Trigger warning ahead of time due to the amount of violence in this chapter, including some against a minor. So just a heads up.
Asami handed Korra an ice cream cone. She had been so dejected and staring at the ground that she hadn't even noticed when her fiancée wandered off to buy them.
"Thank you," she said. Seeing the minty swirls did make her smile as mint chocolate was her favorite flavor.
The engineer smiled back and led them across the grass, and they sat down against the trunk of a tree. The skies were clear and the sun was out, so the park wasn't exactly quiet, but at least their shady spot was a little more secluded.
They ate their ice creams, looking out at glistening streams running through the park as they sat in each other's arms. Korra had been reluctant to go out after their talk with Katara the day before, but after they warned Lin of her dreams, Asami had practically dragged her away, trying to get her to stop worrying.
"See?" she said, gesturing towards everything around them. "It's such a nice day. Nothing bad is happening."
Korra looked around her. "Yeah," she said. "Maybe you're right. Least we can now focus on the-"
"Avatar Korra!"
They spun round, seeing a police officer running towards them. "Chief Beifong needs to see you at the station! There's been an arrest and they refuse to talk to anyone other than you."
"Oh, come on!" Asami exclaimed.
Korra stood up at once. "Who is it?"
"We don't know. They won't take their mask off."
Lin met them as they walked through the door. "Good, you're here." She took the two of them down to one of the holding cells. "We found someone roaming the streets asking to talk to the Avatar. They refused to take the mask off. Something about their customs. After what you told us, we couldn't take chances so we apprehended them.
Korra gulped. Her worry was rising, and she tried to keep her fear of the shadow spirit hidden, but the dreams had been so horrific she didn't know what to expect.
Through the bars they saw the overly clothed figure sitting down on the bed, face hidden behind a green eyed mask. When it heard them approach, it looked up.
"So you're the one I'm looking for," it said, standing up and walking up to the bars. It spoke in a woman's voice. They couldn't pinpoint it, but it sounded so familiar, the mask muffling her voice not helping.
"Stay back!" Lin yelled.
Mako, Bolin and Opal were making their way up, having also been called.
The figure held its hands up in defeat. "I'm not who you should be scared of, Lin."
The Chief frowned. She had never given it her name. "So you know my name, do you? What are you? Another kind of spirit?"
"No, no-"
Korra's nerves were building up. The mention of spirits didn't help. "Do you have anything to do with Sha-Garou?" She got close to the bars. "Do you?!"
"Sort of, I-"
Korra banged on the bars loudly. "Why are you here? We defeated you once, why won't you leave us alone?"
The room fell silent after her outburst. She took heavy breaths.
"Didn't plan on doing this so soon... but..."
The figure brought her hand up to where her face would be. She then started sliding the hood and mask off her head, letting her long wavy raven hair fall free.
Korra's breath hitched. She stared at the figure, frozen.
Standing in front of her was her bride-to-be.
"A-Asami?" She looked back and forth rapidly, from the Asami behind the bars to the one she had walked here with, who was just as surprised.
"I wanted to explain. Sha-Garou, he-"
The Avatar's thoughts were racing. This wasn't Asami. There was no way. It must have been another shadow spirit playing tricks on her. Her memories drifted back to the other shadow spirit she met, Khu-Shui, shapeshifting in front of her back in the spirit world. This was another sick trick. "You're not Asami." She gripped the metal bars tightly. "You can't fool us. Show yourself, spirit!"
The "fake" Asami stood patiently, waiting for Korra to calm down. After a few moments, realizing nothing was happening, the Avatar let go of the bars, letting her arms fall by her sides.
"How? Oh Ravaa, how?!" she asked.
"As I was saying," The Asami behind the bars said. "Sha-Garou isn't dead. He's corrupted someone else, but not from your world. He has the ability to traverse between universes, just like I do." She held up her hand, showing the purple crystal on her glove. "He is building up power, stealing it from Avatars, different you's from other worlds because he..." she paused for a moment, her tone turning to sadness, "He corrupted you."
Korra frowned. "Me?"
The new Asami nodded. "The Korra from my universe. It's not a complete takeover, but… I've seen what he's done to her. He, she, both won't stop until they destroy the other Avatars, and take their power."
"Other worlds? What is this crap?" Lin rolled her eyes as the jailed Asami turned to her in similar disbelief.
"If it wasn't true, how could I be here Lin? Answer me that!"
