Korra had been led around this compound three times now, eyes scanning madly for weakness or opening. Getting in wasn't the problem, getting in without being immediately shot between the eyes was another matter all together. Meng's eyes were more adjusted to spying automatic weapon's that Korra. Just as the Water Tribe Teleporter began to take apart their target, the Palestinian girl would nudge her hand and point out the wolves on the walls.
The building was unmarked, the soldiers inside swore allegiance to a military force that Korra had never seen before, and in her time she had seen plenty to be able to know just how unofficial these men wore dark green masks with fly like red goggles, they must've been roasting alive, and yet not one of them seemed to complain about it. The end of the sixth day was fast approaching, and frantically jumping searching for an entrance wasn't helping the starving glances Meng was giving her. Defeated Korra took her hand, and carried her through the void to the home of her aunt, Wu.
The family was small to begin with, Meng and Wu were the only two still living in Gaza, and although they had planned to leave to join family in a Safe Zone, Wu's wards, twins Poi and Ping, had been stolen by this singularly terrifying army amongst this already contemptuous war zone. Ping was a Teleporter, Poi was not.
It was difficult to know how long they had been gone, or the likelihood that they were even alive at this point. Certain things were lost in translation, Wu's photos helped Korra know who they were looking for and in essence, why she was still there. The pull was still present as the day she had been called.
Wu hugged her niece hard when she appeared in front of her, when it was over she smiled as a giggling Meng readjusted her hijab, shooting Korra with an eye roll and funny face. Korra smirked back, admiring her Varrick-like resilience.
"Progress?" Wu shoved a bowl of rice into her hands and eyed her hopefully. Korra winced and looked away, taking hope in Meng's optimism as she wolfed on her own portion. Dread was filling her mind from her toes it dragged her down. Certain death, was the code, a day's trip was pushing the fates. If failure hadn't already occurred it was imminent. Eyes back to Wu she handed her back the bowl.
"I need to try something." she explained, taking seat in the centre of the living room. Back straight deep breaths, she refused to open her eyes until she had an answer. Her knuckles interlocking together came naturally, as did the way her legs folded beneath her in a lotus position.
Spirituality was something she'd never gotten the hang of. Strength, speed, stepping between countries was second nature, knowing the ides of why and how had never interested her. If only she had paid attention to Varrick's ramblings on the subject as he clipped sensors onto Bolin's chi paths. Something about the memory smoothed her psyche. The heaviness of her heart lifted remembering the aimless stumbling of a recently deafened Bolin, much to the amusement of the younger Jumpers and the out right shock that emanated from his new crush.
Korra mused at just how far the couple would make it, what would it take to make them as strong as she felt with Asami. A shard of guilt cut through her then, harsher than heartburn she winced and remembered the heiress was waiting for her, probably out of her brilliant mind with worry. She was in for such a scolding for this, maybe even spending the evening of her ceremony banished the couch. Korra predicted she would stand there with that icy glare, walls up, arms folded, hair, of course, perfect. Korra would graze her fingers across her arms first, feed her fingers between her cold ones. They were always cold until Korra warmed them for her.
She'd whisper to her about the stupid ridiculous things she'd done whilst away, adding in red herrings until the tiniest of smirks would grace those rosy lips. Korra would catch it on a fingertip, balance it on its blade and kiss it, encouraging it to grow. Arms would part, and Korra would continue apologise without words. Asami's hands cupping her jaw, fingers drawing down, checking her pulse. Korra tried to match the blissful dark of what could be with what was, letting her heartbeat thrum through her body.
After a long moment, after hushed whispers and shushes from the girls in the room, her own chi paths began to tingle, her mind once wandering focussed on a feeling, a light twinkle in the dark abyss. Inch by inch her skin grew numb. The floor beneath her faded from touch, the air dispelled altogether. Vivid gold and green assaulted her senses. Her stomach took to backflips beneath her ribs as she was reminded what it felt like to first jump. That suspended upside down balancing between places. She was holding herself in it, allowing her eyes to peep at what she was hoping wouldn't blind her.
