Trigger warning ahead of time due to some references to some graphic violence, a brief mention of torture, some sexual content (Maybe not as much TW there, but still) and character death.
The tan skinned nun rested her head on Hattori's scarred shoulder as they laid down together on the bed, their naked forms covered by the blanket. It had been fun, and the Chief was glad to know he still had it for his age, but he couldn't help feeling a little... empty inside.
All those thoughts of Izumi drifted back into his mind, and as much as he tried to oppress them, he couldn't. He dreaded to think that he might still be in love with the Izumi of his universe.
His thoughts were interrupted by a loud crash.
Fire Nun Shali lifted her head, listening out. "Did you hear that?" she said.
Hattori swore, already knowing what that sound meant. "I think that's my cue to leave."
The woman got off him, holding her robe against her exposed chest as she let Hattori stand up.
"Stay here Shali, we'll take care of it," he said, seeing the scared look in her eyes. He rushed and threw his trousers and pants back on, leaving his shirt and armor behind as he hurried out with his chain and hook in hand.
Running into the corridor he saw Kya come out of her room too, her hair disheveled. She hadn't gotten round to doing anything major, but she hurriedly wiped off any traces of the nun's lipstick from her face.
"You back in action?" Hattori chuckled.
"Like we can ever escape that evil spirit."
"Not what I was referring to."
Kya scowled at him. "You're so funny." she said sarcastically before hurrying after him out of the sanctuary.
Before the crew rushed out, Azula had instructed the nuns to stay behind.
"Don't risk yourself out there," the Fire Mother said. "Stay back, look after the sanctuary." Then she turned to Doremi, handing the frail book to her, clasping her hands in hers for a few moments. "Please take the title of Fire Mother," she said to her, her voice suddenly quiet. "And bear it with the name I gave you at birth, Ty Lee."
Doremi, or rather, Ty Lee II nodded. "Take care, mother," she said, though she knew why Azula was doing this.
The crew's eyes widened at hearing that name, but Azula didn't waste anymore time. She turned and rushed down the hall to the Sanctuary's entrance, and the crew had to hurry after her.
Mintues eariler, Dark Korra dismounted from her ostrich horse as the sun began to set. "Don't mind the loud noise girl." She said before blasting the sanctuary gates open with a strong gust of wind, nearly ripping the door off its hinges.
"Be careful..." Sha-Garou said. "They might have the place littered with fire rune traps. They'll explode on contact."
"Is there anyone you don't know about?"
The spirit cackled. "I know things about everyone. Now find this universe's Avatar."
The Dark Avatar heard movement and before she could step a foot closer to the temple, she saw the crew coming out after her. She smirked to herself.
"Seems I smoked them out."
The crew gathered in the courtyard. Even from the beginning, Dark Korra could tell there were a lot of them, and this wasn't going to be easy. But she wasn't ready to back down in this universe, the shadowbender still had some anger towards Sha-Garou that needed to be let out. Then she spotted the unfamilar old woman among them and chuckled.
"Getting help from the poor grandmas here? WOW, you must be desperate."
Azula grinned, full of malice. "Another Avatar that doesn't know who I am." Her insults did nothing other than fuel her innate anger and power. "Not for long though."
Dark Korra squinted. The confidence of the old nun was out of place.
"Get her out of the way first..." Sha-Garou said in her thoughts, surprised himself as he realized who this infamous woman was standing with the crew. "That's this universe's Azula!"
"Whatever."
She weaved the shadows up around them, building up her powers. She reached out with a shadow tentacle to swat the nun out of the way as Sha-Garou said, but her reaction time was flawless, and she cut it apart with a slash of blue fire.
"Ah, I'm sorry, care to repeat that?"
Dark Korra was only slightly surprised by her bending. She had obviously seen blue fire before due to Sha-Garou's power influencing her own firebending, but Azula's was all natural. Yet it wasn't going to stop her.
The crew themselves were starting to wonder where One Arm Kya and Hattori were, and as if on cue, the two of them ran up just in time. Lin frowned, seeing her alternative universe brother shirtless, his upper body and arms riddled with scars. She opened her mouth to ask something, but he cut her off.
"Yes yes, Zaheer and air blades are a bad combo, spent a lot of time in the hospital, focus on the matter at hand." He rambled on, not realizing that she actually wanted to ask about both the hickey on his neck and the scratch marks on his back.
