Trigger warning ahead of time due to references to and a scene of harsh violence, some against a minor, some references to prejudices against the physically disabled and an implication of homophobia/transphobia in this chapter. So just a heads up.
As their eyes started to focus on the world they came to, the first thing that hit them was the sound of crashes and yelling. They had to squint as they realized the buildings around them were on fire. The daunting realization that they might be too late was setting in.
"Shit!" Sami said. "We need to hurry." She took off down the street as the others followed her.
Tracking the Dark Avatar down wasn't hard. Even from a little way away they could spot the shadow tentacles rising amongst the buildings, writhing violently against this world's people.
Rounding the corner, they came face to face with the chaos.
Police officers scrambled away from the scene, bleeding and injured, while some attempted to crawl away before being grabbed and impaled by the shadows. It was difficult to even understand what was happening at first, but standing at the midst of it all was this world's Avatar, desperately trying to fight Dark Korra off.
"Oh..." the Fallen Avatar's voice rang out. "Seems like you have backup." Her red, glowing eyes drifted to the crew, and instantly, she flung her shadows towards them.
"We need to get over there!" Lin yelled, using a cable to cut apart the tentacle that lunged towards her, only for another one to sprout up.
"You think?" Korra shouted back, fighting against the shadows that surrounded her, that somehow seemed stronger than before..
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted someone crawling along the side of the sidewalk. Something about her was familiar, enough to get Korra to turn her head for one moment.
It was this universe's Kya. She looked beat up, but she didn't have time to look for long, having to focus back on the shadow appendages.
Sami rose up her own shadows, fighting back against Dark Korra's. She drew the darkness in around her, forming a dense shell of contracting shadows, rising in density.
As the hostile tentacles were ready to strike, she let go of the energy she formed, releasing a circling storm of shadows around her, disintegrating anything that came close to her. She paused to catch her breath, enveloped in this cloak of dark shrapnel as she rushed over to the Dark Avatar.
This world's Korra was losing her strength. Every attack she lashed out at the invader was weaker and weaker, and she struggled to hold her ground. Dark Korra approached her, before spotting the other shadowbender. She scowled.
"You learnt a new trick," she mocked, chuckling. "It's adorable."
Sami rose her fist, conjuring a shadow claw and hurling it towards her.
The Dark Avatar grinned, holding her hand out and stopping the claw dead in its tracks. Sami struggled against it, their two powers fighting each other for control of one shadow.
Seeing this, this universe's Avatar regained her balance and gathered her last strengths to hurl a fireball at Dark Korra, but she saw the feeble attempt coming. With her spare hand, she parried the flames with a shadow arm, before hurling it at the Avatar and coiling it around her, holding her arms stuck to her side as she writhed.
"What are you gonna do, Asami?" Dark Korra said, eyes full of malice as she watched the shadowbender struggle against her, sweat forming on her forehead. "Aren't you just as bad as me? Didn't you want to kill me too when you were hitting me like that?"
Sami's breathing quickened.
"Don't listen to her, Asami..." Khu-Shui said. "Don't let her get to you. Sha-Garou is telling her what to say."
"Look at us," Dark Korra continued. "Do you ever wonder what could have been if you didn't turn against me? After what happened?"
"You... tried to kill...me..." Sami grunted, trying hard to stand her ground.
The Fallen Avatar smirked. "And I'll try again." She pushed against the claw, and the engineer's strength gave. She was forced to jump out of the way as the shadow crashed into the ground.
Sami landed on the floor with a thud, feeling the impact against her ribs. She took a painful, labored breath before looking up. Dark Korra had the Avatar of this universe, her glowing hand moving up towards her face.
"No!" Sami yelled. There was nothing they could do, and she nearly wanted to shut her eyes to avoid seeing another Avatar die. Instead though, Dark Korra stopped dead in her tracks.
She watched for a few moments. She wasn't moving. Suddenly, her limbs contorted and she seemed to be struggling against herself.
"What... The fuck..." the evil shadowbender grunted, writhing and struggling to talk. She forced her head to turn, looking around for the culprit. The shadows froze too.
The crew stared wide-eyed. There was a bloodbender among them. But this world's Avatar was bound tightly in the shadow arm, and the officers fleeing didn't have it in them.
Their eyes shifted to one tiny piece of movement on the other side of the road. Lying on the ground, holding herself up on her shoulder and arm stretched out in front of her was this world's Kya, a pained expression on her face.
"Let… her… GO!" She strained out, using the forbidden waterbending technique on this intruder.
Dark Korra was taken by surprise at first, but realizing who was doing this to her almost made her chuckle.
"Kya, you... old trickster..." she lips contorted into a smile. "Finally, something... interesting."
The waterbender's attempts were honorable, but her bending was fading with her injuries and Dark Korra started to fight against it. Her body shook as she forced her hand up, hurling a sharp shadow spear towards the healer.
But then Korra sprung into action, rising up a wall on concrete to stop the spear from impaling her, but in the process this Kya lost control of Dark Korra, flopping back to the ground with a grunt.
The Dark Avatar laughed, turning her attention back to everyone as she regained control of her body. She rose the shadows again, grappling with the crew as she approached this world's Avatar again.
"Where were we?" She said, her voice low as the other version of herself whimpered and struggled against the grip of the shadow, fighting with what strength she had left.
There was something so sadistic about draining her energy like this, but Sha-Garou's presence in her mind numbed her to it. She held her glowing hand out, pressing it to the side of her struggling head, and that was all it took.
Sami wrestled against a shadow tentacle, its pinpoint sharp tip inches from her throat as she struggled to put it away with two hands, before suddenly it went limp and vanished into the air. She took a deep breath, looking around her.
The crew looked sullen as their Kya rushed over to bloodbender Kya. This world's Avatar's body fell down on the concrete, lifeless.