It was entirely unlike what she had expected. The veil wasn't as suffocating or even full, there was a blank emptiness for a while. She would have started to wander if she knew that her feet were even still attached. The longer she stared, the light gave way to shadows, the shadows morphed and swirled in front of her, a long line of figures as far as her eternity here could muster. And the ghost in front of her slowly began to become solid. Orange clothes took form first. A thick cardigan with blue trim, khakis and loafers. Pale skin, dark eyebrows, grey eyes that stared back at Korra, reflecting her own mischievous and curious inclination. Except his were tainted with a sadness, Korra knew it immediately, she had seen it in Kuvira, it had haunted her nightmares, this was a tinge that came with separation from one's familiar. Korra's heart went out to him in the same moment she put up her guard. The Water Tribe girl's eyes followed the crook of a strong bearded jaw, to the curve of his smooth bald head, and then back down to his smirking lips.
"Do I know you?" Her voice found her before her mouth even opened. The man smiled softly.
"Only as well as I know you." She peered behind him, the queue of equally familiar faces stood still behind him, calm, serene. Different skin tones, creeds, cultures she recognised worldwide and yet Korra knew every one of them.
"Past lives." She whispered, "Are you…like me?"
"Jumpers. Yes." His smile broadened, and became more knowing. In that moment Korra mused that he had come to terms with his death while she was alive, if it were her she would be spitting mad, especially as he seemed not a day over fifty. "I believe you know my granddaughter,"
Jinora's visage flitted around them, not on screens of projections, something wholly unidentifiable but as solid as the memories as they were first conceived. Korra swept a look at each of them before returning her gaze to her most recent past life.
"Tenzin's father?" She had met him only in passing, feigning a drop off by walking Jinora to her own home some months back after a particularly late mission. Korra had to fake her way through Algebraic jargon to convince the man with the fantastic fumanchu that she was Jinora's math tutor.
"Aang." He confirmed, still swept up in the glory of watching his ancestor thrive in Korra's memory. Questions and demands piled up in Korra's mind, but she couldn't bring herself to disturb what could be this man's last conscious moment. The look on his face was a treasure of happiness. Korra hoped someone might pay her the same courtesy one day. It sent a shiver scoring down her spine.
"Do the dead watch much?" she asked gently, hopeful, his lips pursed and his smile became wry.
"Only what we can bear," Korra watched as his eyes dimmed for but a moment, and in that moment a lifetime of bruises, scars and wounds flitted over his paled skin. She worried if he was going to keel over again, and yet when he trained his eyes back on her he looked, for lack of a better word, healthy.
"Do they know? Your family?"
"We were a group. Much like yours. My wife and I, her brother and his wife. Some more you'll know…others you wont."
"Where are they? Why haven't I seen them?"
"I have met with you here to warn you of a very specific danger Korra. What do you know of Paladins?"
"Soldiers of God, right?"
"That what the agents who hunt us call themselves."
"Hunt us?"
"They were the reason your parents went into hiding, and your father gave up his chiefdom. For as long as there have been Teleporters; there have been the Paladins, and their war against us."
"Hold up - I've been doing this for a year, I've never seen any war,"
"You're about to." Aang's eyes fell to a space between them, that seemed to open and reveal a place Korra had never been before. If this was the in between, this portal was the next, and it made Korra's stomach turn violently.
"It did not disappear." Aang explained, "Both sides just became better at hiding from the other. Till now. They're overstepping their bounds of reality. They must be stopped Korra."
Strapped to a bed, shirtless tubes and wires protruding from his tiny twelve year old chest, Poi lay unconscious. Next to him his brother roused. He screamed, a current from his own wires coursing through him. Poi flinched but did not wake. A man in a mask, goggles and a white coat, Korra recognised their dress from the wolves on the walls, took to a console that stood before two pronged thrumming barbs of metal.
As Ping screamed, the barbs sparked. The only thing stopping Korra from charging her arms forward and ripping the boy from his bindings was the way reality began to rip and tear between them. A portal formed. The white coat watched tense with anticipation as he flicked a switch and Ping fell silent. And yet as the connection was broken the portal lingered. The man extended his hand, clearly playing with the idea of pushing it through, except after a few seconds the tear sealed.
"Holy fuck." Korra breathed, completely unaware that her voice was audible to the Paladin. He whirled, searching for a person who technically was not there. Heart in her throat, the Teleporter panicked, jamming her hands through and expertly detangling Poi from his bindings and pawing him to her chest, ready to reach for Ping.