Dark Korra looked out at the crew. She needed a game plan.
"You are more powerful now." Sha-Garou said. "Use them."
She nodded, focusing hard. She felt the shadows around her as though they had a mind of their own and all she had to do was give them life. It was draining her power, and Korra had tried to stop it, hurling a rock towards her but she only growled and slashed it apart with a shadow. All around her, the darkness was taking form, and figures rose up as her soldiers. She panted, an horde of several shadow warriors at her side.
"Didn't think I could do this, did you?" she hissed.
The crew stared at what they just witnessed, seeing the darkness seem to be living and breathing around Dark Korra, but Azula wasn't phased in the slightest and instead let out a laugh.
"Oh cute, you made shadow puppets."
She led the charge against the Dark Avatar, stepping forward, spinning into a flying kick and hurling flames at the shadowbender. One of her soldiers stepped forward, tanking the hit, holding up a shield of shadow.
"Split them up!" Azula yelled towards the others, and the crew did as they were told. They rushed forward, spreading themselves out.
Bolin the Magma Warrior let out a battle cry as he charged one of the soldiers, swinging his warhammer over his head and slamming it hard onto the ground. A ripple of magma exploded out of the ground at the soldier's feet, and he had to fling himself backwards to avoid the split earth.
The Warrior then heaved the heavy weapon back around, its head now coated in hot lava as he jumped forward, swinging it at the shadow. It collided with his shadow shield, crushing it completely as the figure staggered backwards.
This allowed for Bolin to take the opportunity, flinging a boulder towards him, hitting him square in the side and crushing the soldier as the shadows he was made from dispersed along the ground before taking the same boulder into the air, using his lavabending to quickly heat it up and send it into two more of them.
Hattori threw out a metal hook, taking a hold of another soldier's shield, yanking on it, but the shadow wouldn't let go. Lin wrapped a metal cable around his waist, pulling him in the opposite direction. The awakened shadow struggled against both of their grips, leaving his chest wide open. Mako the Fire and Lightning readied up his arrow, its head flickering with bright electricity, leaving a trail of deadly lightning as it pierced the air, hitting the soldier's sternum. The figure contorted just as the two Chiefs let go, and the shadows disappeared into thin air.
"Nicely done kid!" Hattori cheered before suddenly sensing another shadow soldier behind him and bended his chain around it's throat, dragging it closer before slamming down the pointed hook in it's head, causing it to vanish too.
Azula herself dealt with two shadow soldiers at the same time, spinning around her flames all over in a circle with her fists, leaving them open for Thuy to wrap her metal wire around their waists and used her bending to tug hard enough to slice them and their shields in two as they fell apart
That got the Fire Mother to smirk at the descendant of Avatar Hiromi in respect, with the girl giving one back before getting back to fighting more shadow soldiers.
The prime Avatar waved her hand around in line with the two Kya's, all three waterbending together a massive ball of water in the air before they clenched their hands, causing the water to burst and fall as the droplets turned into ice spikes that rained down onto some shieldless soldiers, dropping them down to the ground and causing them to unform.
Another shadow soldier swung it's sword down onto Lady Asami, who blocked the blow with her shield before driving her elven blade into its stomach, kneeling down with her shield up to allow Asami to run up onto it as a makeshift platform, jumping off it with her electric glove turned on full settings as she landed on another soldier, shocking it with the grip of her glove, causing it's head to explode in a burst of shadows before the rest of its body.
"Don't let up, keep holding them off!" Lady Asami yelled out as she quickly held out her shield in front of Asami to protect her from a possible stabbing, while the engineer returned the favor by socking another shadow soldier sneaking up being the elven warrior in the face.
Lin herself ended up back to back with Mako as the team of officers had a power play in mind.
"HOT SHOTS!" She yelled out with the firebender grabbing some of her metal cords and heated them up with his bending, allowing the metalbender to send out what was red hot towards a large group of shadow soldiers, blasting holes into them to drop them into nothingness.
When one seemed to come back out, Mako swiftly drove the heel of his shoe down onto it's head with a firetrail following it.
The airbenders from the two different universes combined their control over their respective bending techniques as both Master Tenzin and Opal created a wind tornado that sucked up some nearby soldiers still in the battle.