And Dark Korra was gone.
They failed again. They were too late.
Kya knelt down next to the injured waterbender. It still hadn't fully sunk in that her alternative self was a bloodbender, but none of that mattered as Kya was instead overly focused on finding her injuries. It was obvious some of her bones were broken, probably after being hurled across the street judging by her state, and as she helped her sit up...
"Spirits," Kya said. "She ripped your arm off." She gathered her healing water up quickly, looking to stop the bleeding that she expected, but realized there was no blood running where the missing limb should be, trying to process this...
The bloodbender squinted up, trying to understand what was happening. Did she hit her head? Was she hallucinating herself? She noticed this alter version of herself trying to understand how to heal her arm and she couldn't help but chuckle.
"I was born with only one arm. Focus on something more important."
Kya raised her eyebrows in surprise but she wasted no time in tending to her real injuries instead.
It didn't take long for the bloodbender to realize the Korra she knew was dead, and the grief was starting to set in. Her bruised chest was already making her breathing painful, but the swelling of sadness growing inside her felt like sharp knives in her throat.
"She's... She's gone?" she whispered.
Kya didn't know how to answer. "Let's focus on yourself for now," she said. She could feel the distress building up inside the woman, who shook her head.
Quickly moving her hand towards her own waterskin, this one armed Kya used her bending to take the water from it and formed up an arm and hand where she was missing the limb, attempting to crawl over to the body to both Kya and the crew's surprise.
"What the FUCK!?"
The crew's attention turned at the sound of a man's gruff voice behind them.
"Someone please tell me what in the name of both Agni and Raava just happened here?!" He took in his surroundings, a small team of police officers walking up behind him. He noticed the dead bodies of the cops littered around the street, then he looked in shock at the one-armed Kya crying over her Korra's body,.
"Oh no, what happened Kya?!"
Lin had held her breath, seeing this version of her lover in the state she was in, but then she held it more when she saw this man's face.
His voice seemed a bit different, but she would recognize that face from anywhere, but this time... she was looking at a man in a police uniform rushing over to this Kya, seeming to console her as she said his name in distress before turning to see the crew having been watching the scene.
Before he could process seeing a second Korra along with two different Asami, his eyes, one gold and the other light green that was glazed over, settled on Lin, almost choking his words as his brows furrowed. "H-How is this possible?"
A shaking officer spoke to him. "What do we do, Chief Beifong?"
Lin's eyes widened. "Chief Beifong?"
In what seemed like another part of the city, the purple energy light formed in an alleyway and Dark Korra came out, ready to do some more energy draining, but something caught her attention.
"Wait a second…" She began, looking around the area. "This is the same exact alleyway I was just in. In fact…"
Slinking over in the shadows near the entrance, from inside the shadows, Dark Korra could see nothing was changed, except for the sirens wailing towards one direction.
And she knew exactly where they were headed.
"This is the same universe!" She said in disbelief, stepping out of the shadows.
"The crystal…" Sha-Garou's voice spoke out as Korra looked at her gloved hand and took it off, seeing the purple crystal in her hand, spotting the slight crack in it.
"Oh no, it's broken! I'm trapped here!"
"It's not broken. Just a little dinged up, just needs some time to get back to full power."
"And how long is that going to take?!" Dark Korra asked annoyed at this.
"Hopefully speaking, at least half a day, longest-"
"Half a day is the shortest?! Those bastards could be in the next dimension right now waiting for us!"
"It's no issue Korra, none whatsoever." Sha-Garou assured her, knowing there shouldn't be any real issues. "Besides, this would be the perfect time for some rest for you."
Oh, now the spirit was telling her to take a break, after complaining about it in the last universe?!
"Yes I am…" Sha-Garou deadpanned, making the evil Avatar groan, remembering it knew her every thought. "You should be happy they arrived just as you were draining this universe's Korra and got lucky with them focusing on that bloodbending Kya. In the state you're currently in, you couldn't take another defeat."
"Then why didn't you just take control again? Because you seem pretty willing to do so."
"The amount of time in between when I could take control is much longer than that of the Uchū crystal, on the count of you being the Avatar."
Dark Korra sighed and slinked back into the shadows, knowing she could rest there without being bothered.
But even though she knew he'd know it, what it just said, the amount of time taking control of her due to her being the Avatar, it did get her attention.
Slightly, but it did catch her attention.
After the body of this universe's Korra was taken carefully away by Nishi, who this universe's Kya had finally allowed to be taken away, the crew were taken by her and the Chief of Police, Hattori Beifong, over to the police station, where they tried to get their bearings together over what just happened.
Inside Hattori's surprisingly large office, Korra and the others took in the police station that seemed so familiar, especially to Lin and Mako, but it had its differences.
One difference made quite clear to Mako and Bolin was that here, their choices in lives had them switch careers outside of helping the now slain Korra as part of this universe's crew.
It was this universe's Bolin who was the detective working alongside Hattori, but still maintained his colorful, if silly outlook on life. Yet his humor didn't get in the way of his police skills as he earned himself quite the reputation of being a damn good cop with a good successful case quota.
And to Opal's happiness, her alternative universe self was still together with this Bolin, so she was thankful for that, along with this universe's Hattori being so nice to her.
As for Mako, he found out his other self here turned his career into Movers, but strove to not only do the kind that this universe's Varrick loved to do, the cheap fluffed up pieces of him as Nuktuk, but serious work too, earning high praise for his performance as Avatar Roku in a biography mover about him. Even if some creative liberties were taken compared to the man's real life self.
Also to Thuy's joy, her other self was apparently still with this Mako here.
But it was this universe's Bolin who had to give his older brother the bad news, Sami and Opal noticing the cop trying to hold back his tears when he made the call.
