陰影

Book One: Shadows

Chapter One: The Monster Within

i. reality is a waking dream

There is always another force counteracting the normal and the LIGHT; the paranormal and the DARK. The two forces must keep each other in check to prevent the balance in the world from tipping too heavily towards the side of LIGHT, or the side of DARK. Of course, these are all subjective terms, for who is to say what is normal, and what is paranormal; what is LIGHT, and what it DARK? The world is not painted with bold streaks of black and white, but in the subtle nuances, shades, and changes of all that is in between them.

—A Complete History of Aláphoë
[UNKNOWN]

Rage.

Unchecked, it ate away at her mind, sharp and honed claws methodically shredding their way into the very essence of her being. They ripped into her dreams, a shadow beast, radiating hate and malevolence while glowing with an ominously pulsating dark aura.

She cried out in pain as the scythes raked their way down her back, peeling back the bright red muscle and thin layer of dark yellow fat to expose slivers of grotesquely glistening pale bone. The strips of flesh drooped down, sending waves of excruciating pain lancing down her backside.

Blood splashed the stone tiles next to her, staining the cold gray a dark and moist red. The hot liquid trickled down her side, cutting a foul, sticky path down the side of her rib cage. Her clean white bindings were soon soaked a horribly deep shade of crimson, and she screamed, writhing in a pool of her own blood and tears.

The beast uttered a series of low growls—was it mocking her?—and she had the faintest of impressions that it was laughing at her hapless predicament.

A cool hand brushed loose locks of her dark brown hair behind her ear, and a sickeningly familiar voice made its way into her sense of hearing, warm and soft lips brushing the tops of her left ear.

"Submit," it whispered, its voice mocking and dark, full of contempt and...something else that she can't quite pin down in her pain-ravaged state...a sense of morbid conviction?

"Submit."

She rasped, coughing up a disgusting mixture of saliva and bile as her body convulsed on the ground, spraying more drops of blood on herself, the floor, and the being kneeling down besides her.

"Make it stop!" she howled, weakly clawing at the rough ground (wrecking her nails and fingerpads in the process). "It—it hurts!"

"I know it does," the being whispered. "So relinquish your control, and come to me...I promise you, nothing will hurt any longer."

She weakly groaned, struggling to open her heavy eyelids, her lashes thick with drops of tears. "Who are you?!" she screamed, her back arching and bucking in protestation of her attempt at shouting. "STOP IT! PLEASE!"

A cruel laugh filled the air, and the shadow beast padded its way over to her, its shining, bloodstained claws outstretched to maul her face.

"Anjing, Shini." The being waved a dismissive hand, and the shadow beast stopped in its tracks, its barbed tail swinging back and forth as it impatiently paced behind the mysterious being.

It took a hold of her chin, its hand a dark mocha brown, sharp nails cutting into the soft flesh on her face. Her head was roughly turned towards the left, and she cried out in pain and surprise, her eyes flying wide open as tears flowed freely down her face.

"B-but—you can't be—I'm right over—!"

"Good night, Korra. Sweet dreams." There was a small chuckle, and the hand slowly moved up to cover her eyes. Its fingers gently pushed her eyelids back down until she was enveloped by darkness once more.

"We will meet again."

She groaned, the sound weak and flimsy. "No..."

"It's not your choice, my dear girl," the voice cooed. "For where there are no weaknesses in bonds...well, then, they must be created. And you will bring me the Creation Trio, Avatar Korra, whether you like it or not. The SHADOW, the INFINITY, and the DESTINY. You know where to find them, and you alone shall get them for me...

"You have six months...six months to bring them to the Void. If not..."

Words.

"Everything you treasure in your world shall cease to exist entirely."

The whisper died down and went out, snuffed dark like a candle under water, as a sinister promise.

174 ASC
Ba Sing Se

"Please make way for your hero and savior, Avatar Korra!"

Korra buried her hands in her arms, trying to block out the thin and high, reedy, not-very-masculine-although-he-was-male voice of the attendant hired to announce her oh-so-holy presence, and the resulting roar of the crowd at that.

"I don't want to die," she muttered, half-conscious of what she had just whispered.

Asami glanced over to her with a startled glance, her green eyes reflecting the light that lined the top of their Satomobile. To Korra's right and opposite, respectively, Bolin and Mako gave her looks of bewilderment.

"Korra?" the CEO of the now-bustling Future Industries tentatively mumbled, her voice hitching a little at the end of the second syllable.