That left them for the red eyed Sami to rush in and slam her fists on the ground, causing a massive cluster of flat shadow projectiles to burst up from other shadows cast, slicing them up into pieces that fell back onto the ground.
Her soldiers were keeping the crew busy, but she had to act fast. Dark Korra glared through the crowd, finding the Avatar she was looking for. It was almost hilarious to see herself wield those ridiculous axes, swinging wildly at the soldiers around her, the blades coated in hard, sharp ice.
She sunk into the shadows, weaving around the others, appearing behind the warrior Avatar, taking her by surprise. She grabbed her hand with a shadow tentacle, holding it in place, but she refused to drop her axe. Her grip on her weapons was impressive, but Dark Korra was certain it was about to yield.
She conjured up a shadow claw, but to her surprise, the Avatar Knight twisted her body round so she could slash the tentacle holding her with her free hand, the ice blade cutting right through it. Before she could be bound again, she spun round, swinging with her axes at full force towards Dark Korra.
The shadowbender had to jump out of the way, impressed at the fight she was putting up.
In a split second, the Avatar Knight switched tactics, and with a flick of her axes the ice on the blades cracked open as flames sprouted from the metal.
"You think you can impress me with your fancy weapons?" Dark Korra scoffed.
Korra of the Southern Water Clan let out a cry as she swung her axe. A trail of fire was left by the blade where it cut the air, and its momentum hurled it towards the Dark Avatar.
The shadowbender hadn't expected that and she only just barely parried the attack with a shadow hand. Her brows furrowed and she was starting to get angry.
She lashed out with a thin tentacle, weaving it around Avatar Knight Korra's defenses and latching onto the hilt of her axe. As she went to slash at it with her other weapon, her other arm was grabbed also. She had her axes yanked out of her hands.
"What are you gonna do now?"
The Avatar Knight screamed, breathing fire towards the shadowbender, but Dark Korra stopped it short as a shadow hand grasped her throat.
Korra of the Southern Water Clan choked, struggling against her grip, the hand lodged tightly just under her jaw.
"I got you now."
Dark Korra saw the flash of blue out the corner of her eye, and ducked quickly, feeling the heat of the flames slide over her head. She stood back up, glaring in their direction. Azula stood there staring back at her, a wide grin on her face and a blue flame in her hand.
The shadowbender hit towards her with her own blue fire, but with every fire punch she threw her way, Azula dodged them with such ease that it seemed impossible for someone her age.
"I must say, for my first impression of shadowbending…" Azula began. "I just don't see the appeal!" She gloated back at the shadowbender.
Dark Korra frowned at this, which the Fire Mother wanted. But she knew her opponent was way too used to normal bending techniques - she needed something different.
As her attacks paused, Azula charged up her lightning, moving her hands around her as the electricity gathered at the tips of her fingers. Just as she was about to let it loose towards the Dark Avatar, a shadow hand grabbed her wrist, lurching it upwards towards the sky. The Fire Mother grunted against its grip, but the powerful lightning had already missed.
The Dark Avatar smirked, conjuring up a shadow claw and launching it at her. Azula let free a burst of flames with her free hand, countering the shadow and pushing it aside, making it miss.
Opal spotted the Fire Mother in Dark Korra's grip and readied her a gust of window to throw the shadowbender away. Azula spotted it, and readied, her cunning self coming up with a plan.
As the airbender threw Dark Korra off balance with her air strike, Azula blasted her. It was a quick, powerful bolt of fire, less meant to hurt her as much as it was meant to hurl her into the direction she wanted. She angled it just right, and the Dark Avatar flew backwards against the wall of the Sanctuary.
As she dropped back down to the ground, she spotted the glowing marking on the charred grass too late. The fire rune went off, and she was caught in the middle of its explosion.
The shadow tentacles loosened, and Azula wriggled free. The crew waited expectantly, but as the smoke died down, they spotted the cocoon of shadow. From it, Dark Korra rose from the ground, panting, sweat dripping down her forehead.
Azula's eyes widened.
The Avatar Knight wriggled free of most tentacles, but still struggled with the one against the throat as any movement against it made her choke even more. Before Sami could rush to her and help her, Dark Korra let out a terrifying scream, and in a last ditch attempt yanked the Avatar Knight up, hanging her in the air.