"Right, while Bo… talks to his brother…" Hattori said, feeling bad for the guy, turning his attention to the larger problem at hand. "Let's get to the bigger picture, why are you eight here, who in the world was that… other You?..." He asked, making sure he was pointing at Korra before looking at Lin, his words starting to fall apart. "And… why are you… how is-"
"Do you want the short or long version?" Khu Shui's voice came out of Sami's mouth as the spirit took control, causing Hattori to jump out of his seat.
"WHAT THE FLAMEO- she's involved too!" The Chief responded with, remembering when he ventured with his Korra and the others into the spirit world when he had to go against that damn spirit Sha-Garou who had been corrupting her.
"If it wasn't for Khu-Shui, we wouldn't have seen Dark Korra coming." Thuy said to which Hattori repeated the nickname for clarification, Opal sighing at this.
"I know Uncle Hattori, unoriginal name, sounds like something Varrick would come up with, but our Korra would be dead if not for her."
That made Hattori pause in place before nodding, hand out to the spirit in control of Sami. "Point well made, okay, give me the short version Miss. Shadow Spirit."
The spirit then explained, in a even shorter manner than before, how things came to be with the other Sha-Garou trying to take over Korra, part of what caused her to give in, what she has been doing, how the crew got involved, and how they already been to other universes, only managing to save one Korra, but rounded up others for when they'd have to take the fight to the shadowbending Avatar, and finally how they ended up here.
While the spirit explained the story, Kya herself spotted the other Kya, this… bloodbender version of herself sitting in the corner of the office, seeming to keep to herself.
Appearance alone, this Kya was already different. Aside from the obvious lack of her right arm, she had on darker makeup around the eyes which she had been wiping off with her water hand after it got ruined. She also had her long grey hair not in the Water Tribe braids and ponytail, but more in a simple looped ponytail.
But it was her personality that showed Kya how truly different she was from her. The healer could see the anger and bitterness in her eyes, like she had seen a lot of things, done a lot of things, which contrasted to how she reacted to this universe's Korra's death.
Kya saw the sadness and despair coming from her at losing Korra, like she was a mother who lost her child.
It was most obvious when this universe's Nishi, who somehow stayed his odd self, came to collect the body, everyone watched as this Kya told him not to screw up transporting the body, or else Nishi would be the one being looked at.
The master waterbender wondered what was it that caused this version of herself to be this cynical, noticing how this Kya's own energy wasn't as vibrant as her own. Just what drove this version of her to learn and master a dark form of bending that Kya remembered her mother forbidden her to learn, having told her the experience with Hama?
As for Lin, all she could do was keep her eyes on this… different version of Hattori she was seeing listening to every word of the spirit's story.
She knew just from his face who he was, along with those two mismatched eyes, but it still surprised Lin to see Hattori look so presentable.
His hair was trimmed down to a respectable short length, his large beard had been cut down to a clean cut goatee and he was wearing almost the same uniform she was wearing, with obvious alterations made.
And while she knew what Hattori looked like before his injury from his old photo, it still amazed Lin to see him without the massive wound, with his single blind eye and ear intact.
But there he was, Hattori Hanzo, or, "Hattori Beifong" as he's been called here, sitting in the seat she would be sitting in back in her own universe, with a familiar looking hook and chain on the desk.
The metalbender also took notice of various old photos on the desk, some of which caught Lin by surprise. One showed him as a small child standing next to their mother, who held a baby Suyin in her arms in front of her parents home.
Another had him in his young teens sitting in front of a water fountain with this universe's Kya, Tenzin, Bumi and even Suyin. She guessed that this was a few years before when she and Suyin had their big fight resulting in her scars. But from the photo, both brother and sister looked happy in this universe.
What got Lin's attention more as she leaned closer was the presence of a fifth person in the photo she didn't know at first until she spotted the familiar little hairpiece in that long black hair and the set of glasses over the girl's gold eyes.
Was that freakin' Fire Lord Izumi?
The third and final photo she saw was Hattori, having to be 19, standing with her mother and Suyin, in a policeman's uniform, having just graduated from the academy. Again, both mother and sister were happy…
Then something peaked her attention about all three photos, scanning her eyes through them.
Why wasn't she in any of these photos?
Hattori sat there after a small beat of silence, having just heard the entire story, finally putting his two pieces in. "I admit, that's… quite possibly the craziest story I've ever heard. BUT, I believe in what I see with my own two eyes…" Then he felt silly saying that phrase, pointing at his one blind eye.
"Sorry, you get what I mean. And what me and Kya, the one I know, saw today was some evil bitch version of Korra, no offense to Mrs. Sato if she's listening..." He noted, being informed that Sami could still hear him while Khu-Shui was in control. "... kill the Korra we knew by stealing her energy, along with seeing walking and talking copies of others we know, INCLUDING another Korra and two Asami's, and why are you looking at my pictures?"
He asked that last part towards Lin, whose concentration had been broken, looking at the version of her half-brother talking to her.
"I, ah… sorry, they're lovely photos."
"Thank you, Lin…" Hattori said, nodding his head before resuming talking to others, including Sami who had taken back control. "Speaking of which, the part that's been bugging me the most is how she's here."
Hearing Hattori say that threw Lin a bit of a loop, who looked at the others.
"She's with us." Mako answered as the Chief in the universe gave a facepalm.
"I know that smartass. I mean is she from another universe, like a different Lin?"
"No, I'm from their universe." Lin answered, getting Hattori's attention. "I'm Lin Beifong, the chief of the police in Republic City there. In fact, in our universe, you were the Equalist-"
Then it dawned on the metalbender who stopped talking as Hattori took notice of what she was about to say, turned her head back and forth from the photos of Hattori and the man himself.
"... earlier you asked how it was possible…" Lin asked, gulping at possibly hearing what she was hoping not to hear. "What did you mean by that?"