"Yeah, are you okay?" Bolin asked, staring at her with wide green eyes. He put a comforting arm around her, which Korra normally would have appreciated, but not now.

"'Cause, you don't look okay," her boyfriend continued. "And you've gotta be okay. 'Cause, you know, you're...giving a speech to everyone in Ba Sing Se today about the drug trafficking problem? But you look tired. Like, reeaally tired."

There was a moment of awkward silence in the car until Mako pointedly said, "Bro, you're not helping."

"You won't die," said Asami reassuringly, placing a warm hand over Korra's own clammy one. "It's just a speech—"

"Unless you fall off the podium from stage fright!" Bolin paused. "But you don't have stage fright. Do you?"

Korra glared at her boyfriend. Somewhere, deep down, she felt guilty for acting so mean to him when he was obviously trying to make her feel better, but there was a black cloud hanging over her head that moved in last week and it wasn't showing any sign of moving away anytime soon. "Yes, Bolin, the freaking Avatar who travels across the world and speaks to large crowds wherever she goes and answers a crapload of stupid questions from the reporters so that her equally stupid answers can be posted in the 'Ba Sing Se Times' has stage fright."

"Well, you know...it was a possibility." Bolin gave her a wide grin. Still trying to be optimistic. For her.

Korra snorted, shaking Bolin off and turned her glower towards the window, feeling angry and frustrated tears prick at the corners of her eyes. She roughly swiped at them. "Whatever."

Behind her, Asami frowned at her friend's dour disposition while Bolin poked his pointer fingers together.

Korra's chin rested on the palm of her hand as she stared outside, barely registering the line of manors whizzing by in a brown blur. She had been having nightmares for the past week or so: ever since she prevented her uncle Unalaq from bringing the Physical and Spiritual Worlds together as one. Always of the same thing, the same person and her pet...beast thing.

But this was the first time anything about "shadows" and "destiny" had been mentioned. Something about the way that person said them...they sounded important. In a good or bad way, she still didn't know.

A flash of a painful memory tore into her thoughts, accompanied by a cruel laugh, and the Avatar pressed the tips of her fingers to her temple, her blue eyes flicking down to stare at the door handle.

She was staring at herself. She had been torturing herself.

And she liked it.

But it was also me.

It was strange. Unfounded. And it scared her.

What does she—what am I submitting to?

"Korra? Korra, it's time for your speech." Mako had crossed over to her seat and was shaking her shoulder. His molten eyes bore into her, his gaze probing, searching for an answer to a question that was not there.

Korra sat still for a moment, a stormy expression crossing over her face as she glared at the firebender, and she roughly pushed Mako's hand off of her arm, wordlessly stepping out of the car and slamming the door behind her.

The Earth King Seilong was there to greet her, shaking her hand loosely and introducing himself as he led her up to the podium, where a pedestal and a microphone waited patiently for her to use them.

"Uh...hi."

An uproar from the crowd sounded, roiling waves of sound traveling across the whole city. Strangely irritated by the fact, she quickly pressed on with the little speech, forcing the listeners to quiet down.

"I am—well, obviously—Avatar Korra. So I've heard about the drug trafficking problem in this city, and...I'm here to help fix that. I understand that the problem's grown out of hand and more arrests are being made each day, but the 'drug lord' himself has yet to be captured..."

And all the while, Korra couldn't shake off the feeling that she was being watched. Watched by who (or what), she didn't know, but she wasn't eager to find out.

But she spoke. She spoke about the issue. She spoke about the man behind the illegal trafficking. She spoke about her intended solution.

"...could keep an eye out for him, that would be greatly appreciated, and it would make the lives of the Shûrbr—"

—And you speak about the SHADOW—

Korra slammed the two halves of her jaw shut, stopping herself before she could go any further, her eyes widening in alarm, the sound of the click her teeth produced ringing across the whole courtyard.

That was not what she intended to say, yet it slipped as easily out of her mouth as if she had.

She coughed weakly to cover up her slip. "Er, pardon the slip. What I meant to say was...it would make the lives of the Police Department...as well as my own...much—much easier..."

A sharp growl broke through her mental conscience, uttering a frustrated wail that roiled across her turbulent thoughts in an unbroken wave, until it seemed to slam against the confines of her skull.

What in the name of Yue is happening to me?

Korra stopped again, a curious feeling of apathy settling over her, and she placed the her right fingertips to her temple, taking a few deep breaths as memories that were not her own flashed through her soul and being, causing her to shiver violently for a second or two.