Korra took a step back from the cell. Asami kept an eye on her, making sure she wasn't too overwhelmed. She knew her fiancé was in a fragile mood ever since waking up in the middle of the night after having nightmare.
But even just the idea of another version of herself, let alone actually seeing her, too made Asami frightened.
"We can deal with you later," Korra said.
The Asami behind bars furrowed her brows. "What?"
Korra shook her head, turning her back and walking away. "Whatever you are, you can wait. You're not Sha-Garou." She stopped and looked back at the real Asami. "You coming? We're gonna be late to the practice."
"Y-Yeah." The engineer took one last look at the prisoner before following Korra out.
The crew looked at each other. It felt like the Avatar was running away from whatever was happening just because it was getting too much for her and she needed the distraction.
"But this is urgent!" The new Asami called out after the couple. She let out a sigh and sat back on the bed, seeing that everyone else was also ignoring her now. Lin brought two new guards to watch her cell, and the rest of the crew dispersed.
She hung her head, looking down at her hands, feeling her eyes begin to water. If they didn't believe her now, they will soon. She was sure of it.
Despite the detour to the police station they still made it to the restaurant in good time. The tables were all set up with decorated table cloths and carefully picked flower arrangements on each. The walls were draped with curtains embroidered with a mixture of watertribe and fire nation threads.
"Miss Sato!" One of the wedding planners came up to them, a clipboard in his hand. "Everything is set up as planned! We just need the final approval from the two of you before we can begin."
Asami took a look around the spacious room. Everything was falling into place nicely. "I think it's all good. What do you think, Korra?" She looked at the Avatar. Her fiance was staring into space and she didn't seem to have heard her. "Korra?"
"Huh?" She snapped back to reality, turning to Asami.
"What do you think?"
"Oh." She took a look around. Everything looked great. Letting Asami be the brains behind this was definitely turning out to have been a good idea. "Yeah. It's really nice."
The wedding planner bowed his head. "I'm glad to hear. I'll let the others know you're happy with the arrangements." He walked away, fixing a bouquet of flowers on his way.
They walked around the venue for a little while, taking everything in, familiarizing themselves with the setting. The rest of the crew had showed up shortly too, with some of the guests too. It didn't take long to organize everybody, showing everyone to their seats.
Tenzin's family and Katara all sat together, and Meelo had already sneezed on one of the handkerchiefs. The wedding planner held in a gasp of panic, but Korra and Asami chuckled. They already expected to have to replace many of the cloth's.
They made sure everyone was happy with their seating plan. Suyin's family would all be together, as well as Kya next to Lin. Mako was also welcome to bring Thuy, and they sat all together with Bolin and Opal. It seemed like everything would run smoothly.
The couple's attention was drawn to the entrance. One more guest made her away across the floor. She stood awkwardly for a few moments.
"Kuvira," Korra said, walking up to her. "You made it."
She nodded. "They let me come after all." The metalbender looked around the beautiful room. After spending so much time under house arrest, it was nice to see something so special. "Thanks for the invite," she added. "So where, err..." she knew full well she hadn't made peace with so many people there. "Where will you have me sit?"
Asami walked up too. "Don't worry. Suyin has already asked that you sit with her family."
Kuvira smiled, looking over at her adoptive parent. Suyin waved when she saw her. "Thank you." It wasn't much, but it was nice to feel like she was slowly regaining the Beifong's trust after Gaoling, Bataar Jr. more slowly than the others, but it was a start.
The couple went over some last minute arrangements before finally relaxing. Looking out at the floor filling up with the people they cared so much for, it was almost easy to forget about the mysterious prisoner back at the police station who bore resemblance to one of the brides.
Until someone came running into the restaurant.
"Help!" The waiter yelled. "There's someone out in the city trying to hurt people!" He was stuttering a little, and his voice was shaking.
Lin stood up at once. "What's going on?"
"I don't know! I just-" he covered his face with his hands as he cowered against the wall. "I just ran! But the screams, and the laughter!"
"Shit." Korra muttered.
"Let's go!" Lin yelled, rushing out. The crew followed her into the city.
All Korra could think of was that she should have listened to the Asami back at the station.
The Asami from the other universe looked at the two guards through the bars. They had their backs to her, watching the corridor. She had to make it out of there. There was no time left.
Then a sudden feeling rushed through her head, something that was getting her attention as her light green eyes were frozen open as Asami knew what it was.
