Trigger warning ahead of time due to the amount of violence, gore and some PTSD related issues in this chapter. So just a heads up.
Everyone in the group aside from Sami looked around the area, taking in the fact that they were now in an entirely different universe from their own.
"Alright, I'll be the first to admit I'm wrong about your plan." Lin admitted to Sami, herself amazed that not only did they survive the first jump altogether, but they were in a whole new world as she looked around the odd stone temple they were in before turning to the Shadowbender. "But do you know where we are?"
"Not exactly." She answered to which Lin's behavior turned back from being grateful to her skeptical self.
"Pardon?"
"I said I'm not sure. The Uchū Crystal is weird, while yes, you can tune in the frequency to follow pieces of it used by others, it's still 50/50 odds that we even jump to the right dimension." Sami explained, showing her piece. "And if we did get it right, we don't know if we got here before or after Dark Korra and Sha-Garou. I got lucky that I even got to your guys dimension before them."
"So there's still a chance we could fail-" The Chief began before Kya stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.
"Hey, Lin, give her a break, clearly she's still getting used to this." The Waterbender suggested to which her lover sighed, her green eyes looking to the side a bit.
"Right, sorry about that."
The alternative version of Asami smiled at the Chief, nodding. "It's okay, It was annoying for me with the first couple jumps too. I'm just happy we're all safe."
Seeing Kya being the one to reel in Lin made the shadowbender remember in her universe that these two also got together, though she didn't wanna say what her Korra did to them after she fell to Sha-Garou's influence.
"Hey guys, may wanna check this out!"
Everyone's attention turned to Mako after he said that as both him and Thuy were standing in front of a broken stone statue of a figure in robes, Korra joined him in lighting up the area with some fire in their palms.
"My Airbender history may be a bit rusty, but aren't they all supposed to have arrow tattoos?" Thuy noted, making note of the carving on the statue's shaved head not signifying the kind of tattoos they were most known for, but of flames.
"Kya?" Opal asked the waterbender, who looked around the area, memories of when her father showed her around the ruins of the Air Temple along with her mother and siblings coming back to her.
She remembered Tenzin being the most interested while Bumi would try climbing over every large rock, claiming he proclaimed them as his own as Aang and Katara laughed.
That being said, while the ruins looked familiar to her, they were different at the same time, then something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye, turning and rushing over to it, kneeling down to give it a look, which thankfully some cracks in the temple allowed for light to shine down on it.
There were two skeletons, each dressed in different clothes as it looked like both fell onto the same spear.
One was clearly a monk judging by his choice of attire, but the colors were wrong. The robe should have been yellow and orange with brown beads around the neck. But this one's robe was black and red with gold colored beads on.
Then Kya noticed the armor the other skeleton was wearing, clearly a soldier, but it wasn't the colors she was expecting, but rather the same ones the monk's clothes should have been.
And then she saw the blue arrow on the soldier helmet.
"... oh no..." She said, feeling the color in her face drain as the others looked at her, turning as she closed her eyes.
"This isn't a Air Temple, this is a Fire Temple."
"Fire Temple?" Asami asked as it all started to make sense to everyone. "You mean-"
"The roles were switched in this universe. It wasn't the Fire Nation killing almost every Airbender to find my father…" Kya began, the realization of what universe they were in dawning on her more and more. "It was the Air Nation exterminating any firebenders... and he was a firebender."
Silence sinked in for everyone as Lin came over to comfort her partner, everyone realizing the severity of how things changed.
"I thought you said what happened with Sha-Garou was the breaking off point?" Korra asked Sami, who merely shook her head.
"For our universes, yes. But other ones aren't bound by just that paticular moment, some changes that affect others in the long run could happen going back as far as the original Avatar, to even just yesterday."
"So the possibilities are endless, so many universes." Korra realized as Bolin sat down on a large slab of stone.
"Yeah, I mean, like you said Sami, change one thing at a certain moment, and the whole universe could branch off into two more, then they branch off into two more, and then-"
"We get the point." Lin interrupted, hand over the earthbender's mouth before looking around. "But if that's true, what about the Water Tribe and Earth-"
"We have to inform the others…"
"We already know that Mako." The Chief said, turning her head to Mako, who shook his head at his boss.
"I didn't say that."
"Then who-"
"I know, but… what are we gonna do now? She's dead!" Bolin's voice rang out, but not coming from where he was sitting, too having heard his voice talk.
"Okay, you guys hear that too, right?" He asked as both Sami and Korra looked at each other, realizing what this meant.
"No!" Korra cried out, rushing away from the group towards where the voices were heard.
"Korra, wait!" Asami said, trying to follow her as did the others.
With the Airbender Mako and the Waterbender Bolin, both brothers looked down at the body of their close friend.
"I mean, this is the worst possible time! With Zaheer and the Red Lotus on the loose, doing spirits know what, now the cycle has restarted and we're at square freakin' one!" The younger of the two pointed out as the older sibling kneeled next to his old flame, giving a silent prayer for her. "And the worst part is that it was some evil version of Korra that killed ours!"
"We'll have to regroup with Tenzin, tell him-" Mako said after a few moments of silence, but just as he began talking, both brothers heard footsteps coming fast towards them, more specifically behind the airbender, as both turned and saw out of the darkness of a nearby passageway come out, to their jaw dropped surprise, another Korra.
"What the?!" The Waterbender asked as he looked back and forth at the Korra in the Water Tribe clothes that just came in and the one whose body laid on the ground in Earth Kingdom attire. "Who, what, how, when?!"
"Oh no…" Korra herself said, not even noticing how different these versions of her friends looked, focusing solely on the body on the ground, holding back tears as she realized what had happened. "We missed her."
"Who are you?" Mako's voice rang out behind her as Korra suddenly felt some wind near the side of her neck, turning her head enough to see that this Mako had formed some kind of airblade… one aimed right at her. "What did you do to her?"