Chief Hattori Beifong, having just started to realize what was happening once she said her name, stood up from his desk and walked over to the door to his office, everyone just now noticing above it on the wall was a plaque holding up a single katana in its sheath.
Taking it carefully off the wall with his hands, Hattori then walked over to Lin and handed the weapon into her hands as she was confused at this action before noticing the blade was a Hanzo original.
But it wasn't the same one she remembered her Hattori wielding and later using his metalbending to turn into a new weapon, this one had a dark shade of purple adorning it alongside the gold and black, in contrast to the red of the original sword.
"Lin Hanzo…"
Hearing her first name with that surname made Lin's eyes go wide as the others watched in silence, with her looking up at a solemn Hattori. "That was your name here."
Lin quickly looked up at this other version of her brother, one thing on her mind. "Lin… Hanzo?" She repeated, looking at the others, who were just as surprised before turning her head back. "You mean-"
The Chief of this universe nodded, kneeling in front of her. "Yes, you were the shadowbender, the Equalist Ripper…" Then with a look of sadness in his eyes, he lowered them. "You died saving my life, sister."
The two officers looked at each other for a moment. The air felt heavy with their mutual realizations of what happened in each other's universes.
"We'll give you two a minute," Kya said, rounding the crew up and heading outside into the corridor, with the bloodbending Kya followed them out too.
"I'll see ya in a bit, One-Arm." Hattori said, and the blood bender waved at him half heartedly.
Once they were gone, she had to ask. "So I was... I was the Equalist Ripper. I killed those people?" Lin gulped hard after letting those words be said.
Hattori nodded. "And I suppose I died the same way in your universe?"
"Yeah. You saved my life too."
A cheeky smile spread across Hattori's face. "Then I guess we're even."
Lin couldn't help chuckling a little. "We are."
This was different from the animal universe somehow. This time she got to see her brother for how he truly was - or how he truly should have been were it not for his death, if not having been given up by her mother when he was born. The absence of his facial wound felt like she was seeing his full self.
Perhaps he thought the same thing about seeing her whole face too as she noticed he noted something about her face.
"So... err..." Hattori started. The initial shock of seeing Lin was fading, but he was still at a loss for words. "How was your life? How did things go for you?"
Lin raised her eyebrows at the question. It seemed oddly personal and out of the blue. The metalbender across from her noticed her surprise.
"I just wanted to know... how my sister's life might have been if it hadn't gone so..." he nodded to the side, trying to think of a light way of putting it. "So tragically."
Lin understood. She racked her brains for something to say - she was terrible at keeping conversations going that were about herself but she tried, for her brother's sake. "My... Our mother, Toph, taught me to metal bend when I was young and I followed in her footsteps to become a police officer in Republic City. Me and Suyin never really got along too well..."
He nodded along to everything she was saying. "Sorry to hear that."
She waved her hand. "Eh, it's fine. We're alright now. But you... or Hattori Hanzo I should say... we never even knew he existed until he came back to life with Sha-Garou. We never really spent enough time with him to get to know him properly. Especially since we first knew him as the Equalist Ripper. But we gave him a proper burial in Zaofu." She felt herself getting emotional but she tried to hide it. She shifted the attention back to Hattori. "So how were you?"
"Not too shabby myself. I got along nicely with Suyin and mother, following in her footsteps just like you." He smiled, remembering his happy youth. "You know, I went travelling with Suyin once or twice. We toured the Earth Kingdom, saw the sights, and spirits know the shit we got into." He chuckled.
Lin smiled also. It was somewhat frustrating to hear that he got along with their sister so much better than she did, but she was happy for him. Perhaps he and this Suyin didn't make the same mistakes that Lin and her sister made in theirs.
"Actually, it was not too long after that I..." he sniggered awkwardly. "I might have gotten into a thing with…" He continued, pausing a bit as he felt a bit embarrassed to admit it, resuming in a small voice. "... the future Fire Lord Izumi too."
At that, the Chief's curiosity peaked. "Izumi? Really?" She then turned back to look at the photo of the two with the other three, it made sense now.
Hattori rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah well, we just sorta connected... it was nice and all, but it just wasn't meant to be. Maybe I got this from Mother, but royalty was never for me anyway." Out of all the memories, that one still stung, more than he'd want to admit. He wasn't ready to unbox that box of feelings yet, no matter how long it had been.
"AH, h-how about you though? Anyone caught your eyes?"
Lin sighed. Her romantic life was her least favorite topic. "Well... I dated Tenzin for a while. And now..." she tried to hide her blush. "Now I'm with Kya. Ironically his sister."
Hattori couldn't help but laugh. "Trying to get with all of Aang's kids? Is it Bumi next? HA!"
Lin clenched her fist but she secretly found it amusing too.
"Haha, but no, me and Kya… we got a good thing going on, think she may be the one."
Hattori's happy expression was slowly dwindling and she could tell he was starting to think of something else.
"You know..." he said, "This whole thing is crazy. To think that Lin Hanzo was... essentially me... in another universe." He shook his head in disbelief. "It hasn't sunk in, I'm not gonna lie."
Lin felt the same way. "So, Lin Hanzo..." she said. "How was she?"
"Well... what can I say? Her hair wasn't as fancy looking, and she had way more scars than you, and was missing her left eye." He smiled, trying to get Lin to laugh, but the Chief was as stone faced as he expected. "Hehehehhh, right. I do wish I'd have gotten to know her a little better, but well, as you're aware, she was the Equalist Ripper. I remember bringing her into the interrogation cell where she explained her background after she was given to the Hanzo family by Mother. She was a non-bender, trained in dual katanas by the man who raised her, something which the most skilled of Hanzo's didn't practice."
He then pointed at the katana on the desk. "That was hers, Sha-Garou broke the other one during the battle." Lin looked at the sword in amazement as Hattori continued. "She said that she grew up to have a relationship with a woman called Sakura, even marrying her. Then she joined the Equalists and well... we know they didn't last long, did they?"