—war—

—a man, rising up from a figure with wild black hair and glowing eyes—

—writhing, licking streams of fire; waves of the dark, snarling water; pillars of solid, dusty earth; whirlwinds of shrapnel and air—

—the cycle—

—ten thousand years have passed—

Korra gazed at the crowd with hooded, half-lidded eyes. "...Excuse me for a moment." She brushed past the concerned faces of the Earth Kingdom diplomats, past the Earth King's raised eyebrows, past Mako, past Bolin and Asami. Into the small respite room they set up for her once she had finished her speech.

She leaned against the wall, the world swaying from under her feet due to the now-mind-numbing pain, the pounding in her head that she normally didn't experience unless she had been screaming at the top of her lungs while crying profusely at the same time. Which generally only happened in a select few of very bad arguments with Mako.

Her two eyes drifted close and refused to snap back up. Her head lolled downwards, chin touching her collarbone.

A clear voice rang in her head like a bell.

Your third eye shall open, and you shall learn the history of your stance...

And her mind exploded.

ii. the last one

21,538 BSC
...Voids...Cosmos...

Darkness. Pitch black. No-light-in-the-night. Eyes straining. Adjusting. Widening.

Nothing.

Her breathing hitched. Hiccuped. Choked.

It was suffocating.

There was a time in the world when the DARK dominated. It was a chaotic era, full of misery, with no hope, for there was no LIGHT. It was terrible, yet beautiful at the same time, for there was not LIGHT.

And it stayed that way for ages uncounted.

But then the LIGHT came.

A dim pinprick, off in the distance. Her blue irises latched onto it.

Hungry for substance. Hungry for use.

It grew, and it grew, until she shied away from it. Eyes averted.

The light burned through her eyelids.

She saw red. Washes of red.

And the two forces warred against each other.

Until at last, they receded in exhaustion, leaving behind a barren world, smoking and twisted, deformed and gray.

A bare landscape. Naked of everything and anything. The corpse of a world. No life.

Nothing.

Except for her.

She tentatively stepped forwards, her boots kicking up small puffs of lifeless, crumbling dust.

"Hello?"

Her voice came out different. Slow and measured. Devoid of any emotion. Lower. It echoed across the stripped land, although there was nothing for her voice to bounce off of.

She had a feeling, a feeling that she

And from the lifeless, desolate plain, ORDER and CHAOS were born.

They balanced each other, and they brought back the DARK and LIGHT.

And they became separated by the Archlight. A volatile energy that, as much as it keeps the Cosmos in balance, threatens to rip it apart as well.

Shifting colors. Cool blue. Deep crimson. Sunny yellow. Vibrant green. It had a iridescent quality as the colors slowly shifted, as if it were magma.

So, the world was created. The four Primordials populated this desert with life; of trees, of foliage, of exotic creatures, of men, and of spirits.

And thus, the Spiritual World was born. But it was not inhabited, for the spirits made the choice to live next the the humans, the beasts, in the Physical World, for the time being.

And peace reigned for years uncounted.

There was a civilization, long before the Four Nations...

And she saw the wall.

"No," she murmured. For it couldn't be. It violated the very fabric of nature.

But it was there.

But then the Avatar was created.

And along with it, the SHADOW.

What was said next burned itself into her mind. Branded. Stuck. A horror. But she couldn't recount it. She couldn't describe it. It was there. Just there. For her and her alone.

And she screamed as it tore into her mind, her very senses, a jagged laugh slashing its way through her defenses to rip at the most private part of her being. A wounded howl vibrated down to her very bones, shaking her as she froze, trembling, in the great Void.

She snapped back into reality with tears running down her cheeks, and hands upon her shoulders, hands that were violently shaking her.

"Korra! Wake up!"

"No." She roughly pushed whoever was behind her away. "Leave me be. Tell them that I'm done. I said what was needed and that is all."

"Korra, they're still waiting for you—please, you can't just leave them like that; you said you would come back—"

"I am the Avatar and I can do what I want. Now leave—me—alone." She emphasized the last word.

"Korra—"

Korra spun around, her eyes narrowed into angry slits, mouth set in a vicious snarl. Her fingers closed around Asami's extended left forearm, and she held it there, in a vice-like grip. "Leave me." Her hand shook, knuckles protruding, skin whitening. "I have some shit to figure out and it does not include your intervention. Or anyone else."

"No!" Asami winced as the grip on her forearm tightened, practically cutting off her blood circulation. "Korra, you can't just abandon your position out there, it will reflect badly on you in the eyes of the people of the Earth Kingdom, as well as the Earth King himself—"

"Screw them," Korra spat, her eyes dark and sharp. A smear of red passed over her vision, which began to grow blurred. "Go!" She relinquished her strong grip on Asami's arm and shoved her towards the door, turning around to face the wood-paneled wall.