The Paladin spotted the mocha arm falling from a slit in the air, and lunged for it. Korra yelped as his bruising grip tugged her down. Her shoulder hit the screech of Poi's bed painfully. She twisted taking shelter and laying the boy gently behind it before she surged up to leap over to her attacker; raising a taser and aiming it towards her. She dodged with a jump, coming out of it behind him, swinging, this man seemed to see it coming, whirling, wielding it grazed her sternum.
Korra had never heard her own voice reach that pitch before as she yelped and yet she felt the noise rip from her throat. Momentarily stunned, she barely felt the sudden pierce of a scalpel stab her upper arm. She gave an indignant yell of indecipherable cursing, Korra felt her eyes darken and rage well within her. That was two hits too many.
Her hands found his weapons and twisted them, all the while planting her foot on his chest and kicking him so hard she felt a rib snap beneath her heel. He reeled and fell. She seized her opportunity to grab the boys. She leapt, straight back into Aunt Wu's living room.
She lay on the itchy rug, panting, bleeding, Poi and Ping twitching and lolling into consciousness beneath her splayed wings. She reeled at the revelations that had been thrown at her, past lives, Paladins and wars. She wanted to curl up and never uncurl again. Sifting through her memory dread bore down upon her. It wasn't until she felt Meng's hands rewrapping the bandage on her bloody arm did she realise her mission here was over, and a success.
She let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding. As she stood, several skinny arms knotted around her middle, grateful children whispering gratefully in a language she didn't understand. Aunt Wu's hand graced her shoulder and her cobalt eyes met her teary ones. The older woman's voice seemed to be locked with gratitude, but her lips mouthed the words
"Thank You."
XXX
Asami felt like an eternity had passed before she had reached this moment. And yet here it was, in the dark of her apartment, sipping cognac her long fingers hovered over the track pad of her laptop. Hesitant, unable to imagine what she would see, if it would be like she had always pictured, or if it could possibly have been worse.
Returning to work after screaming at her former boss and father in prison seemed a total culture shock. Her arrival came as a surprise to her assistant, who ogled the CEO with complete wonderment, after having seen her last in a foetal position on her bed two days ago. Asami lied to her, although she was not sure why, telling her Korra had been so far away she was out of reach of their telepathic connection and that she had in fact received a phone call this morning assuring her her girlfriend was okay.
Her next request for her assistant made her eyes double in size, which of itself was quite a feat already. Asami had torn through the attic of her old family home for the VHS tapes that her father had once spent weeks pouring over, surveillance of the fateful night Yasuko Sato was ripped from this world. Asami had never seen them. But something her father had screamed at her resonated far more deeply than anything else.
"The life of my wife!"
She had to know, so she asked Opal to transfer these tapes to hard disk.
She had to know if a teleporter killed the only family member that deserved her love. She had no idea what this would do to her, what this would mean for her and Korra. But she knew as soon as Korra looked at her that she was hurting, and she'd have no choice but to tell her everything, and break her heart. And apologise for the death of her uncle.
That is how Asami came to be sitting in the dark, sipping burning liquor, emerald eyes stinging as she refused to blink or look away from the screen.
The hair at the nape of her neck pricked up. She felt the air thin and shudder, and couldn't help the overwhelming warmth spilling from her heart as the zip of a seasoned jumper touched down beside the couch. She pursed her lips, and closed her eyes, tears dripping from them as warm hands graced her cheeks.
"Asami. I'm so sorry." She was suddenly torn by the urge to drop her glass, or press play. She had to know but with everything she was she wanted that ignorance she'd possessed a week ago. Korra's fingers fed through hers over her keyboard. "I tried to get back I really did, but I was in Gaza and then there was a bomb explosion and these kids and then I went to Kwong's and you were there but it was a year ago and I time-traveled and Kuvira still had her powers and-"
Korra was rambling in an effort to filibuster Asami's tirade. Asami however felt all the hurt and anguish towards Korra fade into guilt over what her father had done to her and her kind. She felt like such a fraud listening to the complete adoration in her voice. She revelled in something she was sure, at one point, she would never hear again.
"It's okay." Asami gripped back on her fingers and opened her eyes. Unable to help the way seeing Korra made her face break into a watery smile, "I knew where you were."
The glass, the laptop, slipped from concern when Asami held Korra's face in her hands and kissed her. Intending to be gentle, but inevitably getting caught in the sheer glory of kissing the love of her life. The future Officer Sato.
"I didn't ruin anything?" Korra enquired between kisses.
"Not even a little." Asami joked, for the first time in days it felt so good to finally be herself again.
"But I-" The heiress leant her forehead on her girlfriends, yanking back tears and training her gaze on hers.
"Don't," her voice was weak and breathy, and Korra was entirely unprepared for it, and completely at it's mercy. "Please." Hands hooked behind the officer's neck she let her guide her to her feet as she pressed them towards the bed. She was musing quips somewhere along the lines of "You've got to be up early for your ceremony tomorrow," or "You need your rest Officer Sato." but none of it made it past their hungry tongues and teeth.
The blue bomber jacket was slung to the ground, followed promptly after by Asami's slacks. The back of Korra's knees buckled on the bed frame and suddenly, gratefully, found Asami straddling on top of her.
Carding her hands through silken black tresses, Korra felt the passions she had been in less than twenty four hours in her own timeline resurrect the memory of their first time. Her throat gave low rumble as Asami nipped at her throat, this was no less precious, but still this Asami who took charge and held on so tight she could bruise worked wonders.
"I love you." Korra blurted. Asami smiled at her, hands peeling up her shirt as she whispered back.
"I love you too." It was then Korra realised that during the time she had time travelled, Asami hadn't said I love you but to the Korra of her own timeline. Her heart swelled at the notion, and it somehow made it feel all the more true.
When light poured in through the penthouse windows, Asami woke to a tongue lapping at her hand.
"Ew Korra." She flinched at the disapproving groan that emanated from what was essentially the wrong side of the bed. Her emerald eyes opened, and she retracted her hand from Naga, keening hungrily in front of her. She twisted in bed to find Korra's side once again empty. On a pillow a post it note.
Gone for Kwong's.
She decided out of the two emotions that suddenly threatened to fill her naked body, rage was the preferable option.
Cursing loudly she tore on her clothes, tossed dry food in a bowl for Naga. She had a tirade planned for Korra, and it couldn't wait until she reappeared when ever she chose to. Asami stormed to the elevator, speeding her satomobile to the bustling coffee shop. She barged through the tinkling door so hard a bell fell off its hinge and Korra looked up from her phone. Lounging on couch like she owned the whole damn place, sipping from her cup absentmindedly until Asami burst in. Her smile froze with fear on her face as her girlfriend's rage swelled within the building. All attention turned to the lesbians in the room.
The Water Tribe girl stood, trading her coffee for a palm sized box on the table, setting it next to the waiting Forever Girl cup that Asami refused to let melt her resolve. That was until it was obliterated, as Korra bended knee, and opened the box.
"Asami Sato." Asami clapped her hands over her mouth to keep from a. screaming or b. crying like a spastic walrus. Korra took it as a good omen and continued, "I know I can disappear sometimes, and I promise I never want to leave you feeling like I'll never come back to you because it's always been you. Everything else has just been a stepping stone to just be with you, and make us perfect. I mean I kept falling in love with you. Over and over, I mean Yue Bay, and you," she stopped, her voice beginning to crack she, closed her eyes and adjusted her grip on the box, "taking care of me when I was broken all those times… I can never repay you, but that doesn't mean I will ever stop trying… I want to be with you for all time and I'm sorry it took so long for me to do this, I've been carrying this around for months, a year, whatever way you look at it…Will you do me the honour of being my Wife,"
This had been hand carved, Asami wasn't sure when exactly she had taken a step forward, but she was now close enough to trace her fingers over the intricate carving. She spied a beach, a cog, waves and a beam, the stone played with colour and light in a way Asami had never seen before. It was perfect, utterly utterly perfect. Realising she must've spent a good minute staring and admiring, and not actually answering, the heiress began to nod. Korra stood and was enveloped by her long arms. A steady mantra of yes yes yes yes, thrumming through both of their mouths and minds.
The CEO couldn't hear anything aside from their joint heartbeat, as they swayed in their mad hug she felt Korra sweep her hair from her neck and bring the light blue silk ribbon up to fasten around her throat. Punctuating the gesture with a kiss on her pulse point.
She scolded herself internally for forgetting her mother's ring, she'd promised herself as soon as Korra was back she'd bring it with her for when the mood struck, still nothing on this earth could pull her from the happiest feeling in the world.
