CHAPTER NINE - Professor Yangchen
Jinora emerged from the kitchen balancing two dangerously lopsided stacks of Air Temple Espresso-branded mugs. She was the owner's daughter, and as sweet as the fruit pies she baked back there. She was also only sixteen and still in high school, so Korra sometimes felt overprotective of her. Especially since the girl didn't look a day older than twelve.
"What are you trying to do over there, join a circus? Give me some of those."
She gently took one stack of teetering mugs and together they began to stock them back on the shelves behind the counter. Opal followed them with a wet mop. They were closing in two hours, but she always tried to start the clean-up early, so they could all go home early. It never seemed to matter to her that everyone was carrying around fragile objects and she was making the floors all slippery.
"So, I heard that professor that got killed the other day was actually mauled by a pack of coyotes or something - " Jinora began.
Opal scowled. "Wow, we really need to work on your conversation skills, kiddo."
"Coyotes?!" Korra cried. The others looked startled by her enthusiasm, so she toned it down a bit. " Wasn't she...uh, murdered?"
It had been three days since Professor Yangchen was discovered with her head barely attached to her neck, and it had been a frustratingly long three days of unanswered questions. Mako had been keeping his ear to ground, but as far as he knew, no one had come forward. No one had been punished for the crime yet. She remembered his words that day, though, about how the vampire infrastructure was somehow going to blame everything on some kind of animal attack, no matter what vampire actually did it.
The media had been virtually useless. News reports were repeating the same thing over and over - the attacker was unknown, the professor was eccentric but well-liked, autopsy was pending, Avatar University was holding a memorial on Saturday, classes would resume the following Monday after being closed for the investigation, etc, etc.
Jinora shook her head. "No way. The preliminary autopsy report was leaked online this morning. I read there were teeth marks in her neck. It was something with really sharp teeth, not a human."
She's not wrong.
"So they're still awaiting final forensics, but they're pretty certain it was some kind of canine. You know, with fangs."
Still not super-wrong.
"What about vampires!" Opal suggested jokingly.
Ding, ding, ding!
"Right, because we need vampires back in the mainstream," Jinora scoffed. "As if we weren't enjoying a golden age of movies without sparkly vampires and shirtless werewolves."
"Hey, I liked those movies!"
As her coworkers bantered, Korra started drying the portafilters and drifted off into the thoughts that had been plaguing her since that day on campus.
Animals weren't monsters. That automatically excluded coyotes from the list of suspects, because what happened to Professor Yangchen was the act of a monster. She wasn't killed for food. An actual predator didn't leave that much behind - animals ate right down to the bone, no meat wasted.
But Professor Yangchen's body was wasted, abandoned for a purpose. Mako suspected the vampire hadn't even drank their fill, judging by how inefficiently gory the bite was. That wasn't a feeding. It was meant to spill, be messy, and cause an uproar. She was meant to be found. But by whom? And why?
"Radio silence from Kor over there." Opal waved her hand in front of her face. "What are you thinking about - hah!"
"What do you mean 'hah'?"
She realized too late she'd been gazing blankly in the direction of the doorway. It opened, but she could already see who it was through the glass. Asami, with her stupid perfect coconut-scented hair and a sweater that showed off her stupid perfect collar bones, came over to the counter with the worst timing imaginable.
"Gosh, no wonder you spaced out," Jinora whispered. "She's gorgeous."
"I wasn't - I wasn't spaced out!"
"You so were. Have you hit that yet?"
Korra tried to shove Jinora back into the kitchen where she belonged. "You are sixteen, you're not allowed to say that! Go finish up the rest of the dishes!"
Opal snickered as Jinora ignored her, using her tiny frame to easily duck Korra's arm. It was only then that they noticed Asami's expression. She looked panicked, barely even noticing the other two girls as her eyes frantically locked on Korra's.
"Hey," she said tightly.
Korra furrowed her brow. "Uhhh, are you all right?"
"Remember when I called you last night and we were talking and I told you I was fine?"
She squinted at her. Since the day Professor Yangchen was discovered, Korra and Asami had taken to texting frequently. Asami had applied to end her room assignment on campus and get some of her money back, so she hadn't been in any extreme rush to move into the house until that happened. Especially since Korra checked in with her so often, making sure everything was okay. She asked every day if Asami had noticed anyone still following her around. Every day the answer had been 'no' - Ghazan and Ming-Hua seemed to have dropped off the face of the planet, as promised by Zaheer.