The CEO gave her a helpless look and edged out of the room, rubbing her arm all the while.

Korra stared after her for a moment and buried her head in her hands.

"Come to me."

She finally caved in.

Everything in her mind was all...swept away, until she was left with bliss. Nothing to worry about. No drug lords. No problems. No petty issues that benders and non-benders alike came to her with. No nothing.

She felt free.

And she felt powerful.

"She isn't coming out," Asami hissed, still cradling her left forearm to her chest. "Something about being the Avatar, and that she has some things to figure out, so she doesn't have to finish the speech."

"So much for your 'diplomatic skills'," Mako sourly muttered.

Asami whipped around to glare at the firebender. "Excuse me? Do you think that you can do any better? She almost squeezed my arm off!"

Bolin knit his eyebrows. "How can you squeeze someone's arm off?" He started to rise, but Mako put a hand on his shoulder and, without a word, stalked towards the little room.

Bolin glared after him.

Asami chose to ignore the earthbender as Mako gave one sharp rap to the door before ramming his way into the room.

A harried Earth Kingdom diplomat stuck his head into the backstage. "Is Avatar Korra—?"

"Yes, yes, yes, everything's fine!" Bolin grinned and raised his hands up in the air before Asami could say anything. "Just a few moments!"

Korra lurched out of the room at that moment, her left arm wrapped around a stunned Mako's torso and her right fist blazing with orange flames. The Avatar kneed him in the chest and he went down, clutching his ribs in pain.

The diplomat let out a terrified squeak. "A-Avatar Korra, what are—what are you doing?"

Two things happened at once. For one, Korra's head snapped up, and Asami choked on her tongue, her eyes wide in terror and utter disbelief as she stared at the Avatar's eyes—or, rather, her lack of eyes. Glowing reddish-orange pits were in the place of where her irises should have been, and they seemed to sink deep into her eye sockets, giving them an empty quality. She made a chuckling sound, her white teeth bared in a wide, insane grin, and abandoned Mako. That would have been a good thing, except that Korra was headed straight towards Bolin, and Asami wasn't sure whether the earthbender would be eaten alive or burned to a crisp, or both.

The diplomat took in a shaky breath and jerked outside, screaming.

The other occurance was more disturbing.

"Bolin..." The voice that came out of Korra's mouth was not Korra's. It was smoother, more controlled, more sinister, with none of the happy lilt that was part of the Avatar's signature tone. "How nice it is to meet you. Korra here"—Asami found it quite weird as the Avatar gestured towards herself—"has told me a lot about you." She snickered, her hands folded loosely behind her back as she circled Bolin like a hungry wolf. "Not knowingly or willingly, of course, but that makes it twice the fun!"

Asami began to edge towards the shorter girl as Mako shook himself off and crept up, his eyes slightly unfocused, as Bolin licked his lips. His green irises flicked around before centering on Korra, and he swallowed resolutely. "Um, were they good things?"

Korra growled and snapped forwards, placing her hands on the stocky earthbender's shoulders. "That depends."

Bolin visibly gulped once more. "Wh-who are you?" He rose up into a half-crouch and tilted his head. "Korra—"

"Ha! You're a funny one." Korra, or what used to be Korra, leaned down looking directly into Bolin's face with those glowing red eyes, grinning like a mad predator. "The better question to ask, kid, is what am I...but no matter. I am sure that you will find out soon enough. You will have no other choice, after all." She nodded briefly. "The person who you know as Avatar Korra is gone. Quashed out of existence. She is merely an instrument now, to execute my will...oh, she put up a fight. But she didn't know it, so sapped away at her strength for quite a while. That must have confused her quite a bit." The thing controlling the Water Tribe bender smirked. "Haven't you noticed for the past few weeks—"

Asami chose that moment to lunge forwards and connect her fist with not-Korra's head as Mako tackled her at the legs.

"Asami!" Bolin cried. "Mako, let her—!"

"Well, you weren't going to do it, so someone had to—oof!"

While Asami's fist initially met hard bone, a second later, she was seeing stars as a massive blow was dealt to the side of her face. Another thump besides her signaled that Mako had been roughly kicked aside as well.