More shadows sprouted from the ground. Sharp, contorting appendages that the crew had nowhere to escape them. There was nothing they could do as they were held tight, watching this world's Avatar being strangled before their eyes.
Azula boiled with anger. No one defeated her and got away with it. And there was no way she was letting the Avatar Knight be killed under her watch.
She swung towards the Dark Avatar, hurling a bright ball of blue fire towards her. The shadowbender dodged it, just as the shadows took a hold of the Fire Mother's leg.
Yet Azula was betting on that happening, smiling to see the fireball instead hit the shadow hand holding up Korra of The Southern Water Clan, losing its grip on her, letting the Avatar drop onto the ground.
"Get her out of the way, NOW!" Sha-Garou said again, with Dark Korra taking quick advantage of the opening to conjure up a shadow spike and threw it right at Azula.
The projectile connected.
It stuck through the side of the Fire Mother's stomach, coming out her back as blood squirted out onto the brunt ground below.
"NNNOOOO!" Thuy cried out as she and the others saw the Fire Mother look down at the shadow spike sticking through her body, dropping down onto one knee as she turned to look at the girl who was the descendant of her order's Avatar founder...
Yet all Azula did was chuckle and give a knowing wink to the surprised metalbender, as if it didn't surprise her in the slightest before she looked back up at a confused Dark Korra, spitting some blood on the ground as she shook her head. "Even in a different life… you Avatar's… are still so predictable."
She knew that the spike hit some vital organs, and she would bleed out if she didn't hurry.
So Azula took a deep breath and got back onto her two feet, eyes still focused on the still confused fallen Avatar. This was it.
Holding her hands out, Azula began gathering her full power, she swirled dense fire around her as the shadows that held her cracked under the intense heat.
The flames grew more and more, until their powerful blue light stung to even look at. Around its edges, sparks flew, and balls of lightning formed amongst the crackling fire spinning around the Fire Mother who looked at her opponent, her golden eyes burning into blue glowing embers as she gave one last defiant grin.
Dark Korra watched, her eyes widening. She had never seen anything like this before. Then the girl heard the old woman give her final words in the only way she knew how.
"You're nothing but HIS plaything, Avatar."
Before the shadowbender could even begin processing what she said, Azula charged towards her with a mighty yell - a high speed, scorching ball of fire. Dark Korra had no time to react. The Fire Mother took her maneuver to completion, crashing into the Dark Avatar and exploding on impact.
A booming and bright blue supernova went off against the side of the Sanctuary, cracking the wall and working a flaming crater into the ground as those able to ducked to avoid the debris.
Almost immediately, the shadows slunk back into the ground, and everyone was set free.
The crew stared at the raging blue fire as it died down, waiting desperately for a sign of Azula, but there wasn't one, just ash and blue embers slowly falling in the air.
The Avatar Knight coughed on her knees as she regained her breath. Lady Asami ran to her side.
"I'm ... fine..." the Avatar Knight managed to choke out, calming down the elven woman who had to give her a kiss of relief on the lips, if just to relax herself.
Thuy approached the dying flames, the rest of the crew following her. In the ashes, the only remaining trace of Azula were the burning robes she wore.
But worst of all, Dark Korra was nowhere to be seen. She must have vanished in the purple energy JUST before impact, it was the only possible explanation.
"What did we just see?" Korra asked, having decided to ask the question on everyone's mind at what they just witnessed. "What did Azula just do?"
"The Phoenix's Last Stand." The voice of the now Fire Mother Ty Lee said, no longer going by her old name, with everyone in the crew watching the woman slowly walk towards the still burning crater, where her mother made her selfless sacrifice. "A rare firebending technique long thought to have been forgotten." She said, her voice starting to crack.
"Only those who've endured trials to rise themselves from the ashes of their tortured past could learn it. It's only used as a last resort, when… at death's door."
Thuy turned from the blue flames to look at the Fire Mother, just in time to see Ty Lee's dark focused gold eyes soften, taking off her hat to show her long flowing black hair fall around her saddened face like her grandmother's, lowering her head as she gave her final words.
"May you finally be with Ty Lee in the spirit world, mother..."
