Noatak felt cold pressure on the bridge of his nose first, the mask clamping tightly and its forceps burrowing tightly into clammy skin. From that second everything in his perspective shifted, heart seizing in his chest, through nodes on his temples fierce glowing light poured in. Shivers coursed down his spine as his nerve ending registered a power the human body was never meant to feel. The tips of his fingers could feel every molecule in the air, bent around them and teeming at his touch.
What he could touch however was far from his concern at that moment, his eyes were lost, peeking into a room that was entirely unlike the one he had been standing in, ten seconds prior in Gaza. He saw an open plan apartment, lit barely with the early morning sun nothing but a sliver on the horizon through the window wall. Between him and this a bed, a dark skinned woman, her muscular back to him holding herself above her paler counterpart on her elbow, her free hand was tracing the lines of her lips with the pad of her calloused thumb.
His presence was unknown to them, sure enough he wasn't even sure if his body had followed him to this place as he watched. Through overlays and nonsensical numbers, through tinted glass and thousands of miles, he watched the woman, satisfied with the way she mapped her lovers lips, bend her neck to taste them. He felt an urge to look away, this was a grossly inhuman invasion of privacy and yet, the paladin found his gaze bouncing from the pale hand that knotted into the dark skinned woman's chocolate locks, to her back and the scars that marred it.
He'd never seen so many injuries on a person before let alone a woman. Noatak couldn't help the feeling that he knew something about those scars. In his line of work it was to be expected that he had too many enemies to remember. Generations of jumpers had come and gone since he had began, and each had left their mark on the other. While he was certain this woman was a stranger to him, there was something about those marks, and the way her companion touched them, that led him to think other wise. Her nimble fingers were affectionate and possessive, even when gentle. The Paladin could imagine she had been there after the wounds were inflicted, and put everything in to letting them heal. So much so that they were hers too.
They stretched and realigned as she slipped her arms under the raven haired girl's back, tangling into the sheets so that they almost swallowed them. Heads poking out, arms full of each other and the water tribe girl's head tucked under her slender neck. Nuzzling her throat, the darker girl looked ready to let sleep take her, until the green eye'd girl's eyes darted towards Noatak. He repressed the urge to find a way to flee, until he realised she wasn't looking at him. But the couch behind him, the laptop still half open. It had run out of power since she had abandoned it, her tumbler of whiskey had toppled over hours ago, still that first frame haunted her from the bed.
"I'll never jump again 'Sami," she was pulled out of her trance by the desperate ire in her lovers voice.
"You can't promise that."
Following her gaze to the cog on the laptops back, Noatak knew then that this was the Sato girl. He should have known from her face really, he'd brought an eerily similar face to its end years ago. It had been one of the last one he'd seen before his own was marred so horribly. The irony was not lost on him that she was now kissing the teenager, now the woman, who's death his colleague had planned against his orders.
So this was how Hiroshi knew the WTT was still alive and sleeping with his daughter. He smirked imagining how that conversation would have gone down. The Golden Goose had just fallen into his lap. Two if he counted the familiar and the opportunity that came with it.
He watched her wake the following morning, dressing quietly and tiptoeing around her sleeping partner. Sitting on the edge of the bed feeding a silken necklace into a dark blue box. Bowing over her after placing paper on the pillow beside her, and kissing her forehead. Tugging the blanket higher over her chest. This girl was a heavy sleeper, the Teleporter was smoothing hair away from her face and she didn't even stir. Looking down on her with a hard gaze and those unnatural bright blue eyes, he strained his ears to hear her whisper.
"Please say yes."
Smirking Noatak tried to will his hands to the contraption on his head, sure enough it came free. As he lifted he could now hear the ramblings of the now terrified Professor, being lifted by his lapels against the wall by the severely pissed off Lieutenant.
"…The mask can show us, him, the paths he will take and the people on them, more specifically, when cross referenced with the Avatar blood, it is more than likely Amon can see where she is now as easily as where she will be." His voice pitched up into a shrill panicky whine, "Space is an illusion, time doubly so, and this mask can manipulate it's pieces so give the wearer powers similar but not pertaining to the Jumpers of this earth. With this mask he could even control them."
Leuten dropped him as he whirled to his boss, dropping the scientist like he was nothing as Noatak yanked the mask from his head like it was on fire. "Show me."
XXX
Mako was stretching his arm, more specifically his new skin. Shifting through stances as he watched Kya do the same, well he copied whatever it was she was doing. The Yoga and Thai Chi instructor had been with Lin at the station, showing the chief all that remained of Aang's buddy box. The three empty bottles of scotch, she and her siblings had shared them at their father's funeral, and every piece of Paladin Intel her family had gathered while the investigation was painless.
Over the years this was all that remained of him after moves and other than photos. And unbeknownst to them until now, Korra. Still the whole thing seemed moot now that Varrick was busy decoding the files that had been stolen by Korra's parents.
Patience was a virtue that Kya possessed, that and the ability to share it with others. This was the talent that led to the odd scene unravelling in the facility right now. Lin was pacing, that wasn't odd, but it was merely because she refused to take part in either of the two activities going on either side of her. The madness of Varrick and almost the entirety of RCPD undergoing a staff wide Thai Chi lesson.
"After all these years at the top Lin, I would think you'd jump at the chance to relax, unwind those cables that keep you dancing."
"After all these years I didn't think you could make a career out of fancy poses and yet," she gestured to her force who either seemed to blush, smirk or were too embarrassed to continue.
"It's actually doing me a world of good Chief." Mako lips fell into a small smile at his boss' gruff demeanour.
"I should trust the word of a man who just got lit up like a birthday cake?"
"Make a wish!" Bolin crowed breaking stance to throw Mako into his fifteenth spontaneous hug of the day. His mood had been improved tenfold since Mako had woken, but the idea of his demise seemed to really focus and emblazon how precious this second chance was. It could have been so much worse. Mako winced at the contact but didn't complain.
"Bo, stop disrupting the class!" Opal laughed.
"I can't believe you've brainwashed my niece into your bizarre little cult too."
Opal was just starting to hum I've got no strings to pull me down! to taunt her Aunt until Varrick yelled
"We're in!"
The projections chained, black filtered into words, and the entirety of the files could be seen. As everyone turned, Mako remembered the reason they had them in the first place. He stumbled to the box and smacked.
"Ugh, You guys?" Mako shouted, unsure who would even be listening, "Korra's been asleep, I mean you guys have been in there six hours…I came out of my coma. Varrick put in all the passwords. We got some new files to look at if you want to join us…she's not answering Zhu Li!"
"Coming! We're totally coming!" He blushed trying not to think of the implications of that statement. Turning he saw almost everyone watching the screens above, his own attention was captured by the only man in the room wearing a suit, and a mask. He blinked, twice, watching another step through a crack in the air.
The mask crouched, flinging silver ball bearings around the room. Before Mako could shout light carved from the devices, and he was flung back into the wall by it.
XXX
"You. Are. So. Fucking. Cute!" The heiress was about to grab Korra's adorable face and kiss her sleepy happy smug lips.
Asami felt a grip on her entire being that she had been trying to forget since Kuvira, only this grip was both feral and unyielding. The box fell away, and she faced a mask the likes of which she had never faced before. The voice that came from behind it however, it was something she could ever shake from the core of her being since she first heard it yesterday. By the way it sounded she could have sworn he was smirking.
"This won't take a minute. Miss Sato."
Her eyes open a crack, Asami could see the troopers and Paladins had already busted through the windows and doors.
Korra was already out. Bouncing from her Jump straight into a barrier of silver and light. Painful to the touch she surged back blue eyes wide. They caught on something familiar, sure enough she was staring at something she saw in her every day life. A circle, and inside that a cog, on each and every contraption that produced these opaque barriers. Asami had made these. No not Asami, her cog was half, this was whole, Hiroshi. Paladins.
"Asami!" Concentrate, she berated herself, get to your Familiar. But she couldn't, she could barely see past this barrier of light and energy and when she so much as stepped towards it, volts scored through her brain. Her heart kicked into high gear, palms open she reached out, hovering slightly over the barrier. Eyes glowing, she touched the wall, carving her fingers down it and parting the veil like curtains.
The second she stepped through she was met by a swift kick to the face, propelling her into the next barrier which shocked her.
"Not bad." The man looked down on her as she rolled to some semblance of safety, holding two taser poles high to defend himself.
"Leuten." Korra grunted gripping her jaw. He was older but this was definitely the man who shocked her past life. Shining through the goggles and head gear was the man who killed Aang.