"Impressive!" Korra laughed, although the act of joy didn't reach her blank eyes at all, which were instead glowering down at Bolin, although they quickly turned to Mako. She had an ugly, mottled bruise already blossoming on the left side of her face. "You got me talking there...no matter." She clapped her hands, and a glimmering red sheen seemed to envelope a certain section of the hall off. When Bolin rammed against it, he bounced back, hissing in agony as he clutched his shoulder.

And so, they could only watch in trepidation and horror as Korra's hand descended upon Mako's face. The firebender rolled to the right, releasing a jet of bright orange-and-yellow flame channeled through his fist. The fire surged towards Korra's face, and yet, the Avatar casually brushed it aside, the flames spinning away into nothingness as if they had never existed.

"Submit," Korra breathed, and there was something so inherently vicious about the tone that she was using that caused Asami to freeze and place. She wanted to curl up into a tiny ball on the ground and never get up.

"No!" Bolin's wail of anguish slammed into Asami's ears as the two benders fought it out in the dome, yet Korra someone evaded all of Mako's wild, frenzied attacks, maneuvering around the bolts and walls of fire with a deadly, serene grace that not even airbenders possessed as she dipped and bobbed: an inhuman movement. She slipped under Mako's guard and emerged behind him, planting a foot on his back and knocking him down. Her hand descended upon Mako's face, so reminiscent of Amon when he took someone's bending away that it was almost like reliving the experience.

And then Asami gasped in pain and horror as Korra's hand jerked up and Mako crumpled to the ground, unmoving. His eyes stared off into nothing.

"Mako!"

"Ha." Korra turned to Asami, her lips still stretched out in that scary, inhuman grin as the glowing crimson dome dissipated. Red-orange light poured out from her eye sockets, bathing Asami in its glow, making it seem as if the non-bender was standing next to a shifting pool of bubbling magma. "You're next, you fool. You will regret that you ever thought of crossing me."

"Korra, stop it!" Bolin scrambled upright from behind and leaped, wrapping his arms around the corrupt Avatar. Korra writhed from under him, spitting and clawing. Trails of red leeched out from wherever her fingernails raked at bare skin, but Asami watched woozily and in rapt attention as Bolin only squeezed tighter, tears streaming out from under his closed eyes. "Korra, please, this isn't you...whatever's gotten into you...you know? Calm down, please. We're not your enemies, we're your friends."

"I beg to differ!" Korra snarled, jerking again. "Let go of me, you bastard!"

Bolin ignored her. "And...friends stick together, right? C'mon, Korra, you're stronger than this, and this thing that's in your body isn't...you. Fight it, Korra!"

Everything was becoming muddled now. Asami's vision swayed before her, and the whole world turned upside down as she fell on her side, and the faint sound of words coming from far, far away reached her ears.

A crash resounded through the room, and Asami blearily registered black-clothed men leaping into the room—the Dai Li, her sluggish brain reminded her—as they snatched Korra's flailing arms away to keep from harming Bolin any further, rocky gloves pressing into the Avatar's mocha skin.

The red glow flashed for a moment, and then faded away into nothing, leaving only Korra's blue eyes left.

"...Aang...please, come with me..." Korra seemed to mutter, but everything melted into black as Asami passed out.

iii. the end

They threw Korra in a dark, bare room after that incident, which was rather pointless and funny, since they had forgotten to lock the door, and considering that she had no idea what happened.

She didn't really mind, though, for she had found her peace at last. And she knew she deserved it. Korra had absolutely no idea how she would make up to Asami for this, assuming she was still alive by the end of the mess. Apparently, she had been doing...something to her boyfriend, and if the Dai Li operatives hadn't pulled her off of her...

She didn't want to think what would have happened.

And then there was Aang.

It made Korra shudder every time she thought of it, but what really made her wonder was, if she had attacked her boyfriend like that, why didn't she turn on the Dai Li?

Then there was the throbbing pain in her left cheek, and she still hadn't figured out where she had acquired it from, which bothered her more than it should have.

Korra winced as she touched the tips of her fingers to the injury and quickly dropped her hand, crossing it over her chest.

"Avatar Korra?" A series of raps were laid upon the locked door, as Korra glared resolutely at the floor, her arms folded tightly against her chest. She was not in the mood to entertain visitors right now and simply wanted her own space.

"Avatar Korra, please open the door." Another set of those irritating knocks sounded, and Korra dragged herself up from the chair, dropping the empty bottle in her hand onto the ground as her gaze darkened, intent on letting whoever was on the other side of the door know just exactly how much she was sinking in a foul mood right now and didn't want to be disturbed.