She was here.
"Psst." One of the guards leaned towards the other. "You really think that's Asami Sato from another universe?" he whispered.
"Fuck no, got to be some kind of dumb spirit taking her form!"
"Shut up. She'll hear you and get mad."
"Mad?"
"Yeah, got word that some Uems were brought in the hospital, badly messed up by someone wearing the same mask as her." He glanced behind him to check on her. His eyes widened. "SHIT! The prisoner's gone!"
The other guard spun round. He looked everywhere around the cell, even behind him. "Search the-" He began to bellow down the corridor, only for Asami's arm to wrap around his neck from behind, with the woman from the other universe backhanding the other guard in the face, knocking him out.
All while slowly making the guard she held onto pass out in her arm, succeeding in doing so, dropping him softly.
"Sorry about that, boys." She said before looking around and rushing off, knowing exactly where Korra and the others were.
Rushing out as fast as they could, Korra and Asami ran out of the building, seeing the extent of damage done on the streets.
Satomobiles destroyed and on fire, people running in fright, tripping over their own feet to get away from the chaos, some corpses on the ground, storefronts wrecked.
"Oh no…" Korra said, seeing it all unfold in front of her, instantly regretting not taking more of the word of the alternative version of her soon to be wife as the others arrived.
"Hey guys, what are we- WOAH!" Bolin yelled out, seeing the carnage.
"Korra, is this being done by-" Lin began to ask before seeing a large delivery truck fly towards them, forcing her, Korra and Thuy to use their metalbending to stop it in place, seeing it's scared driver clutching the wheel as hard as he could, still freaked out as he saw who saved him, Korra needing answers now.
"Who's doing this? Where are they?"
But the driver was still silent, looking right at the Avatar, having just seen… someone who looked similar to her doing all of this.
But before he could respond, bursting out of his mouth was a sharp tentacle looking to have been made of the shadow he was casting, smashing through the windshield as blood and glass burst all over the three metal benders.
"AH, BLOODY FUCK!" Thuy cried out as not just some blood got on her, but a piece of glass cut her upper arm, forcing her to pull out her bending, holding onto the wound as Mako rushed to her, with Korra and Lin forced to let the vehicle down as they checked on her.
"You okay, Thuy?" Her boyfriend asked as she tore a piece of her sleeve to cover the wound for the time being.
"Nothing I hadn't handled before, what just happened?!"
"Oh, sorry about that!"
Everyone looked where the voice rang from in front of them, some surprised to hear it, some in disbelief, and one in denial, hoping it wasn't what they thought it was.
But to Korra's horror, there she saw who was behind the carnage, walking towards them, a shadowy looking figure with their arms out, seeing the shadows moving around the form like it was living, two evil looking red eyes focused on them all.
"That… is that?..." Asami asked, surprised as much as seeing her other self to see another version of her lover, who nodded without a word.
"Is this too much?" The figure smirked, seeing some metalbending cops rush onto the scene, quickly thrusting their hand out towards them.
But instead of shadows, fire erupted from its fingertips. But not just any regular fire, but the flames were blue, engulfing the cops in them to the others disgust and horror, the figure turning back to look at them as if nothing happened.
"Or is it not enough? I just can't decide."
Kya, knowing the danger involved, rushed over to the officers still on fire, one having perished while another stumbled around, his back on fire as she tried to use her waterbending to put it out. But the figure let her be, keeping her attention on the others, mainly Korra.
"While she's busy, may as well get back to business…" It said before the shadows around it's form began to slide away off of it, or rather her, sinking back into others being cast, showing her true self.
It was exactly who Korra had been seeing in her dreams, or what she thought were just dreams.
Standing there for everyone to see was indeed a second Korra, one responsible for the destruction of the area, but she looked different. One side of her hair looked normal as it fell loose, when the other side had been braided in cornrows, blending with the rest of it in the back.
Her choice of attire looked similar to Korra's own that she normally wore back in her home, but its colors were practically gone, all black except the fur which was red instead of white.
And the look on the doppelgangers face, it was one Korra remembered seeing months ago, when Sha-Garou showed her that vision of her murdering Guan. The look of someone who relished in seeing the suffering they gave.
"Nice to formally meet you… me." This dark Korra said, her voice dripping with the same amount of evil her eyes showed as the Avatar herself could only just form three words as the others got in battle formation.