The two Chiefs snorted and nodded like their mother before Hattori resumed the story, his voice more serious.
"Well, turned out Sakura was a firebender, but even though Lin put her into hiding... it wasn't enough."
Lin nodded, seeing how Hattori was remembering when the Sha-Garou he knew told the story of how the other Lin accidentally stabbed her lover with her swords. So that was Lin Hanzo's story.
"As for Hattori Hanzo," she began, "Believe it or not, his story was similar, but he had a wife and daughter named Ula and Karai. His daughter ended up being an earthbender. Can you believe it? It skipped a generation." Hattori raised an eyebrow, the corner of his mouth rising in a smile, he always liked the name 'Karai'. "And... yeah. You can figure out what happened."
They thought about everything in silence for a moment. Things had been difficult for both Hanzo's, that was for sure, but they both knew both were happy in death, able to be with their loved ones.
"Well, I'm glad I got to meet you," Hattori said, standing up. "I know you're not the same Lin I knew, but it's still nice getting to talk to you sister."
Lin stood up too, before pulling this version of her brother into a hug, surprising him, though he allowed it willingly. "Yeah. You too brother..."
A moment of silence went by as they held each other until Lin decided to break the moment with a sly smirk.
"You know the universe we were in before this one, it was full of talking animals and you were a bobtail cat?"
That bit surprised Hattori, who slightly broke up the hug to look into her smug looking face. "What? Seriously?"
"Yep, and my animal counterpart was a Panda."
Out in the corridor, the crew gathered round, as bloodbender Kya reluctantly joined the circle. They could tell she was devastated, and they stood in silence for a few moments, trying to find a way to start a conversation.
"So," Bolin said," How did you become a bloodbender?"
Opal glared at him shocked. "Jeez Bolin, read the room," she whispered under her breath.
This Kya of this universe looked at him dejectedly and sighed. "Probably similarly to how your Kya did."
The group's attention was drawn to their healer, but she shook her head and held her hands up in defense. "Oh no, I'm not a blood bender, nooo..."
"Really?" The bloodbender's brows furrowed. "So the universes are different in this aspect too." She supposed she had no choice but to explain it. "Katara showed me. It was... it was alright at first."
It was probably not a good time for questions, but the crew's curiosity got the best of them. "At first?" Korra said.
The bloodbender nodded. "It was a powerful tool she said, especially when the moon is full, for when something went wrong and I needed to defend myself or someone." She gulped, remembering what happened. "You may have noticed I was born without an arm. It made for some... unpleasant comments from the other children growing up."
The crew listened in silence, almost figuring out where the story was going. This Kya's voice wasn't as steady as she would have liked it to be. After everything that happened today, especially having to see the Korra she knew be slain, she felt especially vulnerable.
"There were some nasty names they called me. But there were some good ones too." She smiled. "'One-Arm' is what Hattori always called me, and still does. It sounded catchy and it never affected me. Maybe because I could always call him "One-Eye" in return." She noted, knowing that out of all her friends, Hattori was the closest due to their similar disfigurements. "Plus, it's kind of badass sounding, so feel free to call me that."
The crew nodded, knowing it sounded like a good nickname.
"But there was one kid... he wouldn't let it go. He just kept shouting and screaming "Nubby! Nubby!". I hated hearing that every time he saw me…" One Arm Kya shook her head, taking a deep breath, holding up her one hand. "So I decided to show him what it felt like to have only one arm."
Silence fell across the group.
Asami was the first to speak. "You... You broke his arm with bloodbending?"
The one armed Kya shook her head. "I wish it was just that. No. I... I ended up bloodbending both his arms and legs into a sick necrosis." Her voice shook a little more and her bottom lip quivered. "I didn't tear 'em off. It was the doctors that had no choice but to amputate. They were too far gone. But I-I didn't mean to go..."
Despite having confessed to the tragedy, she felt Asami's hand on her back.
Thuy spoke up too. "Eh, the bastard had it comin' if you ask me!"
"Thuy!" Mako said.
"What? He did!"
The blood bender smiled a little for a moment, wanting to agree, but just couldn't before turning distressed again. "It strained my relationship with Katara, definitely. She refused to show me anything else relating to waterbending, so I taught myself in secret from then on."
She used her hand to warp the water from her waterskin onto her shoulder, forming herself another arm out of the water. "Like this."
The crew starred as she demonstrated her new limb. It worked almost identically to a real arm before she put it away again.
"That's impressive," Kya said seeing how her other self could do it with ease, it did certainly reminded her of Ming-Hua, only without the prospect of getting diced up with it turning into ice blades.
"Thanks." The one-armed Kya replied. "After that, I vowed that I'd never use Bloodbending unless the time called for it, like you saw today. I'm just thankful that Hattori managed to talk me into joining the force to somewhat cleanse my mind, not what my parents expected, but they accepted it… well, at least Father did at first."
Kya couldn't help but be more curious, being careful how she asked the next thing, her tone a little hesitant. "Why did... Katara teach you to blood bend to begin with? She knew how dangerous it was, how it's banned." She used Katara's name just as her other self had done, realizing she wasn't calling her "mother".
The blood bender knew this question was coming anyway. "The short answer would be that she trusted me with it. But the long one is that she explained to me the limits in how I should use it, and the damage it could do. I knew I shouldn't use it unless it was an emergency, and that using it otherwise would be a horrific thing to do to somebody."
This Kya thought back to her mother explaining to her younger self of what happened in the past with the Bloodbender known as Hama, not wanting her daughter to go down that dark road. "She prepared me well but... it just wasn't enough as things turned out. She shouldn't have trusted me with so much and she realized that - hence our..." she struggled to find the right word for it. "Our struggling relationship."