Her fingers clenched around the scuffed, bronze-colored metal doorknob, and she twisted her wrist to the right, throwing the door open with a snarl. "I don't want—"

Her eyes widened in surprise, hanging blue orbs stark against the shadows under her eyes. "You—you aren't—"

Green eyes glinted from under the dark brown hood. "Who did you expect I was?" the man (at least, she assumed it was a man) asked slowly. "The Earth King? One of your little pet..."—his hood rustled, and Korra had the impression that he was curling his lip in arrogance—"...friends?"

"They're not my pets. And is Mako...all right?" She winced.

"Who, the firebender?" The man waved a dismissive gloved hand. "He's in a coma...but he will live. I have seen to that. Well, Avatar, I come to you with a message." He reached into the dark folds of his cloak, withdrawing a yellowed and aged scroll. "Take this. Read it. Show it to no one else. I will be waiting for you at the Souna Docks at the exact same time as I arrived today, one day from now."

"First of all, what in Koh's realm are the 'Souna Docks'?" Korra snatched the scroll from his hands and felt a flicker of foreboding pass through her. She remembered Aang's words.

"And...what if I decide not to show up?"

His green eyes grew flinty. "Just come to the docks. Do not let the Fukanaga know about this meeting...for the end is upon us." He swept away in a flourish and vanished down the hallway.

Korra stared after his retreating figure and called, "Is it just me, or did you sound like Amon? You know, when he was all like, 'The revelation is upon us!'"

There was no response.

"...I really am going crazy." She turned around in frustration, settling down on the floor with a huff. Placing her fists together into a meditative posture, she straightened her back and squeezed her eyes shut.

To anyone looking inside the room, she vanished.

iv. times of a year long past

174 ASC
The Spirit World

The doors to the council room shook violently, dust slowly drifting down from the seams and settling on the polished stone floor, as the Moon Spirit slammed against it with all her might, struggling to gain entrance. Frustrated, her snow-white hair coming out of its elegant braids and hair loopies, Yue turned towards the man standing behind her. An equally irritated expression blemished his own features, heavy black eyebrows twitching from annoyance and bald head shining in the artificial light of the Spirit Hall.

"Why won't they let us in?" Yue demanded, her tone uncharacteristically angry.

"None of the Avatars were allowed in either," the bald monk she was talking to replied in irritation, his cool gray eyes flicking back to watch the milling train of men and women, young and old, clad in an array of multi-colored garments. "Save for Avatar Wan, of course..." His eyes sharpened to flinty points.

"Aang, for crying out loud, you know I'm not an Avatar! I'm the Moon Spirit! Surely, that must garner enough age and experience—"

"Remain calm, please, Lady Yue," Avatar Kalliak, a Northern Water Tribe incarnate from about two thousand years back soothed. "They shouldn't be discussing anything too important in there without us..."

A tremor shook the hallway as someone in the council room screeched violently, their voice booming through the heavy wooden doors.

"Not a threat? Not a threat?! She will get us all killed, you mindless fool! Killed! Are you insane?! The Archlight is threatening to spill into the rift between the two worlds, and there's nothing we can do to stop it! We only just avoided a disaster—"

"Quiet down." Avatar Wan's voice drifted through the doors, and after a rustle and some grumbling, their voices could be heard no more.

Aang knit his eyebrows together in confusion. "What is an 'Archlight'?"

Kalliak raised his broad shoulders. "Not a clue."

Yue was pacing along the hallway, her face uncharacteristically screwed up into an expression of frustration. "Surely, this council must deem it important that—"

The door swung open, revealing spirits leaving the council room. Some seemed more ruffled then others. Wan Shi Tong swept out with barely a nod towards the assembled Avatars, while a monkey spirit stormed out after him, his brown fur standing on end and gleaming teeth bared in irritation.

Wan, in his neutral brown-orange robes, strolled out soon afterwards, his brown eyes solemn. "Avatar Aang!" he called, smiling as he waved the airbender over. "If you would come with me for a moment, please!"

Ignoring Yue's groan of frustration, Aang followed his predecessor down the hall, keeping his eyes trained on Wan's pale face.

"What is it, Avatar Wan?"

"There are forces at work," Wan briskly replied, leading Aang down a turn in the corridor. "Your successor, Avatar Korra is beginning to grow rather..." He paused for a moment, looking thoughtful yet uncomfortable. "...Unstable."

Aang cocked his head to the side, his eyebrows drawn together into a thick black line. "Really? I believe that she is doing just fine."