"Wait, wha-"
"WHY DID YOU KILL KORRA!?" The airbender yelled out, holding who he thought was the evil Korra who took his friend's life at airblade point, rage and sadness forming in his eyes as Bolin held his hands up.
"Hey, relax man!"
"But I didn't-"
"YES YOU DID!"
"No she didn't!" Asami's voice rang out as this different Mako felt a metal gloved hand clamp down on his shoulder as he, Korra and the other Bolin saw the non-bender prepared to shock him. "She's innocent, let her go or else."
"Asami? What are you doing here, aren't you supposed to be with Tenzin and the other firebenders?" Bolin asked, confused at seeing her as the green eyes of her had a tinge of confusion.
"Other firebenders?" She asked as the others finally made it onto the scene, both groups now seeing each other, most noticeably Mako and Bolin now seeing their different selves and vice versa, both sets of brothers equally surprised.
"WOAH, Mako…" The Waterbender Bolin began, seeing his other self.
"This is so weird." The Bolin who was standing next to Opal finished for his doppelganger as both Mako's approached each other, giving each other a look over, seeing how different the other looked, from the detective noticing the airbender tattoos on the other's body and said airbender noticing the lack of them on the one in front of him.
"Tell me about it." Both Mako's said at the same exact time.
Thuy gave a deep breath at the sight. "Oy, two Mako's, I must be dreaming…" She said to herself, fanning herself which Sami noted, but shook off, going over to Korra, who had been now kneeling over her other self's body, crying to herself with Asami at her side.
The Shadowbender felt so terrible about this, closing her eyes as she turned away.
"This is my fault, if I-"
"Sami, you're not to blame." Korra began, holding the hand of her dead self. "It's Sha-Garou's fault, it's… the other me's fault. Not yours."
"I'm sorry to interrupt, but what in the name of Raava are you talking about? And why are there two of me and Bolin? And three of you?" The airbender Mako asked, now having somewhat of a hold on this situation. Well, as much as he could having just seen three versions of Korra.
"And what the heck is a "Sha-Garou"?" The Bolin in water tribe garb asked.
"It's a… bit of a long story." Sami began, lowering her head before lifting it back up, looking at the other versions of the brothers as her eyes turned red and yellow, making the both of them jump in surprise.
"So I'll try to make it as short as I can for you two." Khu-Shui's voice came out of Sami's mouth with a bit of a playful smile, ready to fill them in.
"So our Korra was killed by an evil version of herself from your universe?" Bolin looked at their Avatar's lifeless body. His eyes were shiny with tears.
After explaining the whole story, Khu-Shui passed Sami's body back to her. The engineer blinked a few times and took a deep breath. She couldn't say it wasn't unpleasant when the spirit did that, especially since unlike Hattori Hanzo when Sha-Garou took over, she knew of everything the spirit did when she was in control.
This world's Mako groaned. "We need to tell Asami too, she needs to know." He wiped a tear that rolled down his cheek quickly, trying not to let anyone see him upset.
"I know it's hard," Sami said, "But if we can somehow stop Dark Korra, then we'll prevent this happening to anyone else."
The two brother's were quiet for a moment, saying their silent goodbyes to their Korra. It was a heart wrenching sight, and Mako couldn't stop his voice from shaking as he spoke again.
"Let's get to my sky bison. He'll take us to Fire Temple Island."
The crew nodded, following the brother's off the mountain. Waiting for them was a droopy, half-asleep bison that perked up when he saw his companion. The animal could sense the sadness and he mimicked Mako's emotions, looking confusedly at the crew like he was seeing double before seeing the lifeless body of his friend in Bolin's arms and knowing why his companion was sad.
After giving this Korra a proper burial, they were off, their flight was quiet, besides the muffled sobs of the two brothers. Mako sat on the bison's head, hiding his face from everybody as tears rolled down his cheeks, blown away by the winds. With every passing second, their sadness was turning to anger.
Fire Temple Island was just as they expected - an island outside of Republic City mimicking the long gone civilazation of the Fire Nomads. As they landed, Tenzin, looking similar to his regular self, yet with the Fire Nomad colors and tattos, rushed over to them excitedly, convinced they must have found more fire benders.
But as he took a closer look, this Tenzin realized the people on the bison weren't strangers at all. He froze, staring as they hopped down, noticing the doppelgangers
This world's Asami made her way over too, dressed in the same Fire Monk robes as Tenzin, her hair tied back and scorch marks on her boots. She had just come out of training.
"Something terrible happened," Mako said. "And these guys need our help."
The crew waited as the brothers explained the situation. Even though this was a different Asami, one who must have been affected by this universes Harmonic Convergence, Korra's heart still dropped when she saw her expression as she got the news. She spent a few moments taking it in, tears welling up in her eyes before her brows furrowed.
"Then we'll do whatever it takes to stop her," the firebender said, turning her head to the crew. "Count us in."
Tenzin nodded. "My firebenders are still training, but we've got your back."
Korra let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you."
Firebender Asami made a small dagger of fire in her hand. "When the time comes, we'll be ready."
That was all they needed to hear. Sami noted there was no time to lose anymore. They had just missed Dark Korra in this universe and had to hurry to try and catch her in the next. They said their goodbyes to the brothers and the two firebenders, before linking arms once more.
Bolin closed his eyes. "Please don't-"
"Yes, we know. Don't liquify us. Now just do it already." Lin interrupted him.
Sami nodded, activating the crystal. They were enveloped in purple light, praying that the next universe was not only the right one, but they got there first.
The last few of the Earth Kingdom palace guards were rounded up and taken away. Zaheer stared at his achievements. The palace was alight, and people scrambled through the streets of Ba Sing Sei. He turned his head as he heard the footsteps of the Avatar, seeing her coming out from the palace's gates.
"The Earth Queen is dead," she said.
He grinned. "Our mission is nearing completion."