"Oh, right," Korra said slowly. "Yeah. You've been okay, right?"
"Not today," Asami said, her voice strained.
"You mean…?"
"No, not them."
"Huh? Then who?"
"Whenever you get a chance," Asami said frantically through gritted teeth. "I think I could use some assistance."
Opal and Jinora were staring back and forth between them.
"What are you guys talking about?"
Asami was gnawing on her own bottom lip and wringing her hands like someone was pointing a gun to her head and forcing her to rob a bank. She cleared her throat anxiously.
"Do you think you can take just, I don't know, a minute to come outside with me and chat?"
"Sure, sure." Korra removed her apron and tossed it at Opal. "I'll be right back."
They went outside, Asami wordlessly walking across the parking lot to her car. Korra followed curiously.
"Hey, what's going on? I can't leave, I have 2 more hours left on my shift."
"I need to show you something."
"Asami, what's…?"
Korra trailed off as she pulled open the passenger side door of her red Satomobile.
She didn't recognize her at first. The woman in Asami's car looked just as confused as her. She was older, in her late sixties. Her hairline was thinning and receding ever so slightly, but she had long, greying brown hair that hung youthfully below the shoulder. Her eyes and mouth crinkled at the edges like someone who'd spent a better part of her life smiling. She had a kindness and serenity to her that calmed Korra, and made her feel less on edge.
Then, she noticed the smell. Or rather, a lack thereof. Korra's knees almost buckled when she realized that she'd seen this woman before. Only that time, she had turned a pale blue and her neck was wide open, spilling a pool of dark red blood across the lecture hall floor.
"Oh...fuck."
Professor Yangchen's face twisted in distaste.
"Language."
"Oh, um, sorry, Professor."
Yangchen cocked her head. "I don't believe you were ever one of my students. I never forget a face, even in the huge intro classes."
"It's true. She remembers everyone," Asami agreed. Korra stared at her incredulously.
"Okay, Asami, it's very important that you understand what I'm about to tell you. Professor Yangchen is a - "
"Yes, yes, I know what she is," she said quickly, rolling her eyes. "Obviously. She, however, does not."
Professor Yangchen looked impatient. She sighed loudly. "Why are we here, Miss Sato?"
Korra gulped. "She doesn't know she's a - ?"
"No."
"But - "
"I know."
"She - "
"Korra, I know," Asami sighed. "I got into my car to move the last of my stuff to your house and I saw her in my parking lot just wandering around like she was lost."
"Everything just seems a bit off, lately," Yangchen said, almost bitterly. "I suppose it's because I haven't been getting much sleep. But no one has been paying a lick of attention to me. It's a bit rude, come to think of it. No one's ever treated me like that before."
"But she saw me and came over," Asami said. "Because, well, I could see her."
"You were always a very attentive pupil, Miss Sato."
"Thanks. Anyway, she doesn't remember anything. She was looking for her car so she could drive home."
"Couldn't find the bloody thing. I know I parked it in Lot C, by the Fire Ferrets Gym. I always park there."
Asami swallowed. "So I...kind of just put her in my car and told her I'd drive her home."
Korra didn't say anything for a very long while. She kept looking back and forth between the completely normal-looking physics professor who she'd seen just days ago practically decapitated and decomposing on the lecture hall floor, and Asami, who'd basically just adopted herself a clueless ghost grandma.
"I've got to get home," Professor Yangchen fretted. "I have to feed Pik and Pak."
"What?"
"Her cats," Asami explained. "She has two cats."
"Umm…" Korra swallowed. "I'm gonna go back inside to get Opal to cover the rest of my shift. Then...I think we should head to the house."
"My house," Professor Yangchen said.
Asami sighed. "Professor, we want to take you to some of our friends. You know, so we can help you deal with...things. We actually have a...uh, friend that's just like you."
"Do you stop him from taking care of his loved ones as well?"
"Professor - "
"No, Miss Sato, I think I've had enough of your games," she huffed, making a move to get out of the car. "Thank you for offering me a ride, but it's proven more an inconvenience than I thought it would."
Korra jumped in front of her although, with her being a ghost, she supposed it shouldn't have done much. Lucky for them, Yangchen had no idea. The old professor stopped and rolled her eyes.