Before she began to cry for her loss, the Fire Mother felt Thuy put her arms around her neck, giving her a hug as the daughter named after the woman Azula had longed for finally shed tears as the others, along with the rest of the fire nuns who had safely gotten out of the sanctuary gave their condolences in silence.
Just then, the sound of a large bird was heard coming from the blue fire briefly as within it, everyone saw a flame in the shape of a phoenix rise up into the now night sky, vanishing as soon as it was seen, the flames finally dying out afterwards.
Out of the purple energy, Dark Korra rushed out, holding out her arms and hands, seeing as the sleeves of her jacket were on fire.
"SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!" She screamed, not trying to spread the flames as she quickly took off the jacket, with her tight red top under it exposed as she stomped out the flames, which thankfully went out, though the jacket was ruined now.
"Do you know where-"
"NO I DO NOT! NOR DO I CARE AT THE MOMENT!" Dark Korra yelled, the pain of her arms being sensitive due to being so close to the flames as she looked at them, which thankfully only looked a bit more redder than usual.
"Well, that doesn't look so bad." Sha-Garou noted as Dark Korra used her shadowbending enhanced waterbending to try healing the minor, if still painful, burns.
"Easy for you to say, you weren't the one that FREAKIN' AZULA tried to blow up alongside her!"
"Well, a different version of-"
"You get what I mean!" Dark Korra stopped him, having just easily healed herself before seeing the Uchū crystal still embedded in her hand. "Okay, no more damage, that's good…"
At that moment, the shadowbender remembered the last words Azula said to her.
'You're nothing but his plaything.' Those words cut at her and left a nagging feeling like she already knew the answer herself. Still, she had to know.
"I'm not just a tool for you? What do you make of her… I mean Azula's last warning?" The Dark Avatar asked the shadow spirit.
"Considering that you are referring to Azula, of all people, I'd take what she says with a grain of salt. We're here for our reasons." She heard him say, not seeming to worry.
But Dark Korra wasn't Sha-Garou, she had plenty enough reason to worry, seeing as she almost died before escaping and making the dimensional jump at JUST the last second before she was engulfed in those blue flames.
"That's the thing, Azula may be infamous for being a lying bitch in my universe, she also wasn't one to hide the truth if it suited her goals." Dark Korra pointed out, knowing that while this older and oddly dressed version of the former Fire Princess seemed to fight on the side of her enemies, her old self still came out at times during their battle.
"So it's obvious Old Azula meant something when she said I was nothing but your plaything, so you may as well talk."
She heard Sha-Garou give a sigh, as if he was actually annoyed at this.
"There may have been… a time in the past that I tried… enticing her, the one from your and the Prime's universe, with the prospect of becoming a shadowbender."
"Oh my spirits, you can't be fucking serious…" Dark Korra's voice let out a weak tone at hearing this. "Of all people in the world, of ALL people in the universe, WHY AZULA?!" She yelled out.
"Because I thought having a power mad former princess who had been bested by her brother for the throne of Fire Lord and your old Waterbending teacher be a shadowbender would be interesting… simply put, I realized she was too crazy for my tastes." Sha-Garou admitted, leaving his host dumbfounded.
"SHE'S too crazy, FOR YOU?!" Dark Korra clarified.
"What, do you think my kind goes for any random person? I do have my limits Korra." The Shadow Spirit noted, sensing that Dark Korra wasn't buying his lie. "That Azula we encountered, one of the many versions of her, offered my power from other forms of me. When I decided to refuse her the status of shadowbender, she tried spitting up those damn blue flames at me once I left her in that jail cell. And apparently she wasn't kept in there for the rest of her life, for some damn reason."
That last sentence got Dark Korra's attention as that didn't fit with the spirit's ability of knowing everything about everyone, along with remembering Azula saying she didn't see the appeal of shadowbending.
But the shadowbender knew if she prodded the dark spirit about it, the less pleasant things would get, so she left it be for the time being, hoping Sha-Garou didn't catch on.
"Yeah, I noticed…" Dark Korra said before taking note of where she was at, inside some abandoned building. "I have no idea where we are."
"How about we take a tour of our new location? Get you a new jacket, something to eat, maybe perhaps find another you here. That sound fun?"
Dark Korra knew Sha-Garou had to know what she was thinking, yet all she could do was nod and keep him pleased. "Yes."