"Yeah, good thing too, I always hated the old bitch." This Korra, wearing a sleeveless variation of Ming-Hau's outfit and her hair cut down into a round bowl cut, smirked at what she got to do. "Let's just say I left her breathless."
They walked away from the burning building, hearing the walls crack from the heat. The streets of the city were left nearly intact, but where the Earth Kingdom soldiers had tried to intervene, there were craters and broken walls from the fights.
P'Li joined them. "The generals are taken care of."
"Then we're done here." Just as Zaheer said that, a flash of light caught his eye. He frowned, looking down the street at the purple entity forming. "What the-"
It wasn't just a light. People started appearing out of it. He squinted at one in particular. Was that another Korra?
"They're here to stop us," he said. "Get them!"
Korra and P'Li took up their fighting stances. This world's Avatar frowned as she saw the doppelgangers appearing, but it must have been nothing more than a trick to throw them off, but nothing could stop the Red Lotus. Before the intruders had time to take in their surroundings, she earth bended three walls around them so they had nowhere to flee.
Zaheer walked closer, fists out. "If you make a move, you're all dead."
The crew stared wide eyed at what they had just teleported into.
"So in this universe I'm... with the Red Lotus?" Korra gulped, looking at her angry self next to P'Li, realizing here they must had successful in kidnapping her all those years ago.
"Psst, guys," Bolin whispered. "I don't think this is good."
Lin rolled her eyes. "No shit."
"Come with us quietly now and you won't get hurt," Zaheer commanded as Red Lotus Korra metalbended platinum cuffs around their wrists.
They walked them down the streets of Ba Sing Sei towards the prison, during which Mako had taken notice of Thuy being more quiet than usual, in fact, she looked petrified. He wanted to ask what was wrong, but felt now was not the time.
Along the way, the crew tried to warn the group about what would happen, but everything they said to them fell on deaf ears.
"You have to listen to us," Sami said. "If we don't act now, Dark Korra will be here soon and she'll kill this world's Avatar too!"
Zaheer scowled at what he was hearing. "Don't listen to them," he said. "They can't stop the Red Lotus."
"There's two of her right here, isn't that proof enough!" Opal noted, pointing at the two Asami's who both rose their cuffed hands up, but the leader nor his girlfriend wasn't having any of it.
"Twin sisters, nice try." P'li snarked.
"We're not even from your universe!" Kya said, looking around. "It's too late to care about what you're doing! We just want to like... I don't know... STOP THE UNIVERSES FROM ENDING!"
Red Lotus Korra frowned. "The universes are ending?" Once she asked this, Zaheer let out a unbroken glare at the group.
"They're lying, Korra. Lock them up."
The Korra of this universe opened up a platinum cell and P'Li pushed the crew inside, seeing them uncuffed before the door to the cell was closed, locked with a single key made of the same kind of metal.
"There's no time for this!" Sami tried again to explain, but the Red Lotus was already walking away. "GET BACK HERE, YOU SONS OF BITCHES!"
"Brilliant," Lin said. "Now we're trapped here."
Sami let out a sigh of frustration. She could sense Dark Korra wasn't too far this time.
They noticed the Red Lotus Avatar hung behind. She looked at them, brows furrowed at there being two Asami's, like she was almost entranced by their eyes.
She almost wanted to hear them out, especially as she saw herself in the platinum cage.
A loud crash outside shook the ground.
"She's here!" Sami yelled.
"Please let us out! We can help you!" Korra asked herself, seeing that in her eyes, which had seen so much of what the Red Lotus have done, and what she has committed herself under their name, she was considering it for a moment.
The other Korra then heard Zaheer call her name, and she rushed out, not giving the crew another thought.
"Aw, fuck." Mako whispered.
Asami pressed her head against the bars, looking down the corridor of the prison. There had to be a way out. Across from them, she spotted the key hanging off the peg on the wall. She turned to Sami.
"You can escape, right?"
The shadowbender nodded. Of course the Red Lotus hadn't considered this, heck, she had forgotten she could show them proof!
Another loud sound, like a woman's scream before something exploding made them wince.
"Hurry. The keys are over there."
Just two minutes earlier, after seeing this group of intruders off into the cells, Zaheer went back to focus on the task at hand, going after Airbender Island as he went to meditate, but knew something was up.
"Something on your mind, Ghazan?"
His fellow Red Lotus member, the Lavabender was giving some thought after having seen his leader, the Avatar and P'Li bring in not just some random group of prisoners, but also another Avatar.
He also took note of what they were trying to warn as Ming-Hau sat near him, her water arms flowing around her.
"Something's not sticking here, with all of this."
"Do go on then." Zaheer asked, giving him the chance to speak.
"Okay, things had been going fine so far, our plan taking longer to get a'rolling, especially since you decided to wait for the Avatar to grow up, but nothing wrong and we're getting what we wanted, fine and dandy."
Ghazan then pointed to where the prisoners had been taken as P'Li exited the cells. "But now suddenly we got a group of people, led by ANOTHER Korra, appearing out of the blue, saying something about a "Dark Korra" coming for ours. Yet you don't think none of this seems the least bit, I don't know, completely fucked?"
"I have to side with him on this one Zaheer." Ming-Hau noted, too having noticed how weird this was, even for someone as wicked as her. "I know my student well, but seeing two Korra's, it's got me feeling uneasy."
But before Zaheer could respond, the four noticed a familiar purple glow and another figure coming out.
The non-bender anarchist tried to make out the figure, but her voice clued him and the others in on who it was.
"Oh, what's this, Red Lotus?"
Then they saw as the glow vanished a third Korra in their presence, taking note of her dark attire and different hair, but most noticeably, her cyan colored eyes turning glowing red as a look of sadistic glee formed.
"Not who I'm looking for, but I'm not going to waste this chance."
The four members just then realized the prisoners were right, a more evil Korra was after theirs, something Ghazan wasn't letting cloud his judgment as he bended up a lava disc in his hands.
