Trigger warning ahead of time due to some references to some background character death and some PTSD. Also some implied sexy time, nothing too graphic, but it's obvious. So just a heads up. Be sure to give it a review and fave!
Korra wasn't sure she was serious when she said she could play a mean triangle. Either way, that was what this… "Hatori" chose to give her. She couldn't work out whether that was because they had no other instruments left, or because she didn't look like she could play anything else.
Asami and Sami had taken viola lessons when they were young, and made the mistake of mentioning that. Now they were given the chance to play, with no one having a clue that they had never actually been good at it.
Thuy on the other hand wasn't half bad. They gave her one of those weird looking pipa's, or "guitar", and she took it from there. Even this universe's Korra complimented her, who, they learned, was the co-singer and guitarist in some band they had going on.
"This Korra definitely has different talents," Asami whispered to her fiancé as they rounded up in formation to start the rehearsal.
Korra pouted. "I'll show you."
"With that?" She looked at the tiny triangle in her hand.
"On the bright side, I literally can't go wrong."
Asami looked at her viola and sighed. "Yeah. I have no idea what I'm doing."
"That makes two of us." Sami came and stood next to them, with Thuy following after.
Although the metalbender was happy with her instrument, she had her glance on the ground. Something didn't seem right.
Just as Asami was about to ask her about it, Hatori got their attention.
"Alright, everyone ready?" she said, opening up her notebook. "Let's have a go, from the top. Let's go!"
She counted them down, and the band started playing. It sounded great and everything was going fine. Thuy slotted into her cue perfectly and the melody flowed with everyone else. That was until the strings came in, and both Sami and Asami looked at each other in panic as they realized they weren't playing the right notes. Korra chuckled as her fiancé's face contorted in concentration, but she couldn't get it right.
"Alright, alright," Hatori raised her hands to stop them. "Some of us are still rusty, that's fine girls, still practicing. Let's have a run starting at the chorus to give the strings a break."
Korra sniggered, looking across at her lover. Asami rolled her eyes at her, her cheeks rosy with embarrassment but she had to admit she also found it a little funny.
The band started playing again, hitting the notes of the chorus. yet Korra had forgotten to keep track of things, and suddenly realized she was about to miss her cue. She pinged the triangle and it brought everyone to a stop.
Hatori chuckled. "That's not when you come in, Kumi."
It was Korra's turn to go red. She only had one note to play in the whole thing and she managed to mess it up. "Sorry." she muttered.
Hatori didn't seem to mind with a kind smile that did remind the Avatar of the Hattori that had been traveling with them. "It's fine, we'll all get the hang of it, trust me, guitar took me a while to figure out. Let's take five, everyone to calm our nerves first, kay?"
She gathered her notes and took a sip of her coffee as everyone disbanded, chatting amongst themselves.
"Well," Asami said. "You did show me something."
"Shut up," Korra nudged her with her elbow. "I lost track because I was busy making fun of you."
"Karma."
They chuckled, until they noticed Thuy was still feeling out of it.
"Hey Thuy, you alright?" Sami asked her.
The metalbender hesitated a moment before smiling up at them. "Yeah, fine, great."
The girls huddled around her. That obviously meant something wasn't fine. "You can tell us," Korra said.
Thuy sighed. "I probably shouldn't be gutted about this, but it's something we heard before." She felt a little silly, but as she looked up, the three of them were still looking at her attentively and she felt encouraged to go on.
"The Thuy in this universe moved away to her ancestral home. I can't help but think... that's this universe's version of me going to the Fire Sanctuary. There's so much about my past relatives I don't know a thing about, it almost feels like that should be the right thing to do, but... it doesn't. I wouldn't want to move away from you guys. Especially not from Mako."
Asami put her hand on her shoulder. "The right decision is whatever you decide. What this version of you decided may be different to what you want to do. I mean, just look at this Asami." They glanced over at the engineer's alter self briefly. She was tuning her own guitar after having played it flawlessly, even singing a lyric or two alongside her girlfriend. "That definitely... isn't me."
And judging by how well this universe's Bolin played the drums, how Mako plucked the strings of the bass guitar and how easily this Opal's fingers flowed across her keyboard, they surely weren't the same as the friends they knew either.
That made Thuy smile a little. "I suppose you're right. We are different from our alternative selves, aren't we? It doesn't mean I need to leave too."
"You'll do whatever feels right for you, whether that's leaving or staying," Sami said. "And even if you do want to find out more about your ancestors, it doesn't mean you have to go forever."
"When I was dealing with things after what the Red Lotus did to me, I made the decision to leave." Korra chimed in. She shifted her gaze to her feet, still feeling a little guilty for leaving everyone behind, especially the girl she loved. "It felt right at the time, so I did it." She looked up at Asami. "And if things are meant to be, all those you care for will still be there when you return."
Asami smiled and nodded, holding her hand, rubbing her thumb against it.
"Thanks girls," Thuy said. A wide smile was spreading on her lips too. "Eh, bring it in!" She held her arms out and drew the girls into a group hug as they chuckled.
"Alright, enough giggling back there!" Hatori called out, having caught the last few words of their whispers. "Sweetness time is done with, let's get back to rehearsing. Korra, why don't you and your crew demonstrate a little something something for the new kids? Little less mish-mash of instruments and more straightforward band."
The Avatar of this universe nodded, gathering her band together as they took up their respective instruments. Bolin on drums, Mako on bass guitar, Opal on the keyboard, while Korra and Asami took the center with their mics and electric guitars. They kicked things off with some "rock" song that got everyone's head banging, even if it had nothing to do with rocks.
Apparently it was some song the couple wrote themselves called "I'm Every Girl".
"Yep," Asami said, putting her viola down. "They're definitely not like us."
"And that… I'm still trying to pinpoint our new friend." Sami noted as her attention focused towards Hatori who was nodding along to the performance, her single gold eye beaming at the work her students were making.
Dark Korra sighed in frustration, realizing she had probably taken another wrong turn.
"This is the second time you led us the wrong way." Sha-Garou complained.
"It's a lot easier to do it when my thoughts don't have voices running through them."
A passerby overheard her, despite trying to be quiet. He cast her a worried glance, eyes wide as he walked away quickly. At least that made him keep his distance. Her temper was running short.
Worst of all, her stomach was rumbling. It was time for a pit stop.
Out of the corner of her eye she spotted what she assumed was a café. It was lit up brightly, while the walls were painted a dark green with beige floors. It looked nice, so she headed inside, ignoring the spirit's protests.
She eyes the large, extensive menu over the counter. She squinted as she read all that, not even knowing what half of those drinks were. Who on earth would give coffee such complicated names? Her eyes drifted to the cakes and sandwiched in behind the glass at the counter. Those seemed more like it, until she saw the prices.
"Spirits, those are expensive," she muttered.
"You want the food or not? We're already here..."
Dark Korra rolled her eyes and headed up to the cashier anyway. She pointed to what she wanted, and when they totaled it up, she found out they weren't accepting her "outdated" money.
"This money isn't outdated," she tried to argue. "You're just too far into the future!"
The barista gave her a concerned look before putting the items back on the shelf. "Sorry. I'm gonna have to ask you to leave."
"What? All because of some lousy coins?" After everything she'd done, she couldn't believe she had to be told no by some lanky skinny guy in a green apron. Sha-Garou may have been encouraging her, but it took everything she had not to burst out in a fit of shadowbending right then and there.
She muttered to herself, telling the spirit to shut up as she turned to leave. Then, she caught sight of the man that passed her in the street. He walked up to the counter, and bought the sandwich she picked out with his own money. As he came over to her with it in his hand, he gave her a frightened, but warm smile.
"Here," he said, handing it to her. "Spirits bless you. I don't have any spare change but I hope this helps."
She frowned. "Wait no, I'm not homeless-"
"Don't tell him that. Just take the sandwich!" Sha-Garou said, annoyance in his tone.
She cleared her throat. "Thank you," she said in a croaky voice. "This will settle the voices in my head."
The man seemed pleased with that explanation and happily handed her the food. He walked away feeling pleased with himself at what he thought was a charitable deed.
Dark Korra didn't care. She sat down at one of the tables, ripped the package open and started eating.
It was rather good, it reminded her of something that… Asami made her once during a stormy night.
The shadowbender paused a bit before shaking off the thought and resumed eating.
Even though classes were done for the day, there was still one activity, another deemed "Extracurricular", that they all knew this different Korra did after school, it was some sport called "Soccer".
That was Lin and One-Arm Kya's time to shine as they happened to be replacing the gym teachers who were the coaches for the school's girl soccer team.
Thankfully for the two older women, they both realized the sport was actually a modern version of one that they remember "Uncle" Sokka, figuratively in Lin's case while literally in Kya's, tried inventing in their universe when they were much younger. Though they knew it under a different name.
"Football just makes more sense." Lin, or "Coach Poppy" as One-Arm Kya cheekily referred to her as to the Chief's irritation, said as she and the bloodbender watched the girls practice their drills, running around and kicking the white and black ball.
"Yeah, but Soccer sounds a bit more streamlined, you can put "Football" onto anything involving feet and a ball and it works, but people be like 'Wait, which ball are we kicking today?'." The grey haired woman noted in her disguise, which Lin decided to borrow from, only with green and silver colors, seeing the universe's Korra in her uniform look to easily get the ball and kick it hard into the goal with no issue. "Huh, the girl is good at this. But when you say "Soccer", people will be like 'OH, I know what you're talking about.'."
Lin kept her steely green eyes on this universe's Avatar getting high-fives from her teammates, laughing with them before taking notice of her looking to the side to the sidelines and seeing the other Asami sitting on the benches, cheering her girlfriend on.
It actually made Lin feel something she hadn't felt as much, two feelings actually. Pride and happiness, the second the most at seeing this Korra not as the all mighty Avatar having to deal with all the stress and issues of being the bridge between the worlds and it's protector.
Here, at least at the moment, she was just a teenage girl living her life. No dealing with big bad guys trying to rule the world at the moment, just a regular girl living life.
Too bad the sound of fingers snapping got her attention.
"Hey, earth to the lady banging the other me…" One-Arm Kya said, making the metalbender's face turn red and turning to look at her, having to give a smirk. "What'cha thinking?"
The Chief sighed, closing her eyes, shaking her head. "For your information, I actually had a pleasant thought in my mind for once, until you had to bring up my sex life." She whispered back, not wanting any of the students to hear.
"Sorry, not my fault you couldn't resist my two armed self's sexual charms." One-Arm Kya whispered back, obviously toying with the metalbender, who was beginning to steam up at this other version of her girlfriend messing with her. "I mean, us water tribe women are renown for our skills in the art of sex, with Fire Nation ladies at a close second."
"We're at a public school, do you really feel the need to express those thoughts?!" Lin shot back, trying not to make her embarrassment known, even knowing just from her eyes bugging out alone that she was failing as One-Arm Kya closed her eyes, stretching her single arm up in the air.
"Express what thoughts?" She asked in an innocent tone.
"ABOUT THE ART OF SEX!" Yelled out the Chief in annoyance, not realizing what she just screamed out at the bloodbender until the sudden creeping feeling dropped on her the second she said the last word and quickly turned to see all the soccer players, including Korra, along with some other students look at her with weird and concerned looks on their faces.
"Lower the volume will you? We're still in school." She heard the One-Armed bender say in a tone that was one part "Relax" and "Got you" in the other.
If it wasn't for the fact that she didn't want to cause more of a ruckus and get unwanted attention, along with this different version of her partner being a bloodbender of all things, Lin would have tackled this Kya to the ground.
But to save face, Lin coughed into her hand before putting back on her "Beifong" face to look at the students. "Alright, enough standing around, I want you all to do passing drills! Any of you slack off and it's two hundred push ups in a row, GOT IT?!"
That got the players to focus their attention away from what just happened as Lin sighed, glaring at the smirking bloodbender.
"How the fuck does Hattori deal with your shit?"
"Oh, I'm an acquired taste." One-Arm Kya smirked, knowing she got the Chief good before noticing something. "Hey, ain't that our 'Yue'?" She noted, pointing out towards another part of the school as Lin looked in the direction to see her Kya she knew holding her textbooks as she sat down with another student.
From far away, it was hard to tell, but it was like she was casually talking to a shy girl on a bench, but something just didn't seem right.
"Wonder who she's talking to? Certainly some female student..." The bloodbender squinted her eyes, damning herself for not getting glasses like doctor's suggested.
"Not quite…" Lin noted in a matter of fact tone, tapping her sneakers on the ground, having fitting metal onto them to still be able to use her seismic sensing. "If the vibrations I'm feeling are correct, which ninety five percent of the time they are, I don't think that's a girl she's talking to."
It didn't take more than a few seconds for the one armed bender to realize what her other self was actually doing with this student in a dress.
Kya was trying to comfort a trans girl student, watching her put her kind hand on their shoulder, seeming to be saying encouraging words to the student who looked to return it back, looking to be happy with the words of the healer, or who they thought was just the Agriculture teacher.
The bloodbender was reminded briefly of Reiko talking to her the morning after they slept together, not caring about what other people would think of what they did in that bed or even what they'd say about their relationship later on.
One-Arm Kya remembered the kindness she saw in her other self as they were getting their disguises, that even after so much hardship, she saw the good in everything, felt the energy and aura in all life. Like with Lin.
She also knew Kya didn't care about who or what you were, how you looked or acted, if she could comfort you with her words or hands, she would.
It made the single armed bender wonder how she could be more like her other self.
"You have an amazing gal Lin…" She began, with Lin turning to her, away from Kya waving the student off. "Don't ever lose her."
The metalbender was thrown a bit, seeing this version of Kya, who just before had been purposely fucking with her head all just for a laugh, now telling her not to let Kya go in the most sincere way possible. She had to give a small laugh at this.
"You're right, you are an acquired taste, One-Arm… but a good one."
"Okay, so what do we know? Anything important?" Opal asked as the crew had regrouped in an hotel not far from the school, knowing this universe's Korra hadn't left it yet.
"Yeah, apparently Korra can't play a triangle for shite." Thuy answered as the Avatar gave her a silly glare, snickering. "Sorry, couldn't resist Korra."
Seeing Thuy now being her regular self after what they found out, it did make Mako feel much better, holding her hand as the metalbender looked at him.
"Feeling better?" Mako asked as Thuy nodded.
"Very much love."
"Also, me and Opal think this universe's Mako is gay."
"WHAT?!" The firebender yelled out as he quickly turned to look at his brother who looked at him shrugging after saying that.
"Well, yeah…"
"Don't you remember seeing how he was cool with Wu rubbing his shoulders?" Opal asked, remembering the blush on the other Mako's face, finding it rather cute.
"But that could mean anything!" Mako said back, just now remembering what he saw.
"Ah, love… I didn't want to mention this until we were in private, but I also happened to… notice other you and Wu as school ended…" Thuy began in a small voice, rubbing her fingers with a small cute smile. "... snogging a bit."
"Snogging- YOU MEAN?!" Asami beamed out, knowing what nickname the metalbender used to describe what she saw her and Korra do once or twice.
"Making out." Thuy finished in her small tone as Mako felt himself go even more pale.
"... I'm gay and… I'm gay with…" He sputtered out, trying to make sense of it all. "I… I mean, the gay part isn't what's bothering me-"
"But because of WHO your other self is gay for?" Lin finished for him in a simple matter to which Mako nodded with a disturbed look on her face, which she shrugged at. "Hey, sometimes you never know who gets your attention. Maybe Wu isn't as much of an idiot in this universe…"
Okay, maybe she couldn't give Wu, or at least any Wu that much credit. "... MAYBE."
"Yeah, I mean, who all saw Korra and Asami happening?" Bolin asked.
"I did." Kya simply answered.
"Me too." As did Lin.
"I didn- NO, wait, I did too." Opal had to agree after correcting herself.
"Me and Hattori had a bet in our universe of when they'd finally admit their feelings." One-Arm Kya smirked.
"And I lost. " Hattori said, remembering how much Yuan he lost to his partner.
Both brothers looked at each other and sighed at being alone at that instance as both Korra and Asami laughed at them, along with Sami who enjoyed the humor, needing it after so long.
"Okay, we need to figure out a way to keep an eye on the Korra of this universe. Ideas?" Kya said after the laughter was finished.
"OH, maybe Sami can keep watch on her from the shadows! You can do that, right?" Opal thought of which Sami shrugged.
"Yeah, that should be no issue." She said before remembering something. "But in case Dark Korra comes around, I'm going to need some backup. I may be a shadowbender, but I'm…"
She didn't want to admit it, even as Khu-Shui was telling her in her head that she was more powerful than she gave herself credit for.
"... Not as powerful alone. And who knows how long it'll take, some of us do need sleep"
"We'll come with you." Asami offered as Korra nodded.
"Yeah, plus I always wondered what it was like moving around in shadows without them trying to kill me."
That got the shadowbender to smile back, so thankful to have these two always at her side. "Thank you."
With that, she took both her other self and Korra's hands and let them fall with her into Bolin's shadow, the earthbender jumping in fright at that happening afterwards, lightly stepping on the shadow, only to tap on the ground it was cast on.
"Please stop that." Khu-Shui asked as she poked Sami's head out of Thuy's own shadow, making Bolin scream like a girl in fright as she vanished.
"I will never get used to that." One Arm Kya pointed out, still finding the concept of bending shadows freaky, no matter the bender, deciding to lay down on the bed. "Whatever, taking a nap, don't wake me up unless we're under attack."
As that went on, Opal took notice of the other version of her uncle walking into the bathroom trying to put something red around his neck, following him. "Uncle Hattori, what are you doing?"
"Trying to put this damn tie on, why do these have to be in this universe too?" He answered as he looked in the mirror, muttering to himself as he never had much success with putting one on.
Lin rolled her eyes at this sight and strolled over, grabbing the tie and easily wrapping it in place for him.
"There. Now why are you putting on a tie in the first place? Didn't you throw a hissy fit at having to wear one yesterday?"
That got Hattori to sigh at his other sister. "I was… invited to dinner." He answered, his voice going low as he finished.
"With who?"
Then both Beifong women realized from how red his face was getting and him looking away with just his different looking eyes what was going on.
"Oh my Aang, are you going out on a date?" Lin asked, finding this too funny as Hattori's eyes went wide.
"WHA-NO!"
"Uncle Hattori, I'm so happy, who is she?" Opal asked, hugging him.
"But it's not a date!" He tried correcting her as Lin was unconvinced.
"You're willing to put on a tie and you're acting like you were caught stealing a choco chip pastry."
"Is she cute?"
"It's not like that-"
"Or is your date a guy?"
"Okay, I'm gonna put a stop to this now!" Hattori gasped out, his hands up, breathing deep breaths to calm himself down, trying not to get the other's attention. "I was politely asked to have dinner by the sex-ed teacher, and not wanting to almost blow my cover again-"
"Wait, 'again'?!" Lin asked in disbelief at him. "WHAT did you-"
"I said yes and not the point." Hattori stopped the Chief, rolling both of his eyes. "I don't know if Izumi took pity on-"
"IZUMI?!" Both aunt and nice yelled out at the same time, causing the metalbender to cover their mouths with his hands to hush them up.
"Quiet down will you!" He whispered back as Lin got his hands off her and Opal's mouths.
"Why are you trying to hook up with Zuko's daughter again, to make up for lost time?"
"I just find it weird that the Fire Lord's daughter is teaching Sex-Ed." Opal noted as this was getting too crazy for Hattori before realizing something. "Wait, how do you know Fire Lord Izumi?" She asked, getting an amused chuckle from her aunt.
"OH, your uncle never told you?" She began, rather enjoying the fun she was getting out of making fun of a silent Hattori. "In his universe, he and Izumi used to go out."
"WWOOOWWW…" The airbender said in awe before noticing something in his eyes. "... Why'd it end between you two?"
That got the man to sigh, rubbing his fingers on his forehead in both annoyance... and regret. "Because I made the worst fucking mistake in my life. Something I'm still paying for."
"ANYWAY…" He resumed saying in his natural tone, looking at the two. "I didn't just accept her offer because of who she is, but because of who I found out her wife is."
"Damn, didn't think of her to swing that way." Lin said to herself before looking at Hattori, just now getting an idea. "Is it Ula?"
The name sounded familar, but Hattori shook his head. "Ah… Hah… NOO…" He began, that feeling of embarrassment coming back to him.
"Well, who then?" Opal asked before she figured it out at the same exact time as Lin whose eyes went wide with realization.
"Oh Raava, it's you."
"Wait, in this universe, you're female? That means I have two aunts now!" Opal came up with, giggling at this revelation as Hattori turned to the wall and began slowly hitting his forehead against it.
"This is my curse, damn Beifong curse…" He groaned out as Lin couldn't help but laugh. If anything, Hattori was happy they didn't know about Shali… least he hoped so.
"Oh, this is priceless, we have to be there."
"NO! No!" The Chief hissed, turning around at Lin, shaking his head, fear in his eyes. "You can't do this to me, Opal maybe, but not you…"
"I fucking hate you right now." Was all Hattori said, venom in his voice as he stood in front of the door of the fancy apartment after ringing the doorbell, a bottle of Fire Nation whiskey in one hand and both Lin and Opal at his side.
"Oh, you're such a baby." Lin smirked, loving how easily this so-called tough guy caved in as he glared at her.
"Right now, you're on my shit list…" He muttered before looking at Opal. "Not you Opal, you I like."
"Hey, Uncle Hattori, it's okay…" Opal said, holding his hand, trying to calm him down. "You can do this, we're here for you." This got a laugh from Lin.
"Whatever, I'm just here to watch him crash and burn."
Before the man with the mismatched eyes could insult his other universe sister, he heard the door open, said eyes of his widening at the woman standing in front of him.
There stood Izumi, clad in more casual clothes compared to her work attire, but her mature beauty still shined as she gave a smile.
"Ah, Daisuke Fudo, glad you found the place so easy. And I see you brought company."
"Huh? Ah…" Hattori trailed off, turning to Opal, trying to remember her fake name. "This is my… Daughter, Karai."
The airbender gave a cheerful wave. "Hello!"
"Nice to meet you, Karai." Izumi smiled before turning to Lin. "And I assume you're his wife?"
THAT got a horrified look off of Lin.
"WIFE?!"
"Ha! Fuck no." Hattori waved off, shutting the Chief up. "That's Poppy, my freeloading sister who still lives with our mother, even though she's a gym teacher and decided to crash this lovely dinner, I brought whiskey!" He said, annoyed sarcasm in his voice, yet not resisting the chance to get back at Lin as his eyes looked at the curious teacher as if he was apologizing to her, holding up the bottle of liquor in hand. "May we come in?"
The teacher gave both women a quick look over before letting out a kind smile.
"Oh, it's no problem, Hattori made enough food to feed a whole bunch of Air Wanderers. She welcomes company, come on in."
"Thank you Mrs. Honō…" The Chief bowed before entering along with Opal and Lin.
Sami, Asami and Korra travelled through the shadows, going after this universe's Korra as she was leaving. They had to admit, this was a strange and somewhat creepy way of doing things, but Sami admitted to not being able to sense Dark Korra so well in this world. It must have had something to do with the electrical interference of all the technology. But either way, that meant they had to do things in a less... desirable way.
They had no idea when the Dark Avatar would strike, so they kept a close eye on the seniors as they took their bus ride home. Being a shadowbender was easy in the afternoon sun. Everywhere they looked, something was casting a shadow they could slip into.
They ended up following both the other Korra and Asami, and as they got to the Avatar's home, they hesitated a moment.
"Ah, are you sure we should be doing this?" Asami whispered. She also had a few complaints about how being dragged through shadows felt, but she held them back. Maybe it was something had to get used to, but feeling the seemingly empty void of darkness was gonna take more than a few minutes to get used to
Sami tried to feel for Dark Korra again, but she couldn't pinpoint her at all. "We'd never forgive ourselves if we're not there when she attacks."
"Can't we watch from the outside?" the engineer rebutted.
"And what if she sneaks in like we are? We'll never see her coming."
The three of them were coming to the realization that there was no other way to do things. With a sigh and a final defeat, they headed in, sliding under the door after the pair.
Houses were so different in this universe than they were used to. The first floor was more like a large, open planning room. The couches in the living room had blankets with watertribe-like embroideries thrown over them, and there was this large monitor on the wall that looked... flat? And hung on the wall? That sure looked strange to the crew.
They saw the couple heading into the kitchen on the left of the entrance, separated from the living room by a half wall. The two got snacks from the cupboards and giggled to themselves.
"Can we find somewhere to hop out?" Asami whispered in the shadow. "It's really cramped in here."
"Yeah, you're squishing me," Korra said.
"You're coming into my space."
"You can't claim a monopoly on space when there barely is any!"
"Shut up you two. Spirits, it's like you're married already, and I should know!" Sami said, making them quiet as she looked for somewhere better to hide. The openness of the floorplan wasn't ideal for their mission. "Gonna head upstairs," she whispered, slithering up the steps.
They slipped under the first door they saw and the three rushed out of the shadow, finally able to stretch.
"I have never admired contortionists more in my life." Asami said, her spine letting out a few cracks as she straightened her back.
They took a moment to glance around. There was a bed with navy sheets, and above it a shelf with various trophies. Leaning against the nightstand was a guitar, and framed on the wall was a photo of a band of people. Looking a little closer, it was the Avatar's rock band with her friends and girlfriend. Out of all places, they ended up in Korra's room.
"The Krew…" Asami whispered, seeing the name on a small plaque on the picture frame. "Catchy name."
"We should probably find somewhere more discreet to hide," Sami whispered. "They might head up here."
"Ugh, more shadows?" Korra said.
"Oh for Agni's- It'll be quick this tim-"
They heard footsteps out in the corridor.
"Shit! Hide!"
Korra had no time to think, and just let herself be pulled by Asami into the closet as Sami slipped into the shadows. Ironically, no matter what route they took, they ended up cramped in darkness again.
"Well well well," Korra whispered to Asami, slight smirk on her face, knowing where they were.
"Shut it."
"Least we're not in shadows…"
They ended up finding some comfortable position against the clothes in there with them, as this universe's couple walked in. They could just about spot the two of them through the small trickle of light coming in through the closet's keyhole.
The two of them were chuckling at each other, and as they crashed down onto the bed, the two in the closet realized they couldn't be stuck in a worse spot.
In the darkness of the wardrobe, Korra looked at Asami, and although they could barely see each other, they both had the same worried look on their faces. Without saying anything, they both knew what they were thinking.
Oh no.
Things were heating up in the Avatar's bedroom as soon as they saw the clothes dropping off the bed. Korra shut her eyes, turning away from the keyhole and Asami did the same, but even with their hands over their ears, they couldn't stop hearing the heavy breathing outside the closet.
"Man, we are so loud…" Korra whispered as low as she humanly could to Asami, so as not to alert the other two in the room, not that they'd hear them anyway.
It was now that they regretted not going with Sami. She probably could have slipped them away quietly and they wouldn't have to endure this. As much as they were only other versions of themselves, this still felt... insanely awkward.
It wasn't until Asami noticed something else going on that she dared take a peek, out of sheer curiosity. She frowned, and then her eyes widened. Whatever they were using, they definitely didn't have those back in their universe.
Korra noticed her fiancé looking and was about to grab her face and turn her head away from the keyhole, when she also caught sight of what was being used and too was fascinated by it. She and the engineer looked at each other again, and they shared a thought.
We're SO inventing that when we go back home.
Before they endured any more of this, they sensed something in the closet with them. Two hands reached out and pulled them in the shadows with it, and they slid away quietly. The busy couple would almost never have noticed them anyway.
Sami hurried down the hall and slipped into the bathroom where everyone emerged again.
No one said anything for a moment. They looked at each other in an awkward silence, processing what they just witnessed. Then Asami looked at her alter self.
"Were you thinking what I was thinking?"
The shadowbender finally smiled, whispering back. "Battery powered, right?"
"And using an alternating current for vibrations?"
"Genius!" They both said at the same time, chuckling quietly.
Korra rolled her eyes. "I swear you two would spot a new invention in any situation."
"I don't hear you being against it." Asami said with a wolfcat-like grin, making the Avatar blush at how right she was.
Entering the apartment, the three Beifong's looked around, taking notice of how… modern and big the apartment was, enough space in the living room alone for a large bookshelf, two couches, a fireplace AND what looked like a big monitor which was huge and so flat on the wall.
"Spirits, how'd they get all the components in this thing?" Hattori muttered to himself as Lin herself was more amused by the fact that the room alone was almost as big as her whole apartment.
"Woah, how much did this all cost?" Opal asked the owner who giggled at the question.
"When your father is the Fire Lord, money's not really an issue."
"I'd say…" Lin noted, looking at the rather antique looking Fire Nation soldier armor.
"Ah, yes, used to be on display in my father's private collection at the palace, you have no idea how hard it was to bring it over by air without damaging it." Izumi noted, appreciating the old relic as Lin eyed her, curious.
"So, if you come from such a big rich family, why-"
"Choose to live the life of a commoner?" The Fire Lord's daughter answered quickly to which she got a nod, Izumi returning one back. "I love my parents, I enjoyed my life as princess, royalty certainly has its perks."
She then sat down, thinking it over for her guests. "But I didn't want to be some rich brat who had everything given to her, my parents knew I wanted to take my own path. Even as I joined up with the Fire Nation army, I insisted that I not be given any special treatment because of who my father was."
"You were in the army? That must have been… rough, buddy." Opal said, trying to approach the subject without sounding intrusive as the teacher sighed.
"It was, even for firebenders…" She said, bending up a flame in her hand, showing that she in this universe was also a bender. "But I wanted to be a medic. I met many good friends there. Lost a lot of them too, but I knew if I kept at it, I could focus on saving lives, not taking any unless I had to."
Izumi then looked at a photo on the stand next to her, it was her in her army uniform getting a medal from her father and various generals, it was a purple one that looked like a heart.
"I almost died on the battlefield too, but I fought on through the pain and was able to be honorably discharged, allowing me to focus on my true passion."
"Teaching Sex-Ed?" Hattori had to snark.
"Well, more Human Biology. It just so happened the class you helped me with earlier today was just a side class the school just started having." She explained as she took notice of him looking at a picture on the wall of her in her late 20's.
In the picture with Izumi was a baby girl in her arms along with a young boy of four who stood, or tried standing in a serious pose.
"Them your kids?"
"Yep, Iroh II. and Mihoshi. Iroh actually served in my father's army too, now he teaches Art Studies at the school along with his husband Haku. Mihoshi has been traveling all over the world as a peace ambassador."
Before Hattori could say how they sounded like good people, having already met the two in his universe, he noticed someone in the photo he didn't recognize at first, a bearded guy in a suit.
It took the metalbender mentally replacing the short dark brown scruffy hair with long hair tied up in a ponytail to realize who the man was.
"Take it he's the father?" He asked, getting a saddened look from Izumi, which both Lin and Opal noticed, already having figured out who the man was.
"Correct, that's Kyo, my first husband. I met him after I got out of the army as we went to the same college, he was there under a Basketball scholarship. But a leg injury cut that career path short, but I did meet him in the hospital I volunteered at, so maybe it was meant to happen. He then studied and became a surgeon."
Seeing the soft smile on Izumi's face, Hattori, along with Lin and Opal, knew just as easily why he wasn't around. "If you don't mind me asking, what happened to him?"
Izumi looked over to the fireplace where an urn rested on it, Kyo's name on the plaque, walking over to it and sliding her hand down it.
"Ten years ago, he was on his way home late at night after a double shift at the hospital. Some Triple Threat Triads tried stealing his car and-"
"Say no more." Lin simply said, letting the memory be as Opal and Hattori approached her, the airbender putting her hand on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry to hear that, I'm sure he's smiling at you and your children in the Spirit World."
"Thank you Karai." The mature woman sniffled a bit before smiling, having to chuckle a bit. "Here I am getting emotional while me and my wife are supposed to be serving you all dinner."
"Yeah, been wondering where she is." Hattori noted, not noticing the figure standing behind him in the archway into the dining room.
"Maybe if you quit looking at my girl, maybe you'd find her." The figure said, making Hattori jump as everyone else turned to see the music teacher, laughing at the guy who she didn't realize was another form of herself.
"Spirits, you scared… me." He said, realizing who he was talking to, the metalbender shocked to see how much this lady version of himself looked like him, same color of hair, same taste in clothes, or at least what disguise he wore, and the same eyes… except for the fact that she had a eyepatch over where her blind eye should be.
"So, this is the nice guy you were telling me who threatened to metalbend that little bastard, break his legs, then throw 'em through a wall."
"Is THAT what you did?!" Lin asked, mortified at an embarrassed Hattori, realizing that's how he almost blew their cover as the guy turned to her.
"Hey, the fucker had it coming, should have heard the shit he was saying about Izumi!..." He said before, turning away, a little nervous at the memory. "And I apologized."
"Hey Poppy, no need to get angry at Daisuke." Izumi began saying as she walked up to her wife. "That student has been nothing but trouble since the year started. Frankly, I'm just happy your brother knocked him down a peg. OH!"
Fake slapping the side of her head, she pointed at her lover. "Where are my manners, this is my wife, Hatori Beifong."
"Glad to meet you." Hatori smiled as she shook her other self's hand, the owner of the hand still in awe at how a female version of him looked kissing another version of his old lover.
"I have a lot of confusing feelings right now." Hattori said to himself as low as he could so no one could hear, or at least he hoped so.
"Since you already know Daisuke's name, this is his daughter Karai and his sister Poppy." Izumi smiled as Hatori looked at the two women her wife was pointing at.
"Nice to meet you two."
"Same to you." Lin said back, trying to keep in her laughter as much as she could easily see how this woman looked and acted like Hattori, just praying to Raava she could actually do it.
"So nice to meet you Auuunn…" Opal was about to say "Aunt", but caught herself, thankfully noticing something else in the corner of the room. "... OH, what's that?"
The Airbender moved away from her other universe aunt to the area, seeing it was one of those guitars Korra, Asami, Sami and Thuy told her about. But it was different looking from the ones they described as it didn't look like it needed electricity to be played as it was made of just pine wood and steel with a fine grain finish.
What caught her eyes the most was that it looked like a small child painted blue and white snowflakes on the front.
"It's so pretty…" Opal said, reaching out to touch it, only to suddenly feel a hand grasp her quite harder than she expected.
"DON'T TOUCH THAT!..." Hatori let out rather loudly, like she was scolding the girl to her and the guests' surprise, realizing what she had done as she felt Izumi come up behind her and held her by the waist.
"I… ah… sorry…" The one eyed woman said, letting Opal go to her confusion. "It's, ah… very personal to me, one of a kind."
Even without words being said, the airbender, along with her aunt and other universe uncle, could tell there were some memories that this Hatori held with the instrument that they may have been familiar with to an extent.
"I'm sorry, I… maybe should have asked Mrs. Beifong." Opal responded with, seeing the woman give a brief glance at her wife, who knew exactly why she responded like that.
"It's okay… SO! WHO'S HUNGRY?" At the flip of a switch, Hatori pointed to the dining room, seemingly back to normal. "Who likes Beef and rice bowls?"
"I do?" Hattori rose his hand up, not trying to give the wrong impression as Hatori laughed and approached him.
"Good, cause I made plenty to go around, come on!" She said heading into the room with Izumi, the three Beifong's giving each other glances at how odd that moment was.
"That's… not what I expected from a female you…" Lin whispered as Hattori nodded, Opal approaching them, her voice low too, pointing at her aunt.
"Something's up, I saw it in her eye, she's different from the others we met."
"Not even my sister was that twitchy." Hattori noted as well, realizing how different Hatori was compared to his Lin.
"You three coming?!" Izumi asked from the kitchen, her voice ringing out.
"Yes!" Hattori yelled back as they began to make their way into the dining room, but before Lin entered it, she JUST heard a slight noise from upstairs, like a creak.
She waited a bit, trying to use her seismic sensing, waiting to see if she was just hearing things, but got nothing, shrugging, probably just an open door.
"WOW, my compliments to the chef!" Hattori praised, having finished his dinner, putting his chopsticks down and bowing to Hatori who mock-bowed in her seat back as Izumi smiled.
"Thank you, thank you, old family recipe."
"Well, who knew the Beifongs were good cooks?" Lin said, putting on a fake smile, even if truth be told, she was always a terrible cook, just passable at best. She always had Kya make their meals as the waterbender had less of a chance of burning their apartment down.
"It's amazing you're related to the Beifongs, I bet they're super cool, especially Suyin…" Opal said, having to give some praise to her mother before noticing the slight glare her aunt was giving her. "And of course, that awesome Chief of Police Lin."
"Yeah, they're pretty cool, little rocky at first getting used to them, but they're good sisters… they're great sisters." Hatori said, feeling the metal bracelet around her wrist.
One that the other three Beifong's noticed looked like the space rock bracelet of Toph's, only slightly different, a small gold clip attached.
"Ahh… What about your mother, Toph? I always heard she was kind of a ballbuster." Hattori asked, trying to play along.
"Kind of?" Izumi repeated, having to laugh as she held her wife's hand. "Hatori, remember our wedding back at my father's palace?" She asked to which Hatori sighed.
"Spirits, it's still brought up at every get-together. So, the old lady was offered a room to stay in at the palace during the week of the wedding, cause you know, she and Zuko are still close friends and allies." Hatori began describing, remembering it like it was only days ago.
"Yet she didn't want the nice comfy bed, saying it reminded her too much of her old home. So she demanded that she be given some big slabs of stone to form up her own little rock mattress. But Zuko, high power Fire Lord he is, tried insisting for her to at least just give the bed a try, so what happens next?"
"She lies down on the bed, and not even ten seconds later, she gets off and uses her freakin' earthbending to launch it out of the window, four stories up too, and forms up her rock mattress." Izumi said, Hatori laughing her head off.
"When Zuko asked why she would even do that, what did mother say?" She said before putting on her own impression of her mother. "I've slept on volcanic rock more comfy than that!"
That got Hattori, Opal and even Lin herself laughing at how the story went as… Well, it was very much a Toph thing to do and say.
"Oh, those poor guards who had to fetch that bed from that Platypus Bear cave." Izumi said, taking off her glasses to wipe a tear from her eye from laughing at the story.
"Alright, that does sound like something she'd do." Lin said in reflection almost absentmindedly, glad that didn't happen when she had her mother over during the Ripper murders or since.
Speaking of which, Lin herself couldn't believe that this woman, this "Hatori Beifong", or "Hatori Hanzo" could have been the Equalist Ripper, she just… didn't seem like the type who'd harm a fly.
Yet… the way she reacted to Opal almost touching that instrument, the way she suddenly sprung herself on the girl for even getting close. She, along with the two other Beifongs, had to figure out what it was that triggered her.
"Okay, enough about us, what about you three? Have any stories to share?" Izumi questioned, looking at the three, who quickly looked at each other, each saying "No" in some form of variation.
"Nothing special about us really." Opal said in her natural sweet voice until she just noticed something at the corner of her eye, her chopsticks were moving slightly…
… those METAL chopsticks were moving.
"Are you sure?" She heard Hatori's voice ask before lifting her head up to look at her, just now, along with her family members, noticing the one-eyed woman put on a sinister smile. "Cause I think you have plenty to share…"
"Like why you've been spying on Korra." Lin seemingly said…
… but it wasn't the Lin sitting next to Opal who said it, with said woman's eyes going wide before all the chopsticks on the stable lifted and moved over their wrists, bending around them, leaving the three Beifong's to be strapped to their chairs.
"WHAT THE?!" Hattori yelled out, trying to use his own metalbending to escape as did Lin, but it wasn't working.
"Don't even try, I doubt you three can bend platinum." Lin's voice rang out again as the three turned and to their shock, stood the Lin Beifong of this universe, clad in a more modern, sleeker and thinner version of the metalbender cop uniform while her hair was tied up into a bun, her hand raised up as both Hatori and Izumi stood up from the dining room table and walked over to the cop.
"Next time you're trying to sneak into a school, make sure the idiot principal doesn't try going into the police station to ask the real me for more details about your little 'undercover sting'."
"Way to go BROTHER, because of your unresolved issues with Izumi, we're trapped!" Lin yelled out at Hattori as she struggled trying to slip her hands through the makeshift restraints, realizing she couldn't.
"ME?! Maybe they were tipped off by our fake names that YOU came up with! I mean, fucking "Poppy", SERIOUSLY?! Our and their grandmother's name?!" He shot back, voicing his own issue with Lin's plan.
"Stop it you two, arguing won't help our case!" Opal yelled back at her aunt and other uncle like they were children, turning to this more modern looking Lin. "Look, we'll talk, but you all have to know your Korra's in danger!" Opal tried to talk to appease them, only to suddenly see a sharp blade at the side of her face.
"Is that so? How do we know you shadow spirit doppelgangers aren't lying to get close to her?" Hatori asked, holding the blade of her Hanzo original katana up to the airbender's throat.
"HEY! Get that fucking blade away from her, you murdering bitch!" Lin yelled out as she tried escaping, only to notice behind the hot air just inches away from her hair.
"Please refrain from using such language." Izumi threatened, holding a ball of fire up near Lin's head, making sure he knew what could just as easily happen next.
"And If you don't mind me taking sides 'Not-Me'..." The other Lin began, looking at both Chief's. "The fake aliases weren't subtle in the slightest. Katara, Yue, you weren't even trying!" The other Lin said, sitting down across from the three Beifong's, having to at least agree with Hattori.
"Alright, we get it. But we're telling the truth, your Korra is in serious danger, there is a killer after her!" Hattori pleaded with them, knowing that time was slowly ticking until Dark Korra made her attack.
"Is that so?"
The three strapped down guests instantly knew whose voice they just heard, turning their heads just enough to see Toph Beifong, in more casual modern clothing, standing in the room, leaning against the wall as the floor below them had what looked like liquid metal slide out from below the old woman's feet and began covering the chairs they were on.
"Well, I'm a living breathing lie detector, so go ahead, tell me everything."
"Oh, where's Sami to describe things…" Lin sighed, knowing they had a long story to tell.