" I yelled in alarm as Mako and Bolin both stared with gaping jaws.
"Guess we forgot to fill you in on that little detail." Mako stated a little weakly, overcome by shock however when Korra's fire blast forced Vaatu away from Unalaq, Mako grabbed onto my waist and held me tight, pulling me back to situate me behind him for safety as Korra caught hold of Unalaq and tossed him back through the portal behind us.
"Don't let Unalaq back in the Spirit World!" She yelled to us so we all leaped to our feet and turned towards the portal. I went through first, streaking ahead however when I saw no sign of Unalaq I slid to a halt in the snow, the white powder making a drift around my feet and when the boys followed I held up a hand to stop them.
"Wait up, Unalaq isn't here." I murmured quietly, carefully watching my surroundings and feeling for any vibrations in the snow. "Stay on your guard and watch the trees. He'll come at us with long range attacks first from different directions. Eska and Desna are probably here too." I warned them and Bolin instantly pressed his back against mine, Mako turning around to join us as the three of us lifted our fists ready to fight.
"How come you know all that stuff? Is it like a water bender secret technique or something?"
"Nope, just a wild guess." I answered honestly, eyes narrowed in focus. "Listen. You guys hear that?"
"Huh?" For a while there was quiet however I was certain I had heard the movement of water, the sound of it trickling into life before suddenly shards of ice came shooting towards us and Bolin gave a rather girly screech of fear. I whirled us around, turning the circle so that I was facing the shards and held out my hand, stopping them dead in the air before kicking up my leg and arching my back so that a large curtain of snow rushed over my head and landed in front of Mako, forming an ice wall to protect him from the next attack which came from another direction.
"Thanks for the save Kanna, still got some moves I see."
"You just watch, your jaw will be dropped in the snow by the time this fight is over." I promised him, both of us casting one another a quick grin before we dived into the fight. Bolin created a few earth walls for us to duck behind for cover whilst I dealt with any water attacks, carefully guiding the snow as I sought out our opponents until I had a fairly decent idea where one of them was, judging by the distance of the attack and the direction of its origin. Focusing on the snow I turned it to ice, making it crawl up someone's legs before wrenching them forwards and dragging them out into the open. Desna.
He blinked at me in surprise, staring upwards as I brought up a whip of water to grab him and throw him around a little but his sister sent a wave at my side, forcing me to block and releasing Desna once more. "I don't know if we can win this fight!" Bolin yelled out in alarm as he ducked under another attack, the twins both having retreated back into the treeline and escaping me before I could get them again as I was weighed down by blast after blast of water, forcing me to slice it aside just to avoid getting struck but this game was quickly depleting my energy.
"We don't need to win. We just need to stop Unalaq from getting back in the Spirit World." Mako answered just as I sensed another huge wave coming at them both.
"Get down!" I yelled and without thinking, summersaulted in between them and dropped to one knee and threw out my hands. A large dome of ice rushed around us as thick as a wall, keeping the sheer blades of cold from touching us though I was constantly repairing damage as Mako and Bolin crouched down in the snow with me.
"Wow! This is awesome!" Bolin breathed in appreciation, touching the side of the wall and quickly withdrew his hand. "Cold! Cold! Very cold!" Shaking his head in exasperation, Mako placed a hand on my shoulder.
"It's okay, we got this. You take a moment to recover your strength. Bolin, get ready with a wall, we're going to take down Unalaq once and for all." He decided firmly and I managed to give him a smile through my laboured breaths, grateful for his warm hand against my shoulder. It was kind of comforting to have them both there with me, knowing that they had my back. Bolin built up the wall which allowed me to drop the ice dome and almost instantly I flopped down into the snow. "You okay?"
"I'm fine, you just focus on what you're doing hothead." I flicked my hand lazily, recovering my breath for a few moments. I am way out of shape. When this is over, I am going to start training again and work on my bending. All too suddenly it went quiet, immediately putting us all on edge. We waited, crouched down behind the dirt walls Bolin had earth bent for us, Mako and I sharing one together but for a few minutes, nothing happened. "Well this is a trap if ever I saw one." I muttered to myself, trying to keep vigilant and watch for the enemy.
"Unalaq? Are you out there?" Bolin called out nervously as he peaked from behind his wall. "Maybe he went home." Yeah, I doubt that very much Bolin.
"Hello, my feeble turtle-duck." Eska's voice sent a shiver of horror down my spine and obviously it freaked out Bolin just as much by the pitch and tone of the scream he emitted. Mako turned his head quickly towards his brother however Desna then appeared in front of him, bending the snow into water and knocking it against Mako who then slammed into me.
"Hey!"
"Sorry!" Mako awkwardly tried to twist away from me as we crashed into the snow however that only seemed to tangle us up further. "Watch it, that's my arm!"
"Well excuse me but your arm is not exactly high on my priority list right now!" I retorted sharply before seeing a rush of water coming directly for us. "Watch out!" Without even thinking I thrust out my hand and pushed Mako away from me with the snow, leaning back as a plume of water shot towards us and I felt a few sparse drops grace against my chin as I rolled out of the way but another struck me before I could fully get up onto my feet, flinging me up into the air and I crashed rather painfully against a tree and a branch struck my head.
"Kanna!" I was a little dazed but otherwise alright. I opened my eyes to see both Bolin and Mako get showered with another torrent of water, leaving them sprawled on the ground as Unalaq walked calmly towards the portal.
"This time, do not let them escape." Forcing myself to come to my senses I stumbled to my feet, throwing myself into movement. Unalaq passed through the portal before I could reach him and for a brief moment I was torn between Mako and Bolin's safety and going after Unalaq. When the brief moment was over, I tore towards the portal with a yell of sound, catching the twins off guard as a wave of snow rose up and crashed against them, burying them several feet under.
"See how you like it!" I yelled rather pettily at them before diving into the portal, feeling that same shifting sensation before I was once more back in the spirit world. Unalaq was already way ahead of me so with a growl I jumped into the stream of water and surfed towards him, trying to yell in warning to Korra but it was too late. Just as she was about to seal Vaatu away once more, Unalaq struck her in the back and knocked her to the ground, allowing Vaatu to break free of the cage Korra had formed around him. "Korra no!" Pushing myself forwards with the water I glided through the air, pulling it with me like a stream of ice as it formed to my command. As Korra picked herself up I wrapped my arm around her waist and turned on my heel, making the ice wrap around us in a barrier against the water attack Unalaq had sent at her but it proved too strong for my ice, shattering it instantly and we were both thrown backwards with a yelp of pain.
Vaatu circled in the air, gliding overhead and gradually making his way to Unalaq. "No, I can't…I can't let them fuse…" Korra was barely able to breathe and even as she punched forwards with breaths of fire, her attacks were useless as Unalaq effortlessly knocked them aside and she fell back to her knees, forcing me to lunge forwards and catch her.
"Korra! Just hang on Korra, I've got you." Shakily her hand reached for mine and gripped on tightly as we watched Vaatu descend into Unalaq in horror. It was over before I could even have tried to stop them, though that being said, what good could I have done where Korra had failed? Unalaq opened his eyes to reveal them glowing bright red, the pattern of Vaatu appearing upon his chest as he reached out towards one of the portal gates and pressed his hands to it, causing light and noise to burst outwards in a jarring attack against the senses. Moving quickly around to cover Korra's front I wrapped her head in my arms, crouching over her protectively as the rush of energy and air came crashing against us and I could barely form another ice wall in front of us to keep most of it off our backs.
When the aftershock dispersed I dropped the ice wall to see Unalaq and Vaatu had completely merged. Dread filled my body like the shock of plunging into freezing cold water, staring as I hugged Korra to me, her breathless whisper barely reaching my ears whilst Unalaq's voice echoed all around us proudly. "We are now one!"
"Crap. This is bad." I muttered under my breath then looked down to Korra who went a little limp against me, totally wiped out from her fight against Unalaq and Vaatu. I'm guessing those two separate were bad enough but them now fused together was even worse. Hey, I'm calling it. It's officially the end of the world.