"Okay, I'm ending this now!"
With that, he flung the heated projectile towards Dark Korra who had simply watched this display of bending not even bothered before raising her hand, at the same time a hand of shadows formed from her own and caught the lava disk.
Before the Red Lotus could react to her Shadowbending, Dark Korra swiftly moved her arm in a wave, the shadow hand suddenly throwing the lava disk back at it's owner.
But Ghazan was too distracted by the sight of something he only heard stories about when he was a child to even react or hear Zaheer call out to him before a sudden burning pain ran it's way through his upper waist, just as the heated projectile crashed into the stone wall right behind him.
Zaheer heard the sound of liquid turning into steam when it made contact, watching as the Lavabender turned his head towards his boss in silent shock, barely making a sound before he fell forward, with his legs falling back, the wounds on both halves of the waist cauterized.
"No… KORRA!" Zaheer cried out to warn her before he and P'Li saw Ming-Hua rush towards Dark Korra, screaming as she turned her water arms into ice blades.
"Ming-Hua, WAIT!" P'Li yelled out only to watch alongside her boyfriend this more evil Avatar suddenly see the waterbender get strung up by sharp tentacles that formed from the shadows around them, the ice blades being ripped from the armless woman's body into the shadows.
Something which Dark Korra figured she'd have to do to weaken the unique waterbender as she strolled up to her with a knowing glare.
"You always were one of the tougher ones back in my universe, even gave Kya a run for her Yuan…" She began before moving her hand in a similar gesture like this universe's Korra when she bended all the air out of the Earth Queen. "So just to play safe."
But instead of watching the defenseless Ming-Hua choke to death, the shadowbender had a different idea in mind as she stole the air out of of her body, not noticing the Red Lotus affiliated Korra having stumbled on the scene, hiding out of sight, especially with Zaheer signaling her to do so.
Then the evil Avatar opened her hand, forcing all the air taken out of the waterbender back into her through all the orifices in her head, dropping her to the ground as all Ming-Hua could do was struggle and loudly screech on the ground.
The other Red Lotus members, and the hidden Red Lotus Korra, watched in disgust as they realized blood was beginning to slowly seep out from the Waterbender's eyelids, nose, mouth and ears.
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER!?" Zaheer yelled out at seeing this display of savagery, only to notice this evil version of Korra keeping her eyes on her victim, holding her hand up.
"Just give her a few more seconds."
With one last pitiful scream of pain, Ming-Hua's head couldn't take the pressure of all the air inside of her head before it exploded from the inside out, with blood, bone and brain matter blasting out all over due to all the air bursting out, some hitting the ground, some hitting a horrified P'Li and Zaheer, and some even on Dark Korra.
Something which she was not happy with.
"Aw, AW!" She cried out, seeing her clothes stained in blood, not watching the armless and now headless body give a deathly twitch or two before stopping. "There's so much blood on me, what is- IS THAT HER EYE ON MY BOOT, EW!" She yelled out, indeed kicking the waterbender's eye off of her boots.
The Korra of the Red Lotus, having to watch this sight on the sidelines, felt her eyes tear up, she just witnessed two of her friends, including her waterbending teacher, be murdered by this… evil version of herself.
She moved her eyes towards Zaheer, who without even looking or moving an inch took notice. This Korra knew he was giving her permission to free the prisoners.
"Oh, Zaheer... what's on your mind?" Dark Korra's voice echoed all over, seemingly from the shadows as the Red Lotus member put his focus back on her, his girlfriend staying close. "She's here, isn't she? I heard you scream her name, so tell you what, since I'm in such a giving mood…" She began, walking over the two corpses, towards the members.
"Tell me where you're hiding my other self and I'll consider at least making your deaths quick and painless, ignoring all the suffering you put me through in my universe." The Shadowbender said, the last part said quickly, obviously dripping in a condescending tone.
But both the non-bender and combustion bender kept their grounds, even if they were admittingly scared of this shadowbending Avatar.
"She escaped when I called out to her after you killed Ghazan, I have no idea where she went..." Zaheer lied.
This got a curious nod out of Dark Korra. "Hum, interesting. Now why don't I believe you?" She asked, obviously not buying it before suddenly raising her hand out towards P'Li, a shadow tentacle suddenly rising up from below her wrapping itself around her neck before she moved her other hand around, causing two large slabs of earth to form side-by-side on each side of the combustion bender.
Zaheer's heartrate sped up the instant he realized what this fallen Avatar had planned.
"Let me rephrase my offer. Tell me where this universe's Korra is, or else…" She began to say, slightly moving her earthbending hand to the side as Zaheer watched the two slabs of earth slowly begin to push towards against P'Li, who struggled to break herself free.
"You're gonna be a single man."
Zaheer saw his love's eyes shaking as she tried to send out a combustion blast, but with her focus on not trying to get crushed or choked to death, P'Li couldn't let one out. He had no choice.
"Okay, I'll talk, just let her go, please!"
The evil Korra had to give a small huff, but nodded and lowered her hands, freeing the Combustion bender as Zaheer dropped down to his knees to check on her as P'Li tried catching her breath.
"Alright, make with the location, or else I'm going to do the same with you." Dark Korra threatened towards Zaheer, giving a smirk. "And since in this universe, appearently you never became an airbender, there ain't a damn thing you could do about it."
The Red Lotus member, shocked to hear in another universe he became an airbender, nonetheless closed his eyes, before feeling the ground below him tremble slightly, like something was opened.
That put a smile on his face as he opened his eyes.
"Alright, she's here."
Just then, a loud tremor was heard and felt, before the ground below Dark Korra exploded, making the Shadowbender jump back, expecting her Red Lotus self, but that's not who she got.
"There you are…" Korra's voice rang out, ready to fight her darker self.