Kya nodded. It was saddening to hear, especially considering how close her and her mother had been in their universe. "Are you two... still not alright?"
"Well... we're better than we used to be. It's strange. She doesn't blame me so much for it as much as she blames herself and..." she chuckled awkwardly, "Sometimes I wish she would just be mad and blame it all on me. I can't stand seeing her feel guilty. Father would try being the middle ground along with my brothers, but it still wasn't easy between us two."
This other Kya then thought of something, giving a light sigh. "Then again, so's having a daughter, and we always get things wrong, don't we?" She looked up at Kya.
The healer was taken aback again, and the blood bender noticed her surprise.
"OH… must be another thing that's different," she noted.
"What? You have a daughter?" Kya asked her.
The one armed waterbender looked up sadly. "Yes... she-"
She was interrupted as the door to Hattori's office opened. Lin and the Chief walked out. Their "reunion" seemed to be over, and the crew was back to work.
Before they headed back out, Hattori spoke up. "We should let Asami know too. About Korra,"
The crew gulped. Delivering the sad news was never easy.
"To Air Temple Island!" Officer Bolin said, holding his arm out and leading them outside, as if trying his best to use his humor to cope with the situation.
"Air Temple Island?" Korra frowned.
"Damn," Sami said as she and Asami looked at each other. "We're an airbender in this one?"
"Airbender trainee, kiddo. Don't get ahead of yourself." Hattori said, chuckling a little.
As they made their way towards the island, Korra had noticed two things. First was seeing the distressed looks on both Asami and Sami's faces, more than likely having to deal with seeing another version of themselves react to the news of her lover being slain.
It wasn't easy the first time, it sure as shit didn't get any easier the second time. Maybe that's why Korra somewhat envied the Asami from that Red Lotus universe as due to events turning out as they did in it, they had never gotten together, let alone ever met.
Even though they never met her, at least that Asami Sato was spared the heartbreaking news.
What Korra also noticed was the one armed Kya trying to steal herself some glimpses towards her, pretending that she was looking at something else when the Avatar tried to ask what was up.
She figured that it had to do with the Korra that they failed to save, like she reminded the bloodbender too much of this universe's Avatar. Something which the girl wanted to give her condolences about, but with what she knew with about the older woman's life, this Kya needed some time for herself, so she let her be.
Then the crew, along with Hattori, One-Armed Kya and Officer Bolin arrived on the docks of the island, seeing Tenzin waiting for them, along with someone who looked familiar.
It wasn't until the crew got a closer look that they saw it was this universe's Asami, clad in an airbender trainee uniform, her long black hair having been trimmed down to just around her neck.
"Huh, shorter hair suits you." Korra whispered to Asami, who playfully nudged her back, Sami having to give a smile, if because they knew they needed some form of humor before having to give the bad news.
Both Hattori, his Kya and Officer Bolin told them to stay on the ship as they exited it, approaching the Airbender master who welcomed his sister and friend with a hug as the trainee Asami hugged the Bolin she knew.
"What brings you three here?" Tenzin asked, curious as to why they were here on the island before noticing the grim looks on both the faces of the Chief and his fellow officers as they sighed, knowing this was going to be rough. "What happened?"
"Tenzin, we… come with bad news, for both of you." Hattori began saying, which got both Airbender's attention as Kya felt her eyes get wet once more, Bolin putting his arm around her shoulder as she choose to continue for him.
"... she's dead… Korra's dead."
The looks of shock and surprise those still on the ship saw forming on the faces of Tenzin and Asami was heartbreaking, especially from the latter who watched in disbelief as One-Arm Kya dropped to her knees, letting out more tears.
"Wha… what?" The Airbending Asami tried to ask as Tenzin himself looked at the scene of his sister pouring out her soul on the dock, looking up at his long time friend for confirmation, getting a sad nod from the Chief along with one from Bolin.
"But how? How could this be?" Tenzin asked, trying to get an answer. "Who did this?"
"Was it that son of a bitch Guan?" The saddened Asami asked, her emotions running high, feeling her hands clench, closing her eyes, feeling a gust of wind slowly form up around her. "Did he kill her? Cause if so, I'll-"
"Trust me, it wasn't him."
The airbending Asami's eyes widened as did Tenzin's as they heard the voice of Korra ring out from the ship, choosing to get off as did the others, which made both Airbender's confused at the sight of.
"What the? Wait, you two just said…" Tenzin asked, seeing this other Korra in his grey eyes, ready to believe that it was some sick joke the two adults were playing until he noticed something off about this Korra he was seeing.
Not the fact that there were two other Asami's following her, or another Bolin for that matter, but it was the eyes of the Avatar, something which too got the trainee's attention as she slowly approached Korra.
"... you're not her… you're not my Korra…"
Asami and Sami approached the two, allowing their airbending counterpart to take notice. "How'd you know?" Sami asked as the third one pointed at Korra's face.
"Your eyes are Cyan… my Korra's eyes are Teal… which means she's…" This Asami tried to finish, but felt tears sting her eyes more, but fought back, looking at the three. "Tell me who killed her."
The group wasn't sure how to break it, especially due to who it was that did the deed, so Sami gave a deep breath as she closed her eyes, opening them up again to show both airbenders the sight of her dimly glowing red eyes.
"My wife."
Hattori, having been watching this, shook his head, knowing another story needed to be told, turning at his old friend. "Tenzin, do you have any liquor hidden on the island? Because we got a long story for you two, and Air Nomad tea won't cut it…"
Him and Bolin then looked at their bloodbender partner still on her knees as the cop Bolin clicked his tongue. "And I think some of us are in serious need of it."
Tenzin, realizing how serious both of his otherwise humorous acting allies were being as was everyone else, nodded, kneeling down to comfort his sister. "Everyone, please follow me."