"Oh, no," said Wan, shaking his head in denial. "I do not mean in her efforts to be the Avatar; she's doing just fine in that. I think...well, her mind is growing clouded." He turned towards Aang. "When was the last time you contacted her?"

"Erm..." Aang frowned, rubbing the blue tattooed arrow on his head. "A few months ago? I'm not sure," he reluctantly admitted. Korra hadn't called on him for quite a while now, and he mentally berated himself for not growing worried about her unusual silence.

"I see." Wan ran a hand down his short black beard, looking pensive. "Well, the SHADOW is gaining strength, and I believe that it is trying to wrest control of Avatar Korra's mind. For what purpose, I am not sure, but there are some in the council who call for...ahem, drastic measures to be taken to ensure that this never happens."

"Wait. Back up." Aang held up a hand. "What's a SHADOW?"

Wan looked at him strangely, a curious glint in his brown eyes, but he eventually resumed walking and swished down the hall. "Now is not the time and place to explain that in full to you, Avatar Aang. All I can say is that it is a dark force that is...an integral part of every Avatar. You cannot strip it away. In some lifetimes, it is weaker, and in others, it is much stronger. In our present Avatar's case, it is...unnaturally vicious." He stopped at the gazebo, gazing out into the lush green plains beyond. "Perhaps it has to do with Avatar Korra's personality, but I very much doubt that it has ties to—"

"And what do you mean by 'drastic measures'?" asked Aang, interrupting Wan (rather rudely, at that), although he had a growing pit in his chest that told him exactly what he thought it meant.

Wan gave him a grim smile. "Oh, I think you know what it means."

"They can't," the airbender whispered in horror. "They wouldn't. It would be nothing short of murder!"

I do not agree with it any more than you do," Wan told him. "However, several notable members of the council, including Nala and Ty'neloan, are convinced that it is the only way.

"Then why call me here?" Aang asked.

"You must make contact with her before she does something rash," Wan said duly. "She is still rather spontaneous, no? Afterwards...ah, but that is best left for you to figure out...you will find yourself in an unfamiliar place, however. But do tell Korra to avoid any sort of docks by the water, once you...extract her from her situation." He gave Aang a small, somewhat melancholy smile and walked away.

"Right," Aang called after him, confused. He sighed and sat down, settling fluidly into a meditative position.

He reached out with his mind into the intertwining strands of the connection each Avatar shared, and as he groped his way down the thread, he grew increasingly antsy, noting a strange and hungry feeling creeping into his conscience.

Aang slammed against a barrier when he reached his successor's mind and reeled back in horror at the roiling, tumbling thoughts that shrieked at him, forcing him to turn away from the magnitude of their evil, lest he be corrupted as well.

What in the name of—?

"Korra!" Aang shouted at his successor's conscience with all his might, trying to break the hold of...whatever it was had on the Avatar's mind.

He may as well have been trying to grind away a mountain with a stalk of grass.

Shit, shit, shitty shit. Aang flinched as he drove the dirty words away from his mind. Taking a deep breath, he dove into the young Avatar's consciousness, shielding his own from any unwanted presence gaining hold on his thoughts.

It was like a dark, boiling sea, as things churned below him like a monstrous wave. Tendrils of unnamed shadows clawed at his spirit, wailing in frustration as they slid off without leaving a dent. The airbender steeled his nerves and struggled deeper in, not expecting to break any sort of barrier—and yet, that is what happened.

"A-Aang!" Korra scrambled towards him, blue and ghostly as a spirit. "What're you doing here? Oh, no...where am I?"

"Shh, it's okay," Aang whispered, taking his successor into his arms. "Calm down. I think that whatever has taken control of your body has...trapped your true consciousness, somehow, in your own mind."

"I'm sorry!" she gasped, burying her head into his robes. "I wasn't thinking straight! I just...couldn't take it anymore. The thoughts, the dreams were eating at me for a week! It was always the same—the same ones...every single night..." She broke off again. "It was—I don't know—I saw myself!"

Aang frowned. Korra said it as if it were such a bad thing, and she was shaking like a dried leaf in the wind.

"...What do you mean?" he asked.

"I was torturing myself," Korra replied shakily. "Argh!" She rammed against the blackness and immediately bounced back near Aang. "Spirits!" she cursed.

"No...wait, Korra..." Aang stared at her and grasped her arm. "You're fading!"

"Yeah, I've kinda realized that..." Korra groaned.

"Korra, I'll meet you later," Aang frantically said, trying to hold onto her rapidly-vanishing forearm. "Just...Avatar Wan told me to tell you to avoid any docks, if that makes any sense to you."