"Okay colour me impressed." He lunged electricity blazing. With the corners of her wrists she parted his arms at lighting speed, the plugs hitting the walls and short circuiting them.
"Not this time!" she snapped, ploughing her foot straight into his chest. He balanced himself on his hands legs swinging which Korra dodged, backwards landing on her shoulder blades and throwing herself forward. He parried and cracked his bar across her cheek bone, the metal biting into her eyebrow and piercing the skin. She grabbed his wrist and yanked him past her, foot catching his shin and sending him off balance. Her palm made short work of his jaw, forcing him to bite an unfortunately placed tongue and spit blood.
Leuten lay on the floor dribbling blood. Korra turned, Paladins and Jumpers and Officers had stopped their fray. Either unconsciousness or mere shock. She could see the crack in the air these men had created, unlike her own it wasn't healing, it remained split.
"Enough!" There was a crack. Or a bang. It took Korra a few seconds to understand what had just happened. That didn't mean she had to believe it.
For the most part it felt like deja vu. Asami was levitating mid air. This time she was being lowered, and Korra felt the heart falling with her. Not just her heart, everything. One hand, the man was aiming towards her, the other, the same except he was holding a gun. Her face was turning away, lolling on to her shoulder, hiding. From the distance she could see her throat barely move, allowing the words to ooze out of her mouth.
"Run Korra."
"Asami?"
She couldn't answer. The heiress touched the floor then, and didn't move. Bleeding gently into the wood. All their plans fell away in a second, their future was gone. Katara. Kuzon. Asami Sato. Korra Sato. Dead.
Korra found her self on her knees as he turned to her. The ground was cracked around her, Leuten himself had lurched back. A second shot may have been fired but she couldn't feel a thing. In that moment she was completely bowled away. Her lips played around with the words Please. Don't. and Asami. Shecould feel the shocked gazes from her friends, her family. Their breath against her skin, mingling in the air. Their heart beats, their cells. She felt herself become less human and more what she was. A heady mantra of no no no no drove her emblazoned soul.
Eyes shining white her mouth opened and all her voices began to speak. As far back, and far forward as time allowed.
"There's a reason you don't kill my Familiar first." If she could feel anything at all at that moment, she swore she felt icy tears cut down her cheeks,
Her muscles flexed and strained with all her impossible strength. She tried not to think about how Asami had been kissing them earlier, how her hands traced every crevice where they joined. The wood beneath her splintered and shattered, the machines that Varrick had been knocked from burst into flames. The fire alarms set off the sprinklers. The fire turned into shards of white hot flame, concentrated energy, the water hit the ground like stone and the ground itself, in places started to melt. The air, thick and hot around her began to swirl.
Her hand twitched and Hiroshi's barriers turned to dust. In all this she managed to stand, willing her friends to safety. Without fully realising it she was pulling them that way. Teleporting them outside, teleporting those of them who weren't even in the facility to begin with. Jinora fell into Bolin and Kai followed. Tenzin fell into his sister, as did Su with hers. Katara was pulled through, caught by Opal and Mako. Korra heard a panicked noise from Varrick, and instantly connected his shrill excitable voice with something he had suggested once.
Let them live to death.
The man in the mask was starting to panic, he'd emptied his clip at her.
"Wait!" He yelled, "Can't you see what you are!" All she could see was Asami. How impossibly pale she looked, almost translucent. Just seeing her was enough to obliterate the ground beneath her feet. "You could destroy the world! You could murder thousands!" She switched her gaze, and caught sight of her own terrifying expression in the reflection of the mask. "You brought this on her! Your kind is too impossible to live!"
She could feel him trying to curl his fingers around her heart. Using the mask and her own abilities against her. It was so weak she almost wanted to laugh. Korra knew she was slipping, and for that moment welcomed it, soon enough she felt herself propped on the arms or those she was before, she could feel Aang in her place, and Kyoshi, and Roku.
"Balance is impossible to without her." They spoke, but Korra yanked herself back, eyes dimming just for that second, just to see her with her own eyes again before whispering gently to herself,
"I would tear the world apart to get her back."
She raised her arms and a pulse flew out from her, the glass of the mask shattered, revealing the scarred face of the man beneath it.