"Young lady, get out of my way."
"Look, I'll join you and Asami to take you back home. Your home. Okay? I'll be right back. Give me two seconds."
Yangchen pursed her lips. "We can't wait too long. Pik and Pak are always fed at this time. I don't want them to worry about me."
Korra looked over at Asami, who was still blinking owlishly at her dead former professor.
"Asami?"
They locked eyes, and Korra hoped that she could get the message. They could not let Professor Yangchen wander around haunting random parking lots alone. This ghost could not leave until they got answers - a lot of freaking answers.
"That's my house. Right there on the left, with the red door."
Asami slowed the car to a stop and Yangchen jumped out and scooted through the front door in a hurry. Literally, launched herself right through the car door and through the heavy wooden door of her house.
Korra made a face. "How the hell does she not know she's a ghost?"
"Dissociation?" Asami suggested.
"But she just flew through two doors! That woman is a scientist! She doesn't stop to think, like, 'Hey. Are my molecules supposed to do this?'"
Asami bit back a laugh. "Stop it. I've read about dissociative states happening with traumatic events, and you can't get more traumatic than murder, right? My first semester I entertained the idea of being a psych major, and I remember reading about how traumatized people could just start eating their own arms and stuff."
"Huh. That's incredibly disgusting. I'd have switched to physics, too," Korra whipped out her phone. "Let's call Bolin so we can have a ghost's take on this - and yes, he can talk on the phone."
Asami nodded sheepishly as Korra dialed Mako's cell. Bolin could technically use one, but it never seemed financially reasonable to get him a phone, despite the fact that even dead he'd probably get more use out of it than his brother.
"Mako, could you put Bo on - no, I'm fine, I left work early - it's a long story, I'll tell you later - not now, I'm kind of - can you just - I'm in the middle of something, Mako! Just get Bolin - oh, come on! - "
Korra groaned into the phone dramatically. Asami gently plucked it from her hands and put it on speaker.
"Mako? Hi, it's Asami."
"What are you guys up to?"
"I found the ghost of Professor Yangchen at school so I drove her to Korra's job. Yangchen is confused and can't answer our questions right now, so we took her home to feed her cats and hopefully get her mind together. Korra's trying to talk to Bolin to see if a similar kind of dissociation happened with him."
"Wha - but - wha - huh?!"
"Bolin, please."
They heard a distinct change in static as Mako's phone was changed to speaker as well.
"Hey, Korra? Why is my brother sputtering like a broken robot?"
"Bo! Ugh, finally! Me and Asami are here at - "
"Oooooh, hi Asami!"
"Hey, Bolin."
"So you guys are just, like, hanging out?"
"Bolin!" Korra shut everyone up re-summarized the situation. The boys were silent for a moment before Bo spoke up.
"It was three days before Mako came back to the house and found me. In those three days - yeah, I was like Yangchen. I thought I was alive and didn't understand why no one could see or talk to me. I tried to leave the house, but couldn't go out the door. I even tried climbing out the windows and banging on the walls. I was screaming, but no one heard me."
Korra felt her throat constrict. She always assumed it was like that for him, waking up scared and alone, invisible to the world until Mako returned. She had never wanted to hear him talk about it, though, in that solemn, hollow voice.
"But like, I literally watched them take my body away. I saw it, how my body looked after the vampires were done with it. I watched them mop my blood off the floors, even. But I still didn't get it. I think that's what Yangchen's going through. I couldn't connect the dots about what was happening, even though I could see it right in front of me."
Korra looked away, back at the the Professor's house. As she tried to tell herself that it was fine, that Bolin was okay now, something else occurred to her.
Bolin had always been trapped at the house. How come Yangchen could move around at will?
"What brought you back?" Asami was asking. "How did you manage to connect again?"
"I saw Mako. It all came rushing back to me, the second he found me."
That made some sense. Mako and Bolin's parents died when they were very young. They were all each other had for almost half their lives. Seeing someone they loved that much again should have been strong enough to pull Bolin out of whatever haze he'd been in.
"So, maybe that's all Professor Yangchen needs," Asami mused. "To see her cats, Pik and Pak."
"She's a crazy cat lady?"
"She is not a - "
"AAAIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!"
They jumped as a shrill scream burst from the second floor of Yangchen's house.