After getting everyone settled in Tenzin's meditation room, having Tea prepared for them, along with the master airbender indeed taking out a bottle of Earth Kingdom Wine and some glasses from a hidden compartment behind a bookshelf, Khu-Shui was allowed once more to explain the situation to the two airbenders as to what happened involving Sha-Garou and Dark Korra.
During all of this, the airbender Asami sat closest to the bloodbender Kya, sensing that out of everyone, she was the one who needed the most support and vice versa. That and they were the only ones drinking the wine.
Korra, Lin and Kya also noticed that for as much as this version of Tenzin tried to hold in his emotions listening to the spirit, he looked to be ready to break out into tears at losing both a former pupil and a good person in his life.
"I'm sorry for your loss, both of you, but we arrived too late to stop her." The spirit finished, her voice full of sorrow for these humans, at this point, the crew, especially Korra and Asami could tell this was not some ploy of false symphony, but sincere regret.
"As powerful as I am, as strong willed as this Asami is… we were not enough to save your Korra…"
"Khu-Shui, thank you for your condolences, you both and the others tried your best." Tenzin answered back as he gave a sad nod to the spirit inside the Sato woman from another universe, who felt like she could do more. "Our Korra was a brave girl, never backing down from her duties."
"Did… did she at least put up a fight, did she go out fighting?" The airbender Asami asked, having already drank two cups of the wine to numb the emotional pain, which was only half of what the One-Armed Kya consumed, the effects as not obvious due to her being able to handle her alcohol more.
"Yes, until the final breath Ms. Sato…" Khu-Shui responded with before a voice rang out from the hallway.
"Asami? What's wrong?"
The crew's attention turned to the entrance to the room where they saw a familiar figure from their past stand in the doorway.
"You gotta be fucking kidding…" Lin muttered to herself as she and the others were seeing someone they had never expected to run into.
It was Hiroshi Sato, the same man who had died years ago to save Asami, now standing there seeing his airbending daughter with Tenzin and sitting next to the one armed Kya.
"I heard crying earlier and…" He began, only to notice the others in the room, including the other two Asami's, one who was holding the hand of a Korra he wasn't familiar with and another whose eyes glowed red, forcing him to ask more questions. "What happened, what did I miss?"
"Father… Korra's dead." The saddened Asami said as she got up and sprinted over to her father, needing to hug him as hard as she could to his surprise. "Oh spirits, she's dead…"
"It's okay, I'm here…" Hiroshi said, trying to calm his daughter down, letting her cry, himself surprised to hear who would have been his future daughter-in-law had passed away.
It was only then Khu-Shui realized that this version of the Sato woman had a ring on her finger, similar to one the regular Asami was wearing.
Then the spirit looked down at Sami's hand, taking off the one metal glove to see on her own finger was the wedding band her Korra had given her on their wedding day.
The spirit felt… some form of sadness, she felt for these humans unlike Sha-Garou, but… this was a different kind of sadness.
"It pains me to do this, having to go from universe to universe…" The spirit began speaking once more, her voice almost cracking. "Trying to prevent Dark Korra and Sha-Garou from killing another Avatar, and failing most of the time…"
Then the spirit felt actual tears roll down Sami's cheeks, never experiencing this sensation before as she felt them with her finger, looking at it.
"Even when one is saved, another falls by their hands… I… I hate this feeling it gives me." Khu-Shui admitted, trying to hold these new form of emotions. "Even worse than that, is having to see the faces of all those who have to hear the news that their friend, their student… their lover has been taken from them… with no hope of coming back. No matter the universe."
"Don't forget their daughter." The one armed Kya's voice spoke out, getting everyone's attention turned towards her as she prepared to drink a fifth cup of the wine, but dropped it before the liquid touched her lips, turning to the spirit in control of Sami.
"Korra was my daughter... I was her mother." The Bloodbender admitted to the crew's shock, especially both Korra and Khu-Shui, watching the older woman as she gave a sad sigh. "I had to watch my daughter have the energy ripped out of her."
Kya was floored by the idea that in another universe, she was the mother of the Avatar, turning her head towards Korra, who looked back at her, the waterbender then looking at this universe's Tenzin and Hattori who themselves stood speechless at the development. "But, wait, did you two know about this?"
Both men looked at Kya, shaking their heads before Hattori himself looked at his partner, he didn't need seismic reading to know the truth. "She's not lying."
"OF COURSE I'M NOT LYING, YOU ONE-EYED ASSHOLE!" The single armed Kya lashed out, throwing the cup to the wall, almost hitting both Bolin's, freaking them out as she closed her eyes.
"Years ago, nine months before my father passed away, me and Hattori were celebrating arresting some sex traffickers at a bar. There I saw Reiko…" She explained, remembering the beautiful brown haired woman from the Southern Water Tribe, having been in the city on vacation. "Me and her, we first started chatting it up, buying each other drinks and next thing I knew, me and her were going back to her hotel room, falling onto her bed. As we took off each other's clothes-"
"Excuse me, but where is this going?" Hiroshi asked a bit confused before the bloodbender quickly turned her head at him in anger, quickly silencing him so she could continue.
"It turns out that Reiko wasn't just a 'She'..." She pointed out in a matter of fact tone, not wanting anyone to interrupt her story as she remembered more of the past, almost giving a chuckle as she had normally preferred the company of regular women at the time. "But that didn't matter; she didn't see me as some one armed cop lady, I didn't see her for… someone who had more going on between her legs than she should have. We just both saw each other as beautiful and sweet."
Lin and Kya were surprised to hear that this Kya's love life was far different than the healer's, not that they or anyone in the room was judging, it just never came into their minds.
"Wait a second, I remember Reiko." Hattori noted. "How come you never told me or anyone else about… her... you know?" He asked as he remembered meeting the woman before, never catching on what her true sex was, seeing his fellow officer turn to him as he tried to approach the subject as best as he could without sounding like a jackass.