"That doesn't..." Korra's voice was but a whisper on the wind, and then she faded all together, along with the barrier, leaving Aang in the slow-moving, drowsy blue aura of Korra's normal mind.

He shakily lifted himself out of the area, troubled by the ordeal, and found himself in a dark alleyway.

"What in the name of La—?!" Aang staggered upright, patting his face and his clothes. He lifted a hand, which, while it was still tatooed with his trademark blue arrows, looked smaller than he remembered.

Wheeling around, he nearly stumbled into a wall made of a reddish-brown stone and stared into an oily puddle on the ground.

"By the spirits..."

If he turned twelve years old every time he traveled into the past, Aang decided that he had got to do this more often.

v. her name was korra

Time...is Meaningless
Unknown Area

Her face was twisted up in a rage, flashing white teeth bared into a feral snarl as she paced along the empty, dark corridor. "You told me that the Spirit would have consummated the transformation by now. It hasn't even begun."

"Patience, my dear. You must wait for the right opportunity to strike."

"Patience!" the woman hissed, blue eyes flashing dangerously from an unseen light source. "Patience! I have waited for ten thousand years! Changing bodies, changing minds, changing everything—no longer! I will get what I want this lifetime!" She stomped her foot on the ground. "I almost had that damn airbender in the last incarnation, until the meddling Water Tribe fool pranced into the scene. I will not let this incarnate slip through my grasp!"

She growled lowly, curling her fingers into a fist. "She's weak and she's unsure of herself...and she's resisting!" Spittle flew from her mouth; her pretty features twisted up into an unnatural sneer. "I got her once, and then Avatar Aang and that earthbender boy intervened and she's closed off to me now! She's a fucking bitch who—"

"Language," the deep voice warned. "You will get your chance...the Ishina Clan is gaining strength."

"That's what you've been saying for the past two millennia," she bitterly snapped, resuming her pacing. "And has it come to pass? No, it hasn't. And that old man can't do anything to help the cause—"

"Enough," the being she was arguing with firmly said. "The first steps have been put into action already. The Avatar is at Ba Sing Se right now..."

"So, what?"

"The Origin calls her...the Last One."

"I'm not an idiot, Xénus, tell me what in the name of Z'rac you're getting at here."

"For every Avatar that has existed, you have been reborn as well."

The woman cut her hand down, releasing a trail of white fire. "I don't need you to give me a damn history documentary!" she screeched. "I know that; tell me what you're getting at!"

A cold laugh filled the area, and the woman narrowed her eyes until they were little more than slits.

The being chuckled, speaking in another language for a few moments; a language that would send chills down the spine of any who were alive, for it was the native language of a time long past. The time when the DARKNESS reigned.

The woman spat at the darkness in disgust. "Me? And that worthless prick? Fuck you, Xénus." She spun away in a huff, letting the shadows envelope her figure.

The hallway she passed down seemed to go down for forever, but the woman made an abrupt turn to the left a few hundred feet in, passing through the shadows as if they were curtains.

"Figures," she hissed, her fists clenching until the skin over her knuckles were colored the stark white of bone, even as her skin held a tanned hue. She cast a dark glance behind her and rubbed her right hand. She ventured further into the room until she reached a compound that opened up into a vast chasm, where she surveyed the figures clothed in black in the courtyard with relish, her blue eyes flashing dangerously.

"Oh, yeah, we'll see who gets the last laugh. Kala, Tenga, Jeng-Li!"

Three of the figures below snapped to attention, jogging up to the woman.

"You called, ma'am?" the lone female in the trio asked, her black hair tied up into a tight and practical tail. On their black uniforms were branded a character ringed by a circle of white: 气. All three were outfitted with weapons: a bow and a quiver; a katana; a pair of dual knives.

"Take the Avatar out and bring her to me. Kill any of the others."

"Of course." Like the shadows, they slipped off into the great Void beyond without even a whisper.

The woman smirked as she gazed after the three black-clothed figures for a moment, and then she turned around.

"You fool, Xénus...you think you could control me? Bah...I will solve this issue by myself."

"It's done, ma'am."

She didn't need to turn around to know who was talking to her. "Excellent. I have dispatched the three of the Qi Clan to take care of that meddling airbending fool. I expect you to gather...ah, what you will from her tomorrow."

"Yes." The man's voice was cold and unfeeling, and the sound of his footsteps faded away into nothing.

End Notes: DIE MAKO DIE!

"Ishina" and "Fukanaga" names don't belong to me. Hehe. ;)