"What was that!?" Mako demanded. They had heard the shriek over the speakerphone.
"It was her," Asami said, jumping out of the car. Korra followed her.
"We'll call you guys right back." She hung up, despite his protests, and silenced the phone in case he tried to call them back. They needed to focus on Yangchen.
When they got to the front door, it was still locked. Of course - the ghost had never unlocked the door. She didn't need to.
Korra pounded on it with her fist. "Hey! Let us in!"
"Are you okay?" Asami called.
The response was frantic sobbing and a little bit of a wail.
"We have to get inside," Korra hissed.
"How?"
"Uhhhhh...who are you two yelling at?"
They swiveled around to find a man looking at them curiously from the street. He had a tiny dog on a leash with him.
"Yep," Korra said nervously as the crying from inside got louder. The man obviously couldn't hear the ghost's sobbing, but they could and it was profoundly distracting.
"You know the lady that lives in that house is dead, right? That professor that was mauled by wolves or whatever? That's her house."
"Oh, yes, we know." Asami said quickly. "We're just here to...feed her cats. Make sure they're okay and stuff."
"You were shouting at her cats?"
"They're smart cats," Korra said impatiently. This guy needed to go.
"Well, you don't need to. Her family came two days ago and took the them away someplace. Cats are fine."
Korra and Asami shared a look.
"Oh. Then...I guess we'll go."
He nodded. "Okay, then."
Nobody moved for a few seconds, and it became obvious that this guy was nosy as hell and would not leave until they did. So they begrudgingly made their way back to the car, where the tiny dog nipped at Korra's ankles and began to bark.
"Sorry, he's a little misbehaved. Never got him fixed," the guy said sheepishly. "Although he normally only acts like this when he sees other female doggies. Don't know what's gotten into him. Bruno, stop that!"
Bruno did not, and Korra tried not to be extremely humiliated by it. Asami had the decency not to say anything about it either, at least. As the guy left with his gross, yappy dog, she made a show of waiting for the car to warm up.
"I hate the suburbs," Asami said.
"Me too."
"So her cats are gone. I guess that explains why the Professor is so upset."
"Does it?" Korra listened as the loud sobs continued. "This seems a little much over a pair of cats."
"She really liked her cats." Asami squinted through her windshield. "Okay, I think Mr. Asshole-Who-Doesn't-Fix-His-Pets is gone. How do we get in the house? We need to tell Yangchen that Pik and Pak are fine."
Korra shrugged. "Through one of the windows? In the back, though. I don't want to deal with people on the street being dumb and nosy."
They tried to casually and unsuspiciously cross considerable Professor Yangchen's yard, which smelled faintly of cat urine, and make their way around to the back of the house. There were two first floor windows, but they appeared to be locked and Korra wasn't interested in breaking any of them. The second floor, though, had one small window that looked like it was open just a crack. That was all she needed.
"I think I can climb up to that window."
"Climb on what? That's vinyl siding."
The yard was devoid of anything that could be remotely useful for breaking into the house. Professor Yangchen was apparently a gardener, and her small yard was accented with an actually quite pretty flower bed, as well as some kind of vegetable patch and stone walkway. There was an old shed, but it's rickety doors hung open and all they could see inside was a wheelbarrow that was too short to reach the window, and a couple of gardening tools.
"I can boost you up," Asami offered.
"No, I'll boost you up."
"You're lighter than me."
"I am not! I'm shorter, but I'm super dense!"
She snorted. "So am I!"
Korra looked at her skeptically. Asami wasn't exactly one of those weak-looking elvish, waify college girls, but she also didn't look as strong as a werewolf who could bench press over twice her body weight without breaking a sweat.
"Okay, now I'm offended," Asami said, squatting down and holding out her hands. "Come here. I'm boosting you up, you werewolf elitist."
"Um, make sure to put your weight through your legs and watch your back - "
"Come. Here."
She defiantly grabbed Korra's foot and heaved her upwards so fast she nearly toppled over.
"Holy shit - !"
"Grab the window!"
"Okay, okay, jeez!" Korra curled her fingers around the windowsill. "You're stronger than you look!"
"And you're heavier than you look!"
Korra pulled herself up and looked down as Asami staggered backwards, rubbing her quads. "I mean, I told you so. But good, you didn't use your back. Do you lift?"
"Maybe. Owww. Just go through the window, would you? And don't forget to let me in down here - ahhh!"