"It can't be…"
"OH, but it is. Here you are, good little, flawed Korra. And here I am, bad little… perfect Korra."
"No you're not!" Asami yelled out, busting out her electric gloves, ready to fight for her lover, even if against another version of her. "You're a sick twisted version warped by that damn spirit!"
"Wow!" The Dark Korra said, giving a bit of a surprising smile, rather amused at this. "Hit the nail on the head right there! Even then, you were always the smarter of us two. It's just too bad-"
"HEY!"
Everyone's attention turned to, of all people, Meelo coming out of the restaurant, along with the rest of his family and some of the other guests. "Better stop this or else we're gonna kick your butt!"
Dark Korra rather surprisingly gave a groan at this display of bravery. "Oh, delightful, here I was hoping this universe didn't have your little annoying ass." She said in a snide manner, not liking being interrupted, turning back to Korra, not even looking at him as she waved Meelo off. "Go back to the kids table, the adults are talking."
"Meelo, control- NO!" Tenzin yelled out as Meelo, feeling the harsh insult, came at Dark Korra, blasting a burst of air at her, only for her to suddenly sink into her shadow to the young airbenders' surprise.
But that was replaced by another sense of surprise when he felt his leg grabbed by a hand belonging to the corrupted version of the Avatar, who swung him around as hard as she could, right into the back corner of the delivery truck from earlier, a brutal crack heard as he collided elbow first.
"AHH!" the young airbender screamed in pain on the ground, seeing the slightly off angle his arm bent, something Dark Korra had to give a rather… cathartic looking smile at.
"You have no idea how long i wanted to do-" She said before Tenzin himself came at her, seeking to stop her after what she'd done to his son as his family checked on him.
But even a master of airbending like Tenzin was no match as Dark Korra waved her arm, causing what looked like water mixed with black ink to burst out of a nearby shadow, splashing the airbender backwards, giving her an opening.
"And here the student becomes the MASTER!" She yelled out as she rolled forward, driving both of her feet up into his stomach, sending him into the air before bending up a shadow claw and slashed upwards, aiming for the stomach.
Yet that didn't happen as a large slab of cement formed up in between, blocking the attack as Ikki and Jinora made the save, getting their father away.
"Now that's just rude Bo…" Dark Korra hissed, turning her head towards Bolin, who had saved Tenzin before rushing at him, ready to slash him up. "COME HERE LOVER BOY!"
Luckily for them, this gave him and the crew a heads up as they got out of the way of the attack, with the corrupted Avatar trying to get an inch at them, laughing and mocking them.
During all of this, Katara had just got to the entrance, both her son and grandson brought to her to heal. But before she could, there she saw Korra and her friends trying to avoid their opponent's attacks.
And like everyone else, she too was shocked to see the one causing all of this destruction was another Korra, her old eyes widened at the sight of her shadowbending.
"Come on, don't run, just wanna have some fun with you guys!"
With that, Dark Korra grasped both of her hands together, causing more shadow tentacles to come out of the shadows, grasping onto everyone in some form of way, making her laugh at her work, seeing that indeed her other self had easily managed to slip out, ready to fight.
"I'm not scared of you, I know it's me you want."
Dark Korra shrugged as she closed her eyes, opening them back up to show her natural Cyan colored ones.
"First one out of, give me a second…" She began, mockingly counting something up in her mind, before nodding with a sick smile on her face. "Fifty something me's to figure that out, good on you!"
The idea of a wicked copycat of herself with the ability to shadowbend taking both the power and life of another had already scared Korra, but knowing that at least 50 of them fell to Dark Korra, that caught her by surprise, which meant one thing.
"Fifty something, you mean there's-"
"Oh, that's right, I forgot how naïve I used to be. Multiverse theory, it can be a bitch, like me."
With that, Dark Korra suddenly rushed towards her good self, slashing at her chest, just only giving a minor scratch due to her target jumping back quick enough.
Realizing how powerful her opponent was, it scared Korra, scared to know this version of her gained her power from so many versions of herself. Then the thought of what kind of versions of her were slain came to mind.
"You... how can you do this, how can you allow Sha-Garou to do this to you?!" She cried out, looking around to see her friends and loved ones struggle against the shadow tentacles, then at who was responsible. "You're supposed to be the Avatar, protector of the Four Nations! Not some monster who takes power from other forms of you! Spirits, you even killed a younger version of us!"
