This is a two part chapter. Make sure you're on the right part of THERE WILL BE SPOILERS.
I first shipped Korpal (Korra/ Opal) and then I realized how adorable Bopal (Bolin/Opal) was and couldn't resist. Plus Korrasami is Queen! That being said… I apologize in advance.
This is PART TWO….
6 MONTHS AGO
Bolin blew a gust of his breath into his hand. It wasn't pleasant. He popped a mint in his mouth and smoothed his hair, "Bolin, time." He said to himself checking his reflection in the rest stops bathroom mirror. "Bolin, time!" He sang.
He turned and exited the bathroom with a smile on his face and his eyes forward. He ran smack dab into Opal.
He stumbled backwards a moment, "Gah!" He screamed.
The young girl in front of him blushed, "Sorry," She said helping him collect himself, clasping his arm in her warm hands. He came up short, looking at the contact of her skin to his. It felt nice. More than nice. It felt incredible. She felt incredible. She was incredible.
Bolin time.
He straightened up and cleared his throat, his pulse loud in his ears, "So…" he drew out the word with as much allure as he could, "Opal," he rolled her name on his tongue and puckered his lips sexily.
"You're acting strange again," She sighed, cutting off the contact with his arms and beginning to walk away. He dropped the cocky stance he'd taken and raced in front of her. They stood in the back aisle of an abandoned gas station.
"Waitwaitwait!" he exclaimed jumping in front of her and knocking over an row of shelves in the process.
He stopped short as the sun came through the windows outside bathing Opal's skin in light, catching in her green eyes. God she was pretty.
She raised an inquisitive eyebrow.
"So you know how you know how to read?" Opal hesitated deciphering his intelligible words before nodding, "So you do this thing when you read where you put up your hair. You use to use that clamp until you broke it. So the other day I saw you reading ad having to brush your hair from your eyes ever few seconds. So… uh…"
Why did she have to be so pretty?
"Words words words," he said, reaching in his pocket her removed a clamp, "Tada!"
The clamp wasn't all that pretty. It was green, and a bit large, it looked like it belonged to the tip of a young girls braid. "It's not so pretty," Bolin admitted, "But if anyone is looking at you they probably wouldn't be able to look away from your face anyways."
Opal's face broke into a smile, "Ah, Bolin." She smiled, "That's so sweet." She took the clamp from his hand and he felt butterflies swarm his stomach. She took up the small bangs around the edges of her face and pinned them back with the clamp.
"It's some kind of vegetable I think,. Broccoli? Kale maybe?" Bolin added, "I know you love your vegetables."
She smiled, "Well, whatever it is, I think it's lovely. Thank you, Bolin." She reached up on her toes then and delivered a chaste kiss to his cheek.
The boy swooned, inhaling her sweet scent, feeling the light touch of her chest against his own, her hands on his arm lightly pressing down so she could reach his height.
The giddy young boy melted and swooned.
PRESENT
Wing wrenched the door open all but throwing Asami inside as he spun and slammed it shut three arms of the undead came through. Hungry teeth bit around the wood of the door, their nails digging into the wall as the undead attempted to claw their way inside.
Wing rammed his shoulder against the door with everything he had. With her one hand powering behind her, her other shoulder on the floor, Asami began kicking the door with everything she had. Their combined force just enough to pin the arms. Standing above her, Wing quickly began hacking off the arms with his machete as Asami took up leverage against the door from below. With a reverberating click the door finally shut. And they were still, heavy breaths expelling. Asami's eyes turned to the three arms on the floor.
Wing looked around and ran to a bookshelf, without a thought he toppled it forward. Asami shrilled, realizing Wing's intent just within a fraction of a second and yanked her leg back before it could be crushed under the weight.
As if struck by lightning they both remembered that they hadn't cleared the room they now stood in. Asami scuttled around to face the expanse behind her as Wing adjusted his grip of the machete and faced the room as well.
Three of the four walls were filled with shelves. Only once or twice did the shelves break and allow for a closet entryway. The ceilings were so high Asami could only see dark shadows after a certain point. In start contrast to the black shelves hung a wide expanse of curtains on the opposite far wall. Though the curtains seemed moderately untouched from the dust and water that leaked from the ceiling, they still reeked of smoke from the mansion fire all that time ago.
The most notable detail of the room was the young boy pressing his back into the curtains and whatever surface lay beneath.
His dirty cheeks were stained with tears. His hands gripped his crossed arms and his legs were pulled to his chest.
It took Asami a moment to register the face. With Wing's help she hopped towards the boy, "Bolin?" She asked.
The boy did little more than look up. Asami noticed a hair clip in his hand. It was faded and green and looked odd in his big chunky fingers.
"Bolin, what happened?" Wing asked moving them further into the library, "Where's Wei and mom and Opal?"
Bolin shook his head. Wing's breath caught, and when he put Asami down on the ground he dropped down beside his two friends. He glanced at Asami. His panic clear in his eyes. The young man took a deep shaky breath, he clenched his jaw. He prepared himself for the worst news imaginable, "Is my family dead?"
Bolin shook his head.
Asami placed a hand on his knee, "What happened?"
"Weren't you guys on the first bus out?" Wing asked. Bolin nodded. "Then what are you doing here. You said you would protect Opal. Where's my sister, Bolin?"
Just then a scratching noise came from behind them. Asami and Wing both jerked their head to one of the two closets breaking the long expanses of shelves. Something dawned on Asami then, "Where's Mako?"
At the sound of his brother's name Bolin shuddered and fresh tears made their way down his face. he shook his head, "He's gone. My family is gone." he broke off, saliva dribbling from his locked teeth and his eyes raking the floor for answers he couldn't find, "It's all the Lieutenants fault!" he thundered, "He took all the medical supplies and Mako couldn't have the surgery done without them We were on the bus when he finally…" he shook his head, fresh tears cutting through the dirt on his cheeks, "Some guy named Tahno just dragged him through the aisle of the bus. I tried to stop him but those people on that bus, they were animals. They agreed to what Tahno was doing. It took five guys to hold me back otherwise I would have killed Tahno. They had no problem watching him open the doors and throw a body out like it wasn't a person anymore. Like it wasn't my brother anymore.
"I'm sorry I left Opal," Bolin cut off looking at Wing whose face turned from anger to compassion. Asami remembered then that Wing had lost his older brother Bataar. "But I couldn't just leave him there lying in the mud. He's my brother."
Wing looked to the closet, listening to the scratching sound, connecting the dots, his face filled with a new disbelief. "Bolin," Wing began slowly, "Did you not sever his spine?" He paused trying to grasp the reality, "Did you let Mako turn?"
"Bolin," Asami gasped, "That's not true, is it?" But the boy looked up at her, a shame so deep in his eyes that Asami didn't need further confirmation, "Oh God."
They sat in silence then, listening to Mako beat against the door, trying to claw his way through the wood.
But there was another underlying sound, Asami realized. A crinkling sound. She glanced behind her, certainly the bookshelf keeping the undead contained outside the door was still holding? Her eyes confirmed that the shelf was just barely being knocked by the undead on the other side. So where was that sound coming from?
She with effort she used a table nearby to stand and propel herself towards the curtains. The sound came again.
A soft Wam! Followed by that odd crinkling sound.
With one violent tug on a dangling string the curtains parted.
Wam!
Asami gasped and stumbled back as the face of an undead filled her view.
If the floor to ceiling window hadn't been between them, the unhinging undead would have gotten a sizable bite of Asami's face.
Wing and Bolin both stepped away from the parting curtains and took in the sight.
Dozens of undead moving about just outside the glass, they looked at them with their dead eyes before rallying forward and pressing into the glass.
"What the fu-," Wing began.
Wam! The undead's unhinged jaw thrashed against the dusty window. Its residual salvia and dried blood smearing with dust as its deranged eyes singled out the men and women inside as a potential meal. Below the unhinged undead was another whose hand reached from the overgrown grass. One of its legs had been hacked off forcing him to crawl across the earth. Its stomach was slick with mud, large pieces of wood and bits of metal had embedded in his stomach and legs. Another undead had no lower jaw instead half of his face had been torn apart by bullets from a shotgun.
Regardless their deformities they all banged on the glass demanding they be fed.
Asami stared at the man with no legs.
Was that to be her when she died? Crawling through the mud on her stomach, dead eyed and hungry for living flesh?
The first undead reared her head back, she sunk her teeth into the glass, small spider webs forming as her teeth made purchase and were snapped upwards, puncturing her lip. She didn't care. She thought only of her need to devour. It was all too easy for her to rear back her head once again and sink her teeth into the glass. Her front tooth dislodged from its rotted gums and fell down her tattered blouse. Unfazed, she reared back again her gums flattening against the window, spider webs extending from the point of pressure.
The cracks reached out wide, and when a dozen more undead pressed in new cracks began to form.
Wing began cursing repeatedly under his breath. Bolin only sunk back to his knees and rest his back to the glass. An undead dropped to his knees as well and began banging on the glass directly behind Bolin's head.
Wing couldn't comprehend what he was seeing. There was simply no way out. They'd be overrun and consumed by the collecting undead.
When Asami flipped a table on its side the sound made him jump. He snapped his head to the fierce young woman. She had only one instruction for him, "Give me your machete."
Wing's following thought was along the lines of 'thank God for Asami Sato.'
The nuzzle of the gun to her head, Korra closed her eyes.
It had been an insane thirty minutes. First taking a trailer outside the fences. Running in front of a heard of undead and leading them inside the trailer. She'd gotten a report that there had been four casualties as a result of the chase.
They'd flown the undead high into the thunder clouds. It had been a turbulent ride only worsened by Lin's general inability to see much more than a few feet ahead of them in the stormy weather. When they finally made their descent the Lieutenant had opened fire. Korra had opened the doors of the helicopter, with Iroh and Suyin taking up gunnery weapons it had been a fire fight. Suyin had been shot in the arm, Iroh's weapon had malfunctioned.
Then came the shoulder fired rocket launcher that had blown them from the sky.
"Brace yourselves!" Korra had just barely formed the words before impact. She had been unconscious for maybe ten seconds and awakened amidst a free fall just moments before her body banged down atop the trailer. In the same breath she'd felt the trailer itself hit the ground and throw her free several feet.
Now she lay in the mud, a muzzle pressed to her head.
Death had finally caught her. A bullet to her brain would keep her from turning. All things considered, this was a good death. The gates would never open. All of her comrades and those civilians would die. Asami would be one of them. She only prayed that Asami remain unconscious so she wouldn't suffer the horror marching towards them.
She heard the Lieutenant pull back on the trigger of his gun then-
Thong! Like a bell. A beat against a hollow shaft. Beeping sounds resonated quietly just above the sound of falling rain.
She only needed to open her eyes briefly to confirm that there was an arrow sticking from the bolt keeping the trailer full of undead shut. Korra didn't hesitate, she turned her head aside, covering her neck with her hands and tucking in her legs.
The glance had confirmed that the arrow was one of Kai's favorite specialty arrows. It was his last resort arrow. The arrow had no head. Instead it had a round tip that eventually would flatten and stick to whatever surface he fired at. She knew that this arrow was not meant to impale but instead was wired to-
Boom!
The doors were blown from their hinges. The nights darkness and clotted out sun made everything seem an ominous blue. The explosion was vibrant and illuminating like a small white sun shining on the earth.
"What the hell?" One of the men asked
A burning stench filled the air. The stench of slightly charred undead. There heavy breathing escaping their lungs. A slow swell of their sound as they made their presence known.
"Undead! Undead in the walls!" Someone called and let lose a line of fire as the first undead shuffled through the unhinged doors. The undead took the bullets in stride, not a bullet purchasing in a fatal shot, he'd gone five feet from the doors before being killed. When he dropped, five more undead took his place. They attempted to contain them, to push back the waves of them before they could grow out of hand. But everyone had to reload, and most of everyone only had two clips.
Amon's military opened fire as the undead spilled from their containment in droves. Dozens of them expel air through their unhinged mouths, their eyes flashing with glee. They'd marched through deserts for this meal. And now finally they could feast.
Amon's men began collecting as a single unit firing squad, even so well trained and hammering down the undead there were simply too many of them pressing into a small space.
They began drawing back attempting to take out as many as they could. Before-
The shots began fading; the armed men reached for new weapon clips but had none. