The Iron Sole Alchemist in the Benders' World (Chapter 6) Vaatu's True Threat
by Howlin
(Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to any of the universes, places, or characters, and only claim the protagonist, Sloth, and Loki as my own creation. This is fan fiction, and I don't profit from it. Please don't sue me.)
The sun was just rising over a glacier off to the east as we approached the capital city of the Southern Water Tribe on Uggi. The shimmering white landscape surrounding the city proper contrasted with the line of dark grey ships blockading the harbor.
"Something's wrong," I said. "Korra's not down there. I can feel Ulanaq's spirit energy, but not Korra's."
"Nobody panic," advised Tenzin. "Greed, Sloth, go check Ulanaq like we talked about. The rest of us will find Tanraq and find out where Korra is."
"Right," I said, grabbing and pocketing a tuft of Uggi's fur.
"What's that for?" asked Kaya.
"It'll let us find you quicker once we're done with Ulanaq," I said, taking out a glider staff and unfolding its wings with a quick gesture.
Sloth unfolded her glider staff and we hopped off Uggi. Loki trotted through the air after us as we glided toward the main government building. Neither Sloth nor I had switched back to heavy winter clothing, since there was a basic air bending technique for regulating the temperature of the air around you.
We landed on a balcony, Sloth and I folding our staves closed, and walked in. Ulanaq was seated at a desk going over papers and looked stressed. Sloth adjusted the dial on her Soul Bracelet once she had closed the door and no longer needed her air bending to keep warm.
"The two of you are air benders?" asked Ulanaq in surprise.
"He's the one," said Sloth. "Tenzin was right. He's trying to release Vaatu."
"What are you talking about?" asked Ulanaq.
"She can read your mind. You have no secrets from us," I said, taking a seat across from him. "Now, why don't you start by explaining to us what exactly you find appealing about ten thousand years of darkness?"
"All right. We'll drop the pretense," said Ulanaq, setting his papers aside and folding his hands together. "Korra's told me all about your unusual abilities, and you may prove useful."
Sloth clapped and transmuted a chair so she'd be at the same level as Ulanaq and I then hopped into it. "We're listening," said Sloth.
"The fact that you know Vaatu's name puts you in an elite group," began Ulanaq. "As I'm sure you know, Vaatu is the great spirit of darkness and chaos, the counterpart to Raava, the great spirit of light and order, the spiritual component that makes the avatar what she is.
"Ever since Avatar Wan sealed away Vaatu and closed the spirit portals, the world has been out of balance. By opening the portals and releasing Vaatu, we can begin to bring the world back into balance."
"What's so great about balance?" I asked. "Humanity's flourished in the time since things have been imbalanced."
"That's the problem," said Ulanaq. "Humanity has flourished, but it has done so at the expense of the natural world and without acknowledging the role of the spirits."
"So the human race has to die for that?" I asked. "There aren't any lion turtles for humans to go back into hiding on from just the spirits, even ignoring Vaatu."
"It's true simply unleashing Vaatu and throwing open the portals would be a disaster," said Ulanaq. "What I intend to do is merge with Vaatu the same way Wan fused with Raava. Wan gave Raava a human prospective. I can do the same for Vaatu as a dark avatar."
"And the current avatar?" prompted Sloth.
"While it would be ideal if she and I could come to an arrangement, working together to guide the world, I doubt she'd go along with it willingly. I have no intention of killing Korra, but if it becomes necessary, I'll simply extract Raava from her and slay the light spirit. Korra will survive, but she'd no longer be the avatar, and thus would no longer be a threat."
"Let's hear a little more about this new world you're going to make," I suggested.
"The first thing that will change is that humans and spirits will live side by side," said Ulanaq. "It will become impossible for humans to ignore the spiritual consequences of their actions with the spirits right there. Obviously, with spirits being immortal and humans mortal, there will be the temptation for the spirits to oppress the humans as they did during the age of Raava, so part of my task as the dark avatar would be to reign in those excesses."
"And humanity's state?" asked Sloth.
"Obviously, there will be cullings," said Ulanaq. "Many won't accept the new order and will fight to the death to preserve the old. Their deaths will be an unfortunate necessity to restore balance."
"What exactly do you want us to do?" I asked.
"Korra already opened one of the spirit portals," said Ulanaq. "Shortly after, she and I had a disagreement about the steps I was taking to secure the southern portal."
"You threw her father in prison on trumped up charges," corrected Sloth. "Mind reader, remember. Korra's against you now and you're hoping we can open the northern portal because you had no backup plan. What I don't understand is why we should let someone so petty and dumb that he'd sabotage his own plan like that become the all powerful ruler of the world."
"I think we're done here," I said, nodding to Sloth.
In an instant, Ulanaq was on his feet, blasting a jet of water at my chest from the ice wall behind him. Air bending emphasizes flexibility and evasion, and I had thousands of years worth of lessons drilled into me. I easily dodged the water jet by leaning sideways at ninety degrees. The chair splintered as I rolled, using air bending to assist the motion and sprinted into combat range on Ulanaq's left side. Sloth had already gotten into range on his right.
Ulanaq's hand gripped the hilt of his zanpakto, but he didn't have time to draw it from his sheath. Using the techniques we'd learned on Kyoshi Island, Sloth and I struck various pressure points, temporarily paralyzing Ulanaq. I took Ulanaq's sword.
"The hilt and guard have changed," I noted. "You've achieved shikai in only a few days. I'm impressed. It took me longer and I had a better idea what was involved."
"Guards are coming," reported Sloth. "What're we doing with him now that he's helpless?"
I pointed at Ulanaq's chest and extended my index finger to pierce him with it using a specific application of homunculus shape shifting abilities we called the Ultimate Spear. As I did so, the zanpakto in my hand faded and dissolved into nothingness.
"I've pierced his soul chain and soul sleep," I explained. "His spiritual powers have been destroyed. I don't think we need to kill him. Let's go link up with the others."
Sloth, Loki, and I jumped out the window, avoiding jets of high pressure water from Ulanaq's guards. Not bothering to look back, I took the tuft of Uggi's fur out of my pocket and inserted it into my handheld tracking device. I pointed and the two of us turned our gliders toward the mountains outside of town, Loki trotting through the air with us.
A small encampment made to blend in with the ice and snow had a dozen men and women acting as sentries. Uggi the sky bison was waiting outside a large tent. Sloth, Loki, and I landed near the tent. One of the sentries who'd seen us coming came up to greet us.
"We're glad to see you," said the young man. "You can head straight in to the command tent. Tanraq is expecting you."
"Ulanaq's working to free Vaatu," declared Sloth as we entered the tent to see Tanraq, Tenzin, Bumi, and Kaya standing over a map. "He wants to merge with Vaatu, become a dark avatar, and take over the world."
"So, it's true," said Tanraq, deflating a bit. "I'd thought my brother only wanted to take over the Southern Water Tribe. I never dreamed he'd do something like this."
"Ulanaq managed to get Korra to open the southern portal," I reported. "Both portals open during harmonic convergence means Vaatu's free. Both closed and he stays imprisoned. One portal open, I have no idea. We should get Korra to close the portal to be on the safe side."
"Korra left with her friends yesterday," said Tanraq. "They ran the northerners' blockade and headed for Republic City to request military aid for the south."
"That's gonna be a tough sell," said Bumi. "As far as the United Forces are concerned, this is a civil war and they're not going to want to pick sides."
"They'll change their minds pretty quick once they learn the stakes are the literal end of the world," I said.
"With the stakes literally the end of the world," began Tanraq, turning to me, "is there anything you can do? Anything you've held back from offering for fear we'd misuse it?"
"Lots," I admitted. "Where do you want to start? The unkillable army of soulless horrors, the bomb that can turn a city into a smoking crater, the various and sundry dark magics I could use to enslave humans and spirits alike?"
"How about, can you close the spirit portal?" asked Kaya.
"No idea," I said. "I'd have to see it up close. I have plenty of wards and barriers that would prevent things from just stepping through, but I have no idea what, if any, effect they'd have on harmonic convergence's energy getting through. It'd be a more sure thing for Sloth and I to just kill Vaatu."
"I thought we established killing Vaatu would just gradually corrupt the avatar spirit since he'd be report inside her," said Tenzin.
"Ordinarily, yes, but..." I held up the bracelet on my left wrist and showed off the five barred silver cross on it. "This is called a quincy cross. The quincies are a nearly extinct order of warrior monks who we studied under for a time. They're nearly extinct because their signature technique is to fire a spiritual arrow that irrevocably destroys the soul, preventing it from reentering the cycle of reincarnation. We could use it to snuff out Vaatu permanently and prevent him from resurrecting inside Raava, ending things right now instead of kicking the can down the road another ten thousand years."
"If destroying Vaatu once and for all is an option, do it," said Tanraq. "My men and I will aid you whatever way we can. Ulanaq's troops are defending the portal."
"I agree with Tanraq," said Tenzin. "Vaatu has been sealed away for ten thousand years. If there were negative consequences for eliminating him, we'd have seen them long before now."
"I'll go alone," said Sloth. "I can bypass the troops and I won't have to worry about accidental bending."
"You can't bend in the spirit world anyway," said Tenzin.
"You can't?" I asked.
"Well, using the portal it might be possible, but usually, when you enter the spirit world, you do it as a spirit and leave your body behind. Bending requires both body and soul," explained Tenzin.
"So, if I get out of my body, I won't be able to bend until I'm back in it?" I confirmed.
"I guess I won't need to go alone after all," said Sloth. "You should still leave me the killing blow. You don't need this world's ultimate evil in your bankai."
"In your what?" asked Kaya confused.
"Zanpakto develop unique powers based on their wielders," I explained. "One of my sword's powers is that it makes a copy of anyone I kill so they can be summoned later. If I finish off Vaatu, it'll mean carrying him around on some level for the rest of my life."
I carefully took off my bracers then separated by body and soul with an act of will. My homunculus body and Visored soul both made an air bending gesture and confirmed Tenzin's information. Now outside my body, my Visored self was visible only to Sloth, since the others present lacked any form of spiritual awareness. My Visored self looked identical to my default form except for the manner of dress. A black uniform of amestrian design with silver trim clothed my soul, layered with defensive enchantments that let it serve as a suit of armor. My zanpakto, Tsumi no Rensa, was in its sealed sword form at my hip. The pentagon shaped substitute soul reaper badge was clipped to my Visored self's belt.
Homunculus me couldn't see my expelled soul, but unhooked the bracelet bearing the quincy cross and tossed it in the air. Visored me caught it and used a simple unspoken spell to turn it back into invisible spirit matter before putting it on. Sloth stayed in her body, calling Loki to join us as she left with Visored me. Homunculus me was left behind to handle questions and explanations about what just happened.
"So are you still in there?" asked Bumi waving his hand in front of my face.
"I removed my soul and it's gone to help fight Vaatu," I explained. "When a human removes their soul, the body enters a deathlike state, but homunculi can function just fine without our souls. We'll synchronize memories when he gets back."
"I... you... I don't know what I was expecting," sputtered Tenzin.
"How long until we know if it worked?" asked Tanraq.
"Sloth and I will have apparated to the portal. We're probably fighting Vaatu now. They should be back within an hour at most unless something's gone wrong."
Sloth, Loki, and I appeared a short distance from the frozen forest we'd arrived in. With the portal open, a column of golden light reached from the center of the forest up into the sky. Dark spirits circled the column while an encampment of Northern Water Tribe soldiers were in the process of fortifying the ground level.
"How do you want to do this?" asked Sloth. "Quiet or loud?"
"You know, I was thinking quiet, but now that you bring it up, wiping out the defenses would be a fun warm up before we fight Vaatu. And it'd mean less opposition for Tanraq later. Thank you can take down the soldiers non lethally while I purify the dark spirits?"
"Loki's with you. Let's go!"
Sloth rushed the defenses while Loki and I flash stepped into the air. Most of the dark spirits were circling overhead but a few were among the human troops. Faster than the eye could see, I drew my zanpakto and cut down the dozen or so spirits mixed in with the soldiers while Loki transformed into his green scaled, gold maned chimera form and tore into the spirits above with teeth and claws.
Sloth had transformed into her magical girl form. Her combat uniform consisted of a black bodysuit, a red hooded cloak with a flamel on the back, and a golden circlet with her crimson Soul Gem set in the center of her forehead. She summoned bright red yo-yos in each hand, alternating between knocking out the soldiers with quick strikes to the head and entangling them with the strings. Her cloak fluttered behind her as she moved too fast for the soldiers to react to.
"So much for a warm up," I said as Loki and I landed next to Sloth now that all the dark spirits had been defeated. "A hollow swarm that size usually has at least one with an interesting ability that buys it a few seconds, but those spirits had nothing going for them."
"I'm a little disappointed too," said Sloth as she transmuted conventional ropes to replace the magical yo-yo strings currently binding the unconscious soldiers. "I probably didn't need to transform. Oh well. On to Vaatu."
Sloth strode toward the portal. I sheathed my sword and followed her, Loki at my side still in his chimera form. It turned out the column of light was the portal and stepping through transported us to a very different place.
It was a rocky area with a hundred small streams trickling between the rocks. The area was a large circular valley located between snowy mountain peaks. A swooping, curved like divided the area in two like a yin-yang symbol with a portal at each of the two dots. The southern portal we'd entered through was still a column of light reaching up toward the sky. The closed northern portal was a sphere of tightly knotted energy across the valley from us. In the center stood a gnarled old tree with an enormous hollow in its center and no leaves.
The three of us cleared the distance to the tree in a single step and saw that it was the size of a small mountain. Vaatu was visible in the hollow behind Avatar Wan's barrier. Suddenly, I felt my spirit energy pulse and I was forced to one knee. This wasn't Vaatu's spiritual pressure crushing me. He wasn't much stronger than an average gilleon class menos grande. The problem seemed to be coming from inside me.
"Greed, are you okay?" asked Sloth, reaching to help steady me.
I fired a crimson bala into her stomach, punching a hole clean through her body as my bone white hollow mask began to form over my face. I stared in horror, helpless as my body backhanded Loki hard into the tree when he turned to me whimpering. A hole opened in the center of my chest as I fought to regain control of my body. Eight eyes with yellow irises and black sclera opened under the eye holes in my spider like mask, but my perception of the outside world faded as I was drawn inward. The last thing i head was a roar from my mouth as I began charging a crimson cero.
The instant I arrived in my inner world, I lashed out, punching Araña in the face hard enough to crack his bone white spider mask and send him flying backward into a bookcase that promptly toppled.
"What is wrong with you?" I yelled at the embodiment of my hollow powers. "You take over my body and you use it to hurt Sloth and Loki?!"
"It wasn't me!" Araña called out, holding up his hands in surrender. "It's Vaatu!"
"This better be good," I declared as Tsumi no Rensa and Vaccine arrived and took up positions to surround my inner hollow.
"Vaatu's energies threw our soul out of balance," said Araña. "I'm not any more in control of our body than you are. It's like what happened during Visored training. Our body's mindlessly rampaging, lashing out at whatever's nearby only this time it's doing it in segunda etapa instead of just in resureccion."
"Here," said Tsumi no Rensa, offering me a book. "This is the one that covers what's going on in the outside world right now. You should at least be able to check up on Sloth and Loki until we can figure a way out of this."
Taking the offered book, I read the lines as they appeared on the page and gasped, "No."
Homunculus me was going over Tanraq's maps when Sloth's voice called out urgently from my pocket, "Greed!"
I took my silver pocket watch, decorated with the image of a Ravenclaw Eagle out of my pocket and flipped it open, seeing Sloth's face reflected in the magical communication mirror attached to the lid. She was in her pale skinned, black haired homunculus form with slitted, purple eyes. Her Soul Gem was visible on the golden circlet on her forehead. She was clearly upset and frightened.
"Sloth, what's going on?" I asked urgently as I tried to guess what could have gone wrong.
"Vaatu wasn't what we thought," said Sloth, her voice trembling. "He took you, Greed. I... I couldn't do anything to help you. You're still under his control."
"Slow down," I said in as soothing a voice as I could manage. "Whatever he did, we will fix it then we'll make him pay. Just calm down and tell me exactly what happened."
"We beat the guards at the portal, purified the spirits and tied up the soldiers. When we went into the spirit world, we found Vaatu sealed inside a giant tree. Wan's barrier was intact, but Vaatu somehow effected you. You hollowfied and went berserk, attacking me and Loki. You went straight into segunda etapa. You were too fast and too strong for us. You tore Loki's body in half and ate his soul. I only managed to survive thanks to all the defenses on my Soul Gem. I still barely managed to get out through the portal. You didn't follow me. You're still there with Vaatu."
"But you are okay?" I confirmed.
"Yeah, I'm okay," said Sloth. "I resurrected Loki once I was sure you weren't going to follow me out."
"The defenses there are still neutralized, right?" I asked. "We can fly Uggi over and pick you up."
"What are we going to do about you?" asked Sloth.
"We find Korra," I affirmed. "If Vaatu threw me out of balance, hopefully Raava can restore it."
"I'll wait here. I love you, Greed."
"I love you too, Sloth. I'll see you soon." I closed my watch and returned it to my pocket.
"Did I hear that right?" asked Kaya. "You went to kill Vaatu, but instead you went crazy and ate your dog?"
"It sounded like you were the only one effected that way by Vaatu's presence," noted Tenzin.
"Based on the fact that I hollowfied while berserking, I think I can explain why I was effected oddly," I said, leaving the tent and climbing onto Uggi's back with Tenzin, Kaya, Bumi, and Tanraq following. "One of the methods I used to modify my soul involved a kind of controlled infection with something that causes normal souls to turn into cannibalistic monsters."
"That seems like a bad idea," noted Bumi.
"Obviously, the goal is to get the monster powers without the whole soul cannibalism thing," I said. "It has a surprisingly high success rate, but Vaatu's powers must've thrown things out of balance."
"This doesn't have anything to do with those swords you gave Korra and Jinora, does it?" asked Tenzin dangerously.
"The zanpakto is a weapon designed to hunt hollows, the aforementioned cannibalistic ghosts. Hollows killed by a zanpakto are purified and turned back into normal souls. That's ll the connection there is," I swore. "There is no chance of this happening to Jinora."
"Listen up, men," ordered Tanraq to his gathered troops. "I'll be going ahead of the spirit portal to assess the situation. I need you to follow to assist with the prisoners and to help secure the portal."
"Whatever you do, don't actually enter the portal until I give the all clear," I said seriously.
Sloth and Loki were sitting together on a guard tower when we arrived on Uggi. Loki had reverted to his dog form, but Sloth was still in her magical girl combat outfit and still had her inhuman homunculus appearance. When they saw us approaching, both ran through the air to meet us halfway rather than wait for us to land.
Loki whimpered and whined, seeking reassurance from me while Sloth just grabbed hold of me and hugged me tight, starting to lightly sob. I put one arm around Sloth and kissed the top of her head, gently stroking Loki with the other hand, trying to reassure them both that things were going to be okay. That was hard when I wasn't completely convinced of that myself. Korra seemed like an obvious answer, but if it didn't work out, I might have to destroy my own soul, losing the unique spirits I'd developed relationships with forever. Assuming I could destroy it, given how potent and diverse its spiritual powers were compared to what I could muster without spirit energy.
Tanraq debarked and Tenzin turned Uggi north toward Republic City, where Korra had gone to request military aid against the northern invasion. I really hoped this plan worked.
Within my inner world, Tsumi no Rensa, Vaccine, Araña, and I were gathered around the book gradually filling in with the events happening in the outside world. Once Sloth had escaped the spirit world through the portal, our body had stopped attacking. Vaatu seemed to be able to exert enough influence on the animalistic consciousness running our body to designate friend and foe, but couldn't make it understand more complex instructions.
My segunda etapa form was humanoid unlike my spider centaur resureccion form. Aside from the mask and hole in the center of my chest that identified me as a hollow, the main aspects of my appearance that wasn't human were the eight eyes that looked out from under my fanged spider mask. In resureccion, I relied on the spinnerets on my arachnid abdomen to produce webbing, but in segunda etapa, I could generate it from any part of my body.
Once there was no one left to fight, our body had woven a web among the branches of the tree Vaatu was imprisoned in and settled in at the center to wait.
"I'm just glad Sloth made it out," I said to my inner spirits. "She'll have resurrected Loki and linked up with the other me."
"Eating Loki was a lucky break," noted Araña, drawing looks from the rest of us. "Look, like you said, Sloth made it out so your dog's okay. But he never showed up here. It means we're free to eat souls without the risk of ending up a gilleon."
"That knowledge will die with us if we can't find a way to free ourselves from Vaatu's influence before Sloth and Greed come back," said Vaccine. "Without a guiding intelligence, even all the power our body has in segunda etapa won't save it from those two once they're prepared."
"Speaking of a guiding intelligence," I said, "I figure our worst case scenario is that Vaatu gets out of his prison and tries to fuse with us. If he tries it, we're gonna need to be ready to drag him down here and gang up on him. We can't let him take control of our body."
By the time we arrived at Republic City, everyone had calmed down considerably. Republic City was a large port city. Two islands in the bay contained a large metal statue of Avatar Aang and a recently constructed air temple. Tenzin brought us in for a landing on Air Temple Island rather than landing in the city proper.
"Air Temple Island plays host to a number of guards from the Order of the White Lotus," said Tenzin. "Since they stopped operating as a secret society, they've offered aid and protection to the avatar. Hopefully, they'll be able to tell us where to find Korra."
"Since Greed can't bend without his soul, I'll give the Air Acolytes air bending while you find Korra," said Sloth.
"I'll take Loki and see if I can find Korra first," I said. "My spiritual senses may be gone, but Loki's should be able to find her no problem."
"Whoever finds her first calls the other," said Sloth, holding up her silver pocket watch with the Hufflepuff badger inscribed on the lid.
I headed off with Loki to board a ferry to the main part of the city. As the two of us stepped off onto the main land, I saw cars driving down narrow streets that didn't look like they'd been designed for automotive traffic. Police blimps hovered overhead occasionally dispatching a team of police officers via cable to a location on the surface.
Loki led the way to a gathering of men and women dressed in traditional blue water tribe colors. Candles were being handed out and people were sorting themselves out into lines. Korra and her polar bear dog Naga were near the front of the forming lines. Some people reached out to stop me from approaching the avatar. Their protests stopped in nervous confusion after I used the Ultimate Escape to pass through their bodies like they weren't even there.
"Korra, I need to talk to you. It's important," I said as Loki and Naga sniffed at each other.
"Greed?" asked Korra, her eyes widening in surprise.
"Avatar Korra, do you know this person?" asked one of the people who'd tried to stop me approaching her.
"I do," confirmed Korra before turning to me. "There's something I need to talk to you about too."
"Is it about Ulanaq being evil?" I guessed.
"You knew?" accused Korra.
I shook my head. "I didn't suspect anything when I left with Tenzin. As soon as I worked out his plan to plunge the world into ten thousand years of darkness, I rushed back to the south pole to try and stop him, but everything went wrong and now I need your help."
"Wait, what?" asked Korra.
"Ulanaq isn't just planning to take over the south," I said. "Opening the spirit portals was the first step toward freeing a primordial spirit of darkness and chaos called Vaatu."
"I thought he wanted the portals open so he could move troops directly from the north," said Korra. "Okay, I have a meeting with President Raiko tomorrow so I can ask him to send troops to help liberate the south. Can you come and help me make my case?"
I nodded. "Tenzin already knows the details. I think it'd help if he came too."
"I really should have listened to him," said Korra. Looking at the setting sun, she said, "This march in support of the south starts in just a few minutes. You can give me the details after."
Korra left riding Naga and I flipped open my pocket watch, saying, "Sloth," to activate the communication mirror. A moment later, her face appeared.
"I hope you have better news than I do," said Sloth.
"I found Korra," I said. "She's already got a plan to request military aid from the United Republic to deal with Ulanaq's troops."
"That's good, because after we left, Ulanaq marched his forces to the pole and retook the portal," said Sloth. "Tanraq made it out, but that's it for good news."
"It doesn't matter what Ulanaq does to fortify the portal," I said. "There's nothing he can set up that we can't just walk through. The only real threat is the other me, and Korra's the only thing we need to deal with that."
Suddenly, an explosion went off in the direction Korra had gone.
"Fuck. I'll call you back," I said, snapping my watch shut and running toward the now burning Southern Water Tribe cultural center.
Fortunately, no one was hurt. The cultural center had been closed at the time and none of the debris had hit any of the marchers. Korra was helping the firefighters put out the building using her water bending.
The blast had been timed to coincide with when the march came by. I could smell the accelerant that had been used. It was a professional job.
"Pouring water on it isn't the best way to put out the fire," I said to Korra when I caught up. "If you can form a think layer of ice between the fuel and the oxygen, you should be able to smother it instantly."
"How am I supposed to make ice if there's no water there to start with?" snapped Korra. "Water benders can't just create water."
"No, but fires do," I said. "The two primary outputs of most conventional fires are carbon dioxide and water vapor. The stuff gets created right where you need it. All you have to do is keep it there."
"All right," said Korra. "I'll give it a try."
Korra shifted into a wide stance, took a deep breath, and pressed downward with her palms. The flames across the building sputtered but reasserted themselves. It had almost worked, and Korra was too stubborn to give up. She repeated the gesture, holding it for a few seconds. The flames sputtered and died.
"Where did you learn that trick?" asked Korra.
"I got abducted by a serial killer once. One thing led to another and she was dead but the house was burning down around me. It was either figure it out or die. Funny story, it's sort of how Sloth and I met."
"So, the march is a bust," noted Korra. "You might as well fill me in on what happened."
We compared notes while we waited for Sloth to arrive. I'd given her basically the whole story by the time Sloth got there and noticed Korra wasn't carrying her zanpakto. I hadn't put in the Mad Eye so without my soul, spiritual objects like that would be invisible to me.
"I kept it with me for a while," said Korra. "Then I woke up one day and it was the size of a surf board. At the moment, it's propped up in a corner in Mako's apartment."
"A friend of ours named Ichigo had a similar problem," I said. "The size of the zanpakto is proportional to the size of its wielder's spirit energy. There are techniques for compressing your spirit energy and shrinking your zanpaktoto a more manageable side."
"That'd be helpful," noted Korra. "We should talk about it after our meeting with President Raiko tomorrow."
"We'll let you get some sleep and meet you outside the building with Tenzin," said Sloth. "Tenzin's offered us a room on Air Temple Island. I've set up our standard wards already. We should go get some rest too."
"Give me a ride back?" I asked, shape shifting into a large brown spider.
Sloth smiled, scooped me up, and put me on her head before unfolding her glider and taking to the air.
Author's comments:
Vaatu messing with Greed's soul and triggering a rampage in his nearly unstoppable hollow form is one of the reasons I wanted to have them visit this world. Their original plan could have simply circumvented the risks of Harmonic Convergence, but Vaatu gaining some limited control of Greed's hollow form means the situation has gotten much, much worse thanks to their presence.