"No offense, but it wasn't yours or anyone else's business at the time, simple as that." The bloodbender simply answered in an attempted smirk that failed, resuming her story. "Anyway, turns out what was the beginning of a four year relationship, was also the beginning of another life as that night, our child was conceived."
Then the woman sighed, remembering what happened next. "We were happy to find out the news while we were up in her home up near the Southern Water Tribe, along with also finding out from the moon spirit that our child would be the Avatar, which yeah, weird to find that out before my father's death, but we didn't care…"
One Arm Kya then closed her eyes. "While there, we then happened to bump into some friends of Reiko's…"
She then looked right into Korra's eyes. "Tonraq and Senna." The Bloodbender watched the Avatar's eyes become wider at this, sniffling a slight bit. "Turns out they had been trying to have their own child for some time, but were not able to conceive one."
The Bloodbender then looked down at her stomach, feeling where she remembered her baby bump was. "Add in the fact that some ignorant assholes may not be so keen with the idea that the next Avatar would be born from not just the lesbian daughter of the previous one, but also a newhalf, a woman born with male genitalia…"
Korra watched as the one armed Kya stood up and walked over to her, putting her hand on the girls' shoulder. "Me and Reiko decided that it was best, once the baby was born, to give it to Tonraq and Senna, so they could have the child they otherwise would not be able to have. A baby girl they would name Korra."
"Did I… Did your daughter know the truth?" Korra asked the saddened Bloodbender, who shook her head.
"I always wanted to tell her, in fact, I was planning on bringing Reiko to the wedding as my plus one, so we could tell her…" She said, tearing at herself for not telling her daughter the truth sooner, knowing she died never knowing. "But now, the only ones who even know the truth is everyone in this room, Reiko, Tonraq and Senna."
"And me…" Another familiar voice echoed out as everyone looked at another archway into the room to see Master Katara standing there, having heard every single word her daughter said from behind the wall, along with all of what the others went through.
"Okay, who else is gonna come through here?" Lin whispered to Kya, who lightly elbowed her in the stomach to hush up to her surprise.
The one-armed bloodbender looked at her mother, then at her brother rather confused. "How long has she been here?"
"She came by yesterday, I… kind of forgot to mention that." Tenzin admitted, feeling embarrassed.
"It's alright Tenzin." Their mother said as she and her daughter kept their eyes connected on each other, Katara watching her Kya, whose relationship with her was still slowly building back up, walked up to her, regret in her eyes.
"Katar…" The Bloodbender began, only stopping what she began to say to properly make things right. "MOTHER... I'm so sorry I never told you or the others, that Korra was-" She tried explaining only for Katara to quiet her with a hug, not caring about how the past was strained or what mistakes were made.
"It's okay Kya… I understand…" Was all the master waterbender could say, two tears forming from her old eyes as she held her daughter as the others watched.
Khu-Shui, having been in complete silence during all of this, felt Sami's gut drop at this revelation, knowing exactly why.
"Khu-Shui, are you still there? Or is it Sami in control?" The One-Armed Kya asked, to which Sami's eyes returned back to their natural color.
"It's me…" She said, back in control.
The bloodbender slowly broke her hug from her mother, turning back to Sami and the rest of the crew, a newfound look of determination on her face as she wiped the tears off her face.
"When you all leave, I'm going with you."
This caught everyone off guard as Kya approached her alternative self. "Wait, what?"
"You heard me two armed me, I'm coming along."
"But you barely survived Dark Korra before!" Asami pointed out as the bloodbender smirked, taking out the water from her waterskin and formed up her water arm, watching it move it's hand and fingers.
"That was when I kept blaming others for all my past mistakes…" She said, turning back to her mother, giving her a slight smile to which Katara knowingly gave one back, nodding as she turned back. "But now, I'm ready to make sure no more people suffer like me because of that damn shadow spirit."
Hattori, having been off on the side during most of this, looked at Lin, quickly remembering what the evil spirit had cost the both of them in their respective universes.
It was then he quickly made up his mind, taking the bottle of wine off the ground and drank a large gulp from it before taking the hook and chain from the side of his belt around his waist, grasping the chain in hand as the hook fell to the ground, walking forward to his long time friend.
"Then if you're going 'One-Arm', so am I." The metalbending Chief said, with it being Lin's turn to be surprised.
"You really want to risk being liquefied through universe jumping to fight Sha-Garou again?" She asked, which got her a smirk from her brother from another universe as he held up the hook.
"That spirit fucker also took both our siblings away from us, spirits know how many Korra's and quite possibly take that girl's wife he's already taken." Hattori said, pointing at Sami. "Along with more if we don't fight back. I'm coming."
Lin couldn't help but give a smile at the different version of her brother.
This made everyone one else happy to hear as Korra turned to look at Tenzin. "So, take it when the time comes, you'll have our backs?"
The Airbender master gave a simple nod, looking at his mother and sister finally reunited. "You'll have more than me…" He then gave the Avatar a rather knowing smile similar to that of his father as he looked at his mother, who knew what he was going to say. "My family, my mother, every airbender on the island will all be proud to be at your side."
"So will I." The airbending Asami agreed, approaching the other version of her lover, her father by her side.
"I don't know how much help I could be, but I'll try building up some machines to help with the fight, Avatar Korra." Hiroshi offered, nodding his head, knowing the risks. "I'm still paying for my past mistakes, but it'll be an honor to help you all defeat the spirit who took my daughter's love away."
Korra could see in the man's eyes behind the glasses he had truly changed, making her wonder what more the Hiroshi she knew could have done to help if he hadn't died to save his daughter's life, giving a nod back to him.
"Thank you Mr. Sato."
The elder Sato gave a smile at the Avatar, his hand on his daughter's shoulder. "Please, call me Hiroshi."