Asami jumped as Professor Yangchen just suddenly appeared in the yard in front of her. Her yelp startled Korra, and one of her hands lost their grip.
"Korra!" she cried.
"I'm fine! Although, what the fuck?"
Yangchen glared. "Language. Why are you dangling off the side of my house, young lady?"
"Kind of a long story - "
"Oh, never mind that," the Professor began to tear up again. "My cats are gone. They're gone."
"Listen," Asami said calmly, despite the fact that she was trying to comfort a murdered ghost as Korra still hung by one arm from a second floor window. "I think your daughter might have taken your cats. We just need to swing by your daughter's house and - "
"No!" Yangchen sniffed. "We don't have to go there."
"But she probably - "
"Min won't have taken in Pik and Pak. She's pregnant and a bit of a worry wart. She read all this propaganda about how cats spread toxoplasmosis that can harm her baby and won't have anything to do with the cats. Can you imagine? They're her siblings and she won't come near them until after the baby is born."
"I've heard about toxoplasmosis too," Korra said unhelpfully.
"Well, at the very least, Min can tell us where she had the cats sent," Asami reasoned. "Tell us where she lives, and we'll take you there. It actually might be good for you to, uh, to see your daughter."
Korra hoped that maybe the old woman would get over her cats for long enough to see her daughter, and maybe that would pull her together like Mako's appearance had done for Bolin.
"Min lives not too far down the road," Yangchen sniffed. She looked uncomfortable. "She and her husband moved there so I could be nearby to help with the baby."
Very softly, she felt her heart break.
"We'll take you there," Korra said.
"Okay."
"But first, Asami, can you help me down?"
"Oh!"
It only took them five minutes to drive to Min's house, since there was no traffic or else anything remarkable in the bland Republic City suburb. Somehow, it seemed the perfect place to be an old cat lady and a young couple expecting a child. There was absolutely nothing concerning about the place. That made it even stranger for Yangchen to be so insistent on staying in the car.
She squared her jaw indignantly. "I don't want to speak with her."
"Did you guys have a fight or something?" Korra asked, perhaps less than tactfully. Yangchen looked affronted.
"Of course not! She's my daughter, and she's having my grandchild!"
"So what's the problem? You want to find out where your cats are, don't you?"
When she didn't budge, Asami eyed her old professor carefully. "We'll go in, then. Korra and I. Promise you'll stay right here and wait for us?"
Yangchen just scowled. "Fine."
"What's going on?" Korra protested as she allowed Asami to pull her towards the house. "She wants to find her stupid cats so bad, why doesn't she want to go inside?"
"I think she just figured it out."
"Figured what out?"
"That she's dead."
Korra stopped. "Oh..."
"I think something at her house, maybe a picture of her kids or her cats or something, brought her back. Bolin said seeing his brother did it for him… Well, something did it for her. That's why she was carrying on like that back there."
"Right. But that doesn't explain why she doesn't want to come with us."
"Her daughter is expecting and grieving, Korra. If I were her, I couldn't bear seeing that, either."
That had never occurred to her and she felt very foolish. If the woman cared so much for her pets, of course she loved her daughter too much to handle seeing her in pain. Korra averted her gaze to the perfectly manicured grass.
"Damn it. I don't know if we're close enough yet, so you're gonna have to turn around because I don't want you to see my cry all over this woman's lawn."
Asami actually smirked. "Once you've accidentally grabbed a girl's butt as she falls from a second story window, I think you're considered pretty close."
That threw Korra off-balance a little bit as she watched her make her way to the door and ring the doorbell. She'd thought she'd felt an accidental butt contact back there.
When she looked back, Professor Yangchen was slouched down in the car, determined not to look at the house.
"Hello," Asami was saying as a heavily pregnant woman who did look astonishingly like the Professor answered the door. "My name is Asami. I was a student of your mother's."
Min was maybe in her late twenties or early thirties, but the dark bags and puffy redness around her eyes made her look much older. She had very obviously been crying not long before answering them. Her nose was pink, the result of a hurried nose-wipe in an attempt to look presentable.
"Hello," she said, choking up. Korra couldn't take it. She had no idea how Asami was able to look woman in the face.
"I'm very, deeply sorry for your loss," Asami managed. "She was a treasured professor at the university. She meant a lot to me."
Min swallowed, and then nodded.
"Thank you," she paused. "I'm sorry, did you say your name was Asami? Asami Sato?"
"Yes. Has she mentioned me?"
"Absolutely. You were her favorite student. She would go on and on about your engineering designs. Said you'd be greater than your father one day."
"That's...really flattering."
"Would you and your friend like to come in?" she asked.
"That's kind, but we don't want to trouble you," Asami said. "We actually wanted to ask you something. Your mother mentioned she had two cats."
"Pik and Pak?" Min nodded. "Yes, we made sure to rescue them. It's a shame - I know mom loved those cats, but I can't have them in the house while I'm expecting, and I don't know if I can take care of them and a new baby."
"I totally get it. Where are they now?"
"Are you interested in adopting?" she brightened slightly. "That would be perfect! We dropped them off at the local animal shelter. We've been crossing our fingers that they'd be adopted soon."
"Uhhh…"
"The one on Roku Street. It'd be wonderful if they could be adopted together, that was one of my worries. Pik and Pak are inseparable. They could really use a nice couple like you two - "
"We're not a couple!" Korra said quickly. "Uh, hi. I'm Korra. Just Asami's future roommate."
"...okay."
"You said Roku Street?" Asami continued, unphased. "I know where that is."
"That's awesome. Thank you," Min gushed. She wiped away a tear. "That's really great."
"Honey?" A tall, gangly-looking man appeared behind her. "Everything okay?"
Min smiled at him. "Lou, this is Asami Sato, one of mom's students. She's gonna adopt Pik and Pak!"
"Uhhh…" Asami repeated.
"That's wonderful! That really makes us happy." Now Lou was the one to start with the waterworks. He sniffled and put a hand on his wife's shoulder reassuringly. "Her mother would love that. This is the best news we've had in...it feels like forever."
"It does," Min agreed, putting her hand on his and squeezing it. Both their other hands went around her swollen belly.
Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no.
Korra coughed loudly, as if that would stop the tears from spring into her own eyes.
"Okay! Awesome! It was nice to meet you guys!"
Asami was already lost. Her cheeks were already wet. "It really was a pleasure. Please, if we can do anything to help you. Literally anything."
"You've done a lot already," Lou assured her. "Thank you."
They practically ran back to the car as the young couple went back inside. Asami tumbled into the driver seat and grabbed a wad of tissues from the glove compartment.
"Oh, my God. Oh, my God that was torture," she whimpered.
Korra tried to swallow that heavy lump in her throat. "Damn it, I don't even know them and my heart is in fucking pieces."
"Young lady, you really need a language adjustment."
They'd almost forgotten that the ghost of Professor Yangchen was sitting right there in their back seat.
"Professor, your daughter and son-in-law are the sweetest," Asami said.
"I know. Are they okay? Did Min's face look too thin?"
"No. She looked healthy. Just...sad."
Yangchen was still staring stonily forward. The unspoken acknowledgement - that she knew she was dead, that she knew she was a ghost - hung heavily between them.
"The last time I saw her was the day before. I told her I'd come over after work to help decorate the nursery. Min was excited. She always had a fire in her eyes whenever she focused on something, and I'd never seen her more focused than she has been preparing for this baby. She was in the military, you know. That's how she met her husband. Everything about her is systematic. Step-by-step, by the book."
They let her continue without interrupting.
"It's stressful, having a baby, but they'll do wonderfully. Her and Lou. He's a dear thing. I'm lucky. I know he'll take good care of her and their family, even if I'm not able to. That's why I didn't want to see them - I want to remember them like that. Her smiling, him taking care of her, both of them so hopeful. That's the last thing I need to remember about them. That they'll be fine without me."
"They are gonna be fine," Asami agreed. "Definitely."
"It's just...Pik and Pak. I don't know what's going to happen to them."
Before she knew what she saying, Korra spoke up.
"We'll adopt them."
Asami abruptly turned to her.
"What? Really!?"
"We'll adopt the cats," Korra said firmly. "Both of them. And you'll come stay with us at the house. You can still be with them. We actually have a friend thats a - just like you. It's working out for us. We've made a home. You and Pik and Pak are welcome to join us."
For the first time, Yangchen looked at them. Really, truly, looked at them.
"Thank you. But I won't be joining you, I don't think."
"Why not?" Asami asked, alarmed.
"Because of that."
Yangchen pointed at something outside. They followed her gaze and gasped.
Standing on its own, right in the middle of the street, was a door. It wasn't supported by any walls, and there was nothing in front of or behind it. But it was a heavy-looking wooden door, just suddenly there. The knob shiny and well-oiled, the wooden smooth and finished.
"That's...that's weird, right?" Asami whispered at Korra.
"Yes, Asami, it's fucking weird for a door to appear out of thin air. Even for me."
"Just checking."
"I don't know what it is, but I think that's where I'm going," Yangchen said softly, coming out of the car. This time, she actually opened it and stepped out. Asami and Korra followed her until they were standing right in front of it.
Korra could feel it then. There was no actual temperature change, but she could only describe the feeling as a warmth. A tingling electricity on her skin. There was a faint glow emanating from around the frame of the door. It was inviting, almost welcoming. The mysterious door felt...good, somehow.
"Do you feel that?" Asami asked
"Yeah."
"What is that?"
"I have no idea."
"That's because it's not for you," Yangchen said serenely, not an ounce of concern in her voice. "It's not your door. You feel it, but not like I am. I know this...this is my door."
"How do you know?" Asami demanded, sounding nervous. She was reaching out, as if to hold the Professor back
"I just know."
"Where did it even come from, though?" Korra demanded. Whatever calming effect the door was having on her was slowly being replaced by fear.
"I'm not sure. But it appeared the exact second you said you'd adopt Pik and Pak," Yangchen said quietly. "I felt better, and then suddenly, there it was. My way out."
"Out of what?!" Asami was almost sounding panicked at that point. Korra took her hand and squeezed it.
"Out of this place, I think." Yangchen noted her tone as well and tried to smile at her. "A doorway to whatever comes after this."
"You want to go through it!?" Asami cried incredulously. "But - but you don't know what's behind it! You don't know!"
The Professor ran her fingertips along the polished wood.
"When you come to the end of all the light you know, and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen…"
Asami took a deep breath. "Either you will be given something solid to stand on or you will be taught to fly."
"Excellent. You were always my best student."
"But you can't just…"
But she could. The feeling that emanated from the door was powerful. To Yangchen, possibly overwhelming. It was frightening for sure, a mysterious portal to somewhere just appearing out of thing air, but the door seemed to know that. It was completely insane, but the door seemed to realize it was scary, and whatever was behind it was trying to make them feel better. The fucking door was comforting them. And out of all the things Korra had seen already, she supposed this was just another thing she was going to have to accept as reality.
She squeezed her hand. "Asami. This feels right. This feels like it's supposed to happen."
Yangchen sighed. And then, all of a sudden, she spoke firmly. Almost angrily.
"It was a man. At least, I thought he was a man at first. I was afraid of him the moment I lay eyes on him. He wore a mask, you see. A white mask with a red circle on the forehead. He also had a hood on his sweatshirt, so I couldn't see anything. Didn't say a word. But then he took off the mask."
Her breath hitched as they gaped at her silently.
"I never forget a face, but I wish I didn't remember this one. His eyes were black, pitch black. There was nothing there, no emotion. He looked Southern Water Tribe, dark hair, maybe forty years old. I asked him who he was and what he wanted. He was surprisingly well-spoken. He said his name was Amon. And he said he wanted...everything."
"Amon?" Korra repeated.
"He said he wanted everything, and that he was going to take it. Then...well, you said you saw what happened to me afterwards."
"I'm so sorry," Asami whispered.
"It's...all right," Professor Yangchen said, as if she were only realizing it in that moment. "For me, at least. I'll be all right. But everyone else…I have no choice but to leave that to you."
She opened the door and they had to shield their eyes from the brilliant white light that seemed to exploded before them. They could barely see as Yangchen stepped into the door, into the beyond that neither of them were yet meant to understand.
"Wait! Professor!" Korra called abruptly. "Please, one last thing! How were you not trapped on campus? You died there, but were able to travel around to the coffee shop and other houses and - our friend, Bolin. He's like you, but he can't do that. He's trapped in one place. How did you leave the lecture hall?"
At first, she thought it was too late. That Yangchen had already moved on. But then...
"Sweetheart, I just really, really wanted to."
Her voice faded, and without another word the door slammed shut and vanished without so much as a puff of smoke.