"WHAT?!" Dark Korra screamed before seeing the rest of the crew come out from the entrance to the cells. "How are you-" She began screaming more until she saw her former lover, the purple crystal in her glove. "SON OF A-" She began to roar until Korra shut her up by sending a giant boulder in her direction, smashing the evil Avatar through a nearby stone wall.
"Where is she, where's our Korra?!" Zaheer asked the others, holding up a still recovering P'Li in his arms as Asami pointed behind them.
"She's down in the cells, gave us the keys before we got to them."
"Don't worry, Bolin and Opal are with her." Kya said as Sami marched towards the battle, hands out as the shadows around her vibrated as her eyes glowed red, surprising the remaining Red Lotus members.
"We'll explain later if we survive!" Mako said as he, Thuy, Lin and Kya made their way into the battle.
Dark Korra snarled as she rose to her feet, eyeing the crew. She didn't even want to question how they knew where she was and instead just burnt with rage.
"Stop getting in my way!" She bellowed, rising shadow tentacles around them, sending the darkness hurtling towards them.
Korra airbended herself off the ground out of the way, falling back down and steadying herself before sending a flurry of fire punched in the Dark Avatar's direction. She dodged them, rolling along the ground to get away from the wall and avoid being cornered, before swinging her leg along the ground, sweeping Korra off her feet with a gust of wind.
She felt Zaheer come up behind her, trying to wrap his arm around her throat in a chokehold but she ducked, spinning round and throwing a punch into his stomach, sending him flying with her airbending. He hit the street with a thud and a loud grunt.
Her attention was brought to P'Li immediately, watching her charge up and send a beam of energy towards her. She jumped back just in time, but was thrown off balance by the explosion of her combustion.
Her sloppy footwork was just in enough for Sami to take the opportunity to hit her with her own shadow tentacle, knocking her off her feet. The Dark Avatar scowled at her attempts, but before she could get back up Lin bound one of her arms with metal wire, holding it in place, and Kya froze her other hand to the ground. Dark Korra had to struggle against them before she could rise, and Sami had the perfect opportunity.
She sent forward a shadow claw. It descended down onto her, its sharp fingers coming towards her. She kicked a panicked gust of air towards it. It was weak, but it somehow did the job, knocking the claw away from her so it sunk into the concrete at her side.
She broke the ice and snapped the metal, rising to her feet.
"I told you you're not a bender," she leered at the shadowbending Asami. "You don't have the power to fight me!"
Sami gulped. A bead of sweat ran down her temple as Dark Korra grinned like she had realized something.
"Or perhaps you don't have the guts to hit me."
The engineer clenched her fists, but she didn't have time to think of a reply as the crew jumped to her defense.
Korra sent a boulder towards Dark Korra, and she used a shadow spike to break it apart before it hit her.
She rose tentacles up again, hurling them at the crew, forcing them to focus on dodging and parrying them so she could plan her next move. She turned to see Zaheer compose himself, with P'Li helping him up before noticing the hole Korra burst out of. Smirking, she dipped into the shadows.
"She's getting away!" Lin yelled.
P'Li and Zaheer followed the trail of shadow the Dark Avatar left as she headed down into the crater the crew formed when they sprung up into the fight. They rushed after her.
"She's heading for Korra!" Zaheer shouted as he and his partner jumped in after her.
The crew threw their last strikes against the shadows, before rushing with them.
They reached the corridors of the prison, just in time to see Opal and Bolin standing their ground against Dark Korra, while this world's Avatar was backed against the wall behind them.
"There you are," Dark Korra said, her voice low and crackling.
Opal striked at her with her airbending, only for the Dark Avatar to counter it with her own air, pushing against Opal's and knocking her backwards against the wall. Bolin slammed his foot down, lifting a boulder and hurling it towards her, but her Avatar abilities were stronger, and she stopped it.
The earthbender struggled against her, pushing as much as he could but he couldn't overpower her, and his boulder became hers. His eyes widened as he saw it flying towards him, but never made impact as it crashed into a wall of concrete. He looked behind him and saw the Red Lotus Korra having earthbended a shield for him.
There was no time for thanks. The Dark Korra lifted a shadow and went straight for the Avatar, trying to grab her with the appendage. Her hand was stopped in place with a metal wire from Thuy, but she only smirked at the bender's feeble attempt, yanking it hard out of her hand, sending her to the ground.
Mako seemed enraged by this, and he sent a fireball flying through the air towards her. She leaned all the way back, watching as the flames skid just over her face, and went hurtling towards Bolin in front of her.
"Bolin!" Opal shouted, sending out a gust of airbending in a desperate attempt to disperse the flames but it wasn't quick enough, and some of the fire caught the earthbender's shoulder. He winced, patting his shirt to put the fire out.
Dark Korra smirked. "You just hit your own brother there." she said, turning towards Mako. His eyes were wide with that he'd done.
Seeing him distracted, she hurled a tentacle towards him, and grabbed him off the ground, lifting him up close to the ceiling so he had to use his hands to stop himself from being pressed against it. Thuy was ready to free him, wrapping a metal wire around the shadow until she too was grabbed and heaved off the floor as she struggled.
"Two adorable lovebirds." Dark Korra said.
"Leave them alone! It's me you want!"
She turned her head to see the Red Lotus Avatar glaring at her, fists raised in a fighting stance. She thought it was almost adorable.
"You're right." She only raised more shadows, grabbing at the crew as they struggled to free themselves. "I hope this version of me puts up an interesting fight."
This angered the other Korra, and she swung her fists, sending flames towards her dark self, quick and unrelenting.
With each strike, Dark Korra parried it, her forearms surrounded in convulsing shadows as she swung away at the fire. She could only grin as her other self realized its futility.
Bolin pushed through the pain and raised his fist, breaking the ground under Dark Korra's feet so she stumbled off balance, missing one of her parries and taking a hit of flames to the side of her chest. She backed up, wincing, before her red glowing eyes turned to the earthbender, seething with fury.
"Oh you STUPID bastard..."