That burst of anger filled words however made the Dark Korra a bit curious as seen by the look on her face.
"What, how did you know about that?" She asked, her calculating eyes looking at her target before something rang in her own mind before it got her attention. "Wait a second… you're the prime."
Hearing that made Korra the most confused she's been since she had been getting her nightmares, trying to find a response. "Th-The what?"
But she never got the answer at the moment before suddenly metal cuffs flung around Dark Korra's wrists, catching her by surprise as she looked to see Kuvira arriving on the scene.
The evil Avatar attempted to bend them off, but couldn't to more of her surprise.
"Did you forget something? Platinum's a pain to bend unless you know how." The former leader of the Earth Empire said, preparing to fight. "Unless you forgot to."
But a wicked laughter rang out from Dark Korra, her eyes turning red once more before blowing some blue flames out of her mouth, careful not to harm herself as she melted some of the cuffs until it was enough to break free.
"And did you forget something? I'm the Avatar…"
Before Kuvira could react in any other way besides surprise, a shadow tentacle burst through her shoulder, lifting her up in the air, making the former enemy of Korra scream in pain as Dark Korra quickly sent out another tentacle around her good self's throat, dragging her struggling self close to get a good view.
"And you have to deal with it." Dark Korra said with that damn smile on her face, looking from a pained Kuvira to a gasping Korra. "Before I take your energy, let me show you what should have been done with this Earth Empire bitch."
Turning back to Kuvira, who tried to move off of the sharp tentacle sticking out of her, Dark Korra raised her hand up, forming a single pointed shadow finger, pointing it towards Kuvira's right eye.
"Credit where it's due, at least you're taking this more bravely than Guan did." She said, inching it ever so close to a still fighting Kuvira's right eye…
"KORRA! STOP!"
Both Korra's heard the sound of Asami calling out, but not in the direction they thought as on their right was the engineer just managing to slip out of the Shadow Tentacle that's been holding her in place.
But on their left was where the voice came from, something that surprised even Dark Korra who, along with the good Korra, looked and saw the other Asami, having finally caught up to the madness.
Out of everyone, Dark Korra was the one who was the most caught off guard, amazement on her face as she let both Korra and Kuvira go, the former checking up on the latter, trying to quickly heal her as Bataar Jr. rushed to his former lover's aid.
The Asami who had came to this world looked at the corrupted version of her lover, the woman who had proposed to her, the one who had… committed such horrible acts, but she wasn't scared of what her Korra had become, nor caring about the look of sincere interest in Dark Korra's eyes, having turned back to their Cyan as she got closer.
"A-Asami… but…"
"Before I'm about to make a very painful choice Korra…" The alternative Asami began, taking a deep breath, a look of sadness forming as she took her by the hands.
"I'll give you one chance. Please, stop this madness, I know what he's offered you and you took it, but… you have to end this, let this Korra get him out of you."
But all the shadowbending Avatar could do was look at her Asami, something confusing her as she ignored his voice telling her to kill her there and then. "But…" Just then, a thought came to mind… and it made perfect sense.
"... what about you?"
"What?" The Alternative Asami asked.
"If I recall right, I made sure no one back home could stop me, not even you." Dark Korra's voice rang out as Korra and Asami, who had come over to help give Kuvira over to Bataar Jr., watched the two versions of themselves talk. "So let me ask you this..."
With that, a lash was heard as a shadow tentacle connected with the back of the other Asami's jacket, distracting her just enough for Dark Korra to turn her around on her knees by her hands, giving her and everyone a good look at the torn red top under the jacket…
And under it the five massive scars on the alternative Asami's back, stretching out from her lower back to the top left shoulder near her neck.
"HOW ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?!" Dark Korra's voice rang out for everyone to hear, her eyes turning red in rage, wanting to know the truth.
Sadly for the different Asami, this was the outcome she didn't want to happen as she closed her eyes tightly, tears slowly forming from them.
"... I'm so sorry." was all she could say to her former lover…
Before out of nowhere, a newly formed shadow hand grabbed Dark Korra by the back of her hair and threw her against a stone wall, shocking not just Korra and Asami who had witnessed this, but the shadowbending Avatar herself, who ignored the pain, her own red eyes in shock at what just happened as she watched her own Asami stand back up, the scarred back to her before turning around…
Opening her sorrowful eyes to show them turn from her natural light green to GLOWING BLOOD RED.