"Amon!" Leuten howled. Korra raised her arms yanking them together. The wind swirled fiercer and colder. Fires extinguished and rage was icy and sharp and everywhere. The walls tumbled, they turned to dust and became one with the wind, sure enough her friends and family could see her, ageing the world around them. Glass to sand, weeds whirling out of the ground and twisting around their legs.
She couldn't hear their shouting, over the wind, over her own screaming mind. Despite all she was doing and its complete sensory assault, all she could think about was her Asami. The way her feet stroked hers when they slept. How she bit her smile after Korra won an argument, as rare as that may be. Fingers interlocking with hers while she read, and balanced accounts and ran a company one handed while Korra struggled to find something decent on TV. How sweet it was to kiss her finally, after all these years of loving her completely.
Amon and his Lieutenant were mid air now, held there by Korra's hesitating hands. The wind became fiercer and the shell of Amon's mask began to crawl away, as did fibres from his suit.
Korra winced, she felt a tight clamp on her ankle, and whipped her head down to see Katara. The elderly woman was looking up at her with tears in her calm blue eyes. Despite her furious expression, she didn't even flinch, simply pressing on her toes she had both hands on Korra's leg now, pulling her to her level, gently slowly, in the epicentre of this tiny storm. All the hovering men in the room dropped.
Katara pulled her into her arms, she was surprisingly strong for her age and stature, and yet she managed it, and Korra let her. Aang let her. It almost felt as if he body shifted between the two beneath her hands. The Avatar buried their face into Katara's jacket and croaked.
"Katara I don't know what's happening."
The old water tribe woman blanched, thrown back twenty years.
"Everything will be okay, because you can make it that way. Korra. That's why you're more special than anyone else. You have your choices. You don't have to be what they make you."
Aang stepped back, grey eyes warm, looking down on his wife. He lifted a hand and traced a hand over her now young cheek. For an instant, he pulled time his way, and in the next he let it spring back, only this time he was with his wife and not his next life. Korra pulled away eyes dimming, turning walking to her fiancé still laying on the only perfect piece of floor.
Korra took her stiff body into her arms, felt the blood, dark, sticky and cold seep through her clothes and held her close. Katara kneeled close to them, taking Korra's hand and laying it over the surface of her chest. Her peridot eyes were closed, and holding her body was less like holding a person but an empty vessel, the soul of which she could no longer see. Korra let instinct take over, eyes glowing, wound beneath her hand spitting a bullet and healing, and still nothing. All she could feel beneath her fingers was the tear shaped scar puckered from that perfect chest, but no pulse.
"Asami… No." She readjusted her in her arms so she could touch her lips with a calloused thumb, "You can't do this." Alas this was something Korra had no idea how to control, space and time was one thing, life itself was something else entirely. It was traded, reincarnated and passed on. "Asami I love you. Please don't do this."
"She needs life." Katara deduced, only her voice sounded different, fused with her husbands, Korra looked up and finally paid attention, to the youthful ethereal glow coming from her elder. Katara's hand took her own, and before she could protest, the glowing began again, fiercer, brighter. Korra heard Tenzin and Kya shouting, but it was too bright for her to see properly. Katara and Aang were reduced to light, and between them seeped in a bright green that swallowed everything.
Lin and her troopers were on her enemies in a flash, Korra's influence had stunned and weakened them to a point where Amon and Leuten had to be yanked and frogmarched by the officers of RCPD.
When it was over, almost everything looked normal, she twisted and turned, Katara was no where to be seen.
"Katara?"
"I saw her." Korra could hear Tenzin now, he was about six feet away on his knees, his sister beside him.
"She was with dad." She breathed clutching her brother's arm as they stared at the space just above Korra. Who was still feeling slightly empty and at a loss.
"What did she do?" She flinched, swearing she just felt a twitch beneath her hands. "Asami?"
Korra looked down finally, Asami's eyes fluttered and opened, and then she winced from the light. Korra almost choked on her own breath, feeling her finance stretch and turn against her, just as though she where waking up from a nap. She brushed her hair from her face with trembling hands, adrenaline still coursing through every molecule of her being. She didn't dare to bend down to steal a kiss in case her breath stopped huffing gently against her fingertips. The heiress smiled as her thumb traced the bridge of her nose and looked up at her, curling her fingers weakly into Korra's shirt she whispered in that sweet husky morning voice that Korra loved,
"Hey you."