"Uh oh," Bolin said. He knew he was about to be targeted, so he raised up a chunk of ground and hurled it at her. The Dark Avatar smashed through it with her fist, shattering it into pebbles before swinging her arms around her body, gathering up a torrent of fire.
"I've gotten so fed up with you!" She yelled, before unleashing the flames towards the earthbender.
Opal slashed at the shadow attacking her and tried to save her boyfriend again, striking at Dark Korra to get her to stop her attack but it was like every time she dispersed a shadow, a new one formed and her attack was futile against the darkness that emerged.
"No!" She screamed as the flames hit Bolin, smashing him against the wall before his body fell to the floor. She rushed over to him. "Bolin? Bolin, are you ok?!" He wasn't responding.
"Good. Another menace out of the way." The Dark Avatar turned back to Red Lotus Korra, who was panting heavily. "Where were we?" She smirked as a tentacle flew out and grabbed her. She tried dodging out of the way, so the shadow only ended up grasping her wrist but its grip was unrelenting nonetheless.
"ARGH!" She grunted against it, using her free hand to send another fire punch towards her dark self, but she only leaned out of the way. Another shadow rose up and grabbed her other hand, holding her in place.
"Get away from her!" Zaheer yelled. He wrestled with the shadows he was fighting and broke through, running over to the shadowbending Avatar.
Dark Korra rose a shadow hand from the ground, punching her other self square in the stomach. Korra coughed, and nearly doubled over if it wasn't for the arms holding her hands up in the air.
Zaheer lunged at the dark Avatar, driving his fist towards her head but before he could make contact, he was thrown down against the floor. He looked up to see a large shadow fist pinning him down.
Then P'Li herself came at Dark Korra, who just barely noticed her in the corner of her eye before she felt the foot of the combustion bender collide into her face before preparing another combustion blast as she got close.
But the shadowbending Avatar quickly bended some stone around her fist and drove it into the side of the Red Lotus member hard, driving her back to the ground as the back of her head lurched to the side, the combustion blast almost hitting Mako and Thuy, who dodged out of the way.
"Not exactly the best location to do that." Dark Korra smirked before returning the favor and driving a now stone covered foot into P'Li's face, knocking her on her back before turning to her other self who had still been struggling against the shadows. "Do please ignore the interruptions."
The shadows punched her again, and again, each time harder than the last until she coughed up blood over her shirt. "I think that will do." The dark Avatar approached, raising her hand up to her face.
The Red Lotus Korra wheezed, struggling to breathe, looking up at the red eyes of her evil self. She furrowed her brows, refusing to lose so easily yet, spitefully spitting blood into Dark Korra's face.
That slightly caught her off guard as the captured Avatar slammed her foot down, slanting the ground under Dark Korra's feet so she fell backwards. Her eyes widened as she saw her evil self catch herself with a shadow, straightening back up as she wiped the blood off her face.
"That was a little interesting. Rude, but interesting, I'll give you that."
The Red Lotus Korra struggled against the shadows one more time, and in seeing this, her other self rose up a shadow claw, bringing its sharp finger up to Korra's chin.
"Make another move and I'll cut you open."
The Red Lotus Avatar froze, feeling the darkness pierce her skin and a trickle of blood run down her neck. She gulped and shut her eyes tightly.
Dark Korra approached, and as she brought her glowing hand to the Avatar's head, the crew realized what was happening too late.
"NO, KORRA!" Zaheer bellowed, writhing against the shadow tentacle as he saw the Avatar's lifeless body drop to the floor in front of him.
"That's another one for the collection," Dark Korra said, drawing back her shadows from everyone. "Thank you."
Zaheer rose up and with a war cry swung at her, but his fist hit nothing. He looked around him, seeing the shadows contort as she disappeared into them. He was seething with rage.
"Get her! Fucking KILL HER!"
He pushed through everyone, running outside after her, his heart dropping as he caught the flash of purple light. And with that, she was gone.
By the time the Red Lotus member got back to the others in the cells, he saw the body of the Korra he knew lying motionless on the ground with the other one resting over her.
"Was that the Shadowbender you all were talking about?" He questioned, angry at having failed his protégé. One whom while he and the others did kidnap at a young age and warped her mind into following the ideas of the Red Lotus, he had grown to think of her like a daughter, especially since Zaheer knew that he and P'Li never had children of their own.
"We warned you, and you didn't listen…" Thuy said, kneeling next to Korra and Sami, devastated that another Korra had her energy stolen. "But why am not shocked, seeing as you Red Lotus never listen to reason."
"What was that?!" Zaheer asked of the metalbender's words until suddenly feeling his wrists constrict together, looking down to see her metal wiring tying them together with a tight grip before Thuy pushed him on his back, a look of saddened anger in her eyes.
"SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP!" She screamed, bending another wire out in her hands and forced herself onto him, holding the wire against his throat, anger in her eyes.
"Get off of-" P'Li began to call out and try to pull her off of her boyfriend, only for the metalbender to push her back
"Stay the FUCK out of this, ya' three eyed bitch!" She screamed before turning to the others, including Mako. "ALL OF YOU!" She yelled at them before getting back to the non-bender at her mercy
"Because of your stupid ideology, you didn't properly prepare her, you just taught her hate, to rebel against order, anarchy. IT'S YOUR FAULT SHE'S DEAD! IT'S YOUR FAULT THEY'RE DEAD! I HATE YOU!" Thuy yelled more, ready to cut Zaheer's throat open.
"THUY!" Mako yelled out as he, along with Kya and Lin pulled her off of Zaheer, trying to keep the struggling metalbender back, but she wouldn't stop, reaching out towards the now recovering anarchist who managed to get the wiring off of him as P'Li helped him up.
"BOTH OF YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED! NOT HER! NOT MY PARENTS! YOU TWO!"
Then finally feeling all her energy just drain out, the look on the metalbender's face changed from rage to sadness as her arms slumped down, breaking out in tears.
"You killed her… you killed her… you killed my parents…"
The only sound heard in the camp was the sad tears being formed by the young metalbender, pushing her head into Mako's chest as he held her, everyone in the area realizing that even knowing time wasn't on their side, they needed a moment to breathe.
As minutes went by, no one said or even muttered a word as Kya began to take her time healing every one of the wounds they endured due to Dark Korra, with Opal near Bolin's side, luckily only getting minor burns to his shoulder and arms and a bump on the back of his head having knocked him out.
Though the master Waterbender knew that the wounds Thuy endured didn't happen just then, and they weren't physical either.
"I was only 17…" The metalbender said, sitting with her knees and arms against her face as Mako sat by her as did Korra, Asami, Sami and Lin, the two remaining Red Lotus members separate from them, which everyone agreed would be for the best.
"Me and my parents decided to take a trip to Ba Sing Se. It had been a long time since we did, it was… enjoyable, we were happy…"
Then the mohawked girl's eyes looked up at Zaheer and P'Li, remembering the past quite well.
"Then you two… and them two…" She noted, nodding over to the corpses of Ghazan and Ming-Hua before resuming. "You made your attack on the city, your friend, the one currently in two pieces, he bought the walls down…"
Then Thuy's voice began to crack as she remembered what else happened at that moment. "My father, my mum… they were caught in the debris. I didn't have the chance to even think of giving them a proper burial before the lava got close enough to the bodies…"
"But that wasn't us."
Everyone looked to see Zaheer turn his head towards the metalbender. "How are responsible for the actions of other forms of ourselves? Me, P'Li, Ghazan, Ming-Hua, WE had nothing to do with what happened in your universe, what gives you the right to blame us for the actions of those-"
"OH, cut the "That wasn't us" shite!" Thuy yelled out, getting up on her feet. "What were you doing before we appeared?"
She then looked at Sami. "You're all knowing, what were they doing?"
The shadowbender was confused at this. "Why are you asking me?" She said, only for the mohawked girl to shake her head.
"I wasn't asking you Sami, I was asking the shadow spirit in you!"
Before Sami could answer, her head dropped down as Khu-Shui took control, she knew the young girl was angry. But she also knew the point she was making as the spirit turned Sami's head towards the Red Lotus members.
"The same thing, making an attack on the Earth Nation capital, with their Korra murdering the Earth Queen, and Ghazan indeed bringing down the walls as riots broke out. There were many casualties, guards, servants, innocents, men, women, children…"
"Thank you love…" Thuy said with a nod, turning back around to look at Zaheer and P'Li, both having been shocked to hear a different voice come from the shadowbender's mouth, let alone knowing fully well what they had just done. "Some details may be different as we're in a different universe, but the outcome was the same, you bastards causing anarchy, but calling it a "Revolution", at the cost of innocent lives, under some misguided bullshite beliefs..." She hissed, wanting to attack the two once more.
But all she could do was just shake her head in disgust. "You may as well just kill my parents all over again."
With those words, she turned away and sat back down, trying to hold back in her anger, giving more muffled cries once more as Mako got back to holding her.
While the non-bender always believed in what the Red Lotus stood for, seeing the daughter of some bystanders caught in the crossfire of attacks committed by different versions of themselves call him and P'Li out, it did strike a nerve with Zaheer and made him feel bad for the girl.
And he could see it in his girlfriend's eyes too, regret forming in them.
Opal, having been watching this as she held Bolin on her lap, never knew that about her friend, feeling so horrible for her.
But her attention then turned to something in her boyfriend's coat pocket when she brushed her hand against his stomach by mistake.
Curious, the Airbender couldn't help but reach her hand inside of it, feeling something in a square shape, so she pulled it out and inspected it.
Suddenly, she felt her whole body turn red as she looked at the small box, looking around to see if no one was looking, especially Bolin, who was still passed out.
Taking the chance, Opal slowly opened the box and saw what was laid in it.
It was a gold ring with a small opal stone on it.
Internally freaking out, she quickly shut it and stuffed it back into Bolin's jacket pocket, trying to keep her excitement down as she then realized what Bolin was gonna ask her back at Mako and Thuy's apartment.
He wanted to propose to her.
After escaping that universe with the Red Lotus version of herself, Dark Korra came out of the purple energy in what seemed like a cave.
She didn't know where she was, but as much as she wanted to keep going in her goal, she needed some rest as she hadn't slept in almost a day, something which she could hear Sha-Garou chiding her for.
"All the power you have and what I've bestowed onto you, and you want to take a nap?"
"I'm sorry, I'm not a spirit who doesn't need sleep. Even the Avatar needs rest, at least a few hours." Dark Korra said as she found a decent sized rock to lay next to, her head against it.
"And what if during your little break, the Prime and the others arrive in the universe, possibly right here?"
"You saw how easy I handled them before, don't worry…" The evil Avatar said before letting her eyes close as she adjusted herself.
Soon enough, the Shadowbending Avatar was dreaming, but contrary to her current mental state and goals, her dreams were of events from the past, better times...
... such as when she and Asami tied the knot.
Bolin officiated it like he did with Varrick and Zhu-Li's wedding, her parents in the front row, happy for their daughter, with Mako serving as her Best Man, though she remembered joking that he was the Maid of Honor.
Everyone she met on her journeys were all there to see her and Asami give their vows, slip a ring on each other's fingers and seal it all with a kiss as Bolin called them "Avatar and wife". She even took Asami's last name, becoming "Avatar Korra Sato".
Then the dream became fragmented while the images she dreamt of turned from positive to negative with sights of Guan breaking free and standing in the middle of Republic City…
Only to be replaced by the image of Asami in a hospital bed, no sounds being made, only to suddenly be replaced by seeing and hearing herself scream as loud as she could in the middle of the hallway.
Then she heard some words said to her that day from the Shadow Spirit in her.
"I'm so sorry…"
"You and I both know what he's done…"
"This will be the last time I'll give you an offer…"
Just then, the last thing Korra said to a sleeping Asami's in the hospital before she made her choice repeatedly played in her dreams.
"Please forgive me for what I'm about to do."
"Please forgive me for what I'm about to do."
"Please forgive me for what I'm about to do.."
"I love you."
Just as the three words were said, a sight of the red eyed Dark Korra slashing Asami's back with a shadow claw flashed, her wife falling onto a table where the Uchū Crystal was, various corpses surrounding them.
With that, Dark Korra's eyes opened widely, having awoken from her nightmare, noticing her fingers having dug into the ground as she slept.
"Bad dream?"
"Shut up." Was all the evil Avatar could say before getting back to sleep.
Bolin slowly opened his eyes, squinting against the light.
"Bolin?" Opal whispered. "Are you ok?"
He frowned, taking in his surroundings. His girlfriend was kneeling as his side, behind her the bars to the cells of the prison. They were still underground. He spotted Kya taking care of the others as they sat around trying to regain their strengths. Memories of what happened were slowly coming back to him.
"Yeah," he muttered. "I'm ok." As he spoke, his head throbbed with a headache.
Opal smiled. "Good. That's good."
The earthbender looked up at her. She had a few bruises herself but otherwise seemed fine, which he was most happy about.
He tried to sit up using his hands. His chest ached and he looked down at his burnt shirt. It didn't look pretty, but it could have been much worse, seeing the areas where he felt the flames looking to have been healed.
And he liked this shirt too.
"Thank you for trying to save me," he said, remembering Opal trying to save him.
"No need." She helped him with an arm on his back. "I'm glad you're ok." She averted her gaze, staring around the walls almost awkwardly.
"Are you ok?"
Opal nodded.
"You're acting weird."
"Weird?" she let out a nervous chuckle. "Didn't notice. Probably just post battle jitters. You know."
Bolin nodded slowly. "Yeah. Ok."
Kya noticed he had woken up and walked over to him. "Anything hurting?"
"Only everything," he said. "But I'll be fine."
"You took quite a beating." She placed some water around his head to deal with the remnants of his concussion. It felt nice and warm against his face, like Opal's skin against his hand.
While everyone was getting ready, Sami headed out to find Zaheer again. She found him kneeling by the bodies of his lost friends. They had carried Korra's body out of the prison too. They must have meant to take her away for a proper burial, but for now, as they rested, him and his partner mourned over their deaths.
It wasn't the ideal time to be bothering them but she had no choice. They would have to leave soon and she needed to talk to them.
"Zaheer? P'Li?" she said, walking up to them cautiously. Now that Dark Korra was gone she wasn't sure how they'd react to her.
Zaheer barely looked up.
She took a moment to phrase what she needed to say carefully. "We're sorry for your loss." They didn't say anything so she continued. "You can now imagine what's happening in the other universes too. There's others just like you going through the same grief and we need to stop it before more suffer. We have the chance to stop it if we stick together."
Zaheer closed his eyes and sighed. "Our Korra is already dead. Helping the others won't bring her back."
"You may be right. I lost the Korra close to my heart too..." Sami thought of Dark Korra. She wasn't technically lost, but it was just impossible to get through to her. "She, the one who attacked, was my wife, before the shadow spirit began to corrupt her. I know what it feels like to lose someone you love."
Hearing that, the Red Lotus members scowled, looking up at the engineer. "So it's your wife that's killing avatars, is it?" he said.
Sami stuttered. "W-Well, yes, but it's not her, it's Sha-Garou, the spir-"
Zaheer put his hand up to stop her talking. "We have our own loss to deal with. We won't get involved in anyone else's. Count us out."
The shadowbender's shoulder dropped in disappointment. "I understand," she said, before turning away and walking back to the others.
She saw Korra rounding everyone up as they walked outside, checking that they were all fit to travel again. She smiled at Sami as they approached.
"I think we're ready to go," she said.
Sami nodded. "Yeah. I'm ready too."
Korra looked from her to Zaheer. "They're not coming, are they?"
The engineer shook her head.
"Of course they're not," Thuy muttered. "Why would they care?" She kicked at the ground, walking a bit to stretch her joints. Her bones hurt slightly from being squeezed in the shadow tentacle's grip.
As the rest of the crew talked through their plan, P'Li left Zaheer's side, walking over to the young mohawked girl. She stood a little way away, but got her attention nonetheless.
Thuy looked up at her, brows furrowed.
"I wanted to say I'm sorry," P'Li said. Her voice was low and quiet, but she heard her fine anyway. "I'm sorry the Red Lotus hurt your family." She avoided the girl's gaze. Apologies didn't come easily for her.
Thuy had a lot of words for them in mind, but hearing that she dropped all of them. She was shocked initially. While she felt like she could never forgive them, hearing the combustion bender at least say that eased her rage a little. "Can't say I expected this... but thanks." she said.
P'Li nodded, walking away as the crew started to gather themselves for the next dimension jump.
Linking arms, the crew disappeared from this universe, bracing themselves for the next one.
Zaheer and P'Li watched as they left. They didn't regret their choice to stay out of things, but something gnawed at their minds besides their grief. The realization that there were so many worlds where this was happening was heavy on them.
The crew squinted as the new world came into view. They found themselves in Republic City. Luckily, nothing seemed strangely out of place for now.
"Phew," Bolin said. "Finally a normal universe." He looked up at the towering buildings. He recognized most of them. "This is like back home." He looked back down. His jaw dropped as a hyena walked past them. It walked on its hind legs, as tall as he was, wearing the clothes of a businessman.
The crew too stared for a few moments at the sight.
"Is that a..." Lin trailed off.
"An animal spirit?" Korra said.
"In Republic City?" Opal finished.
They looked around them bewildered. They were surrounded by bipedal animals walking around the street, all looking to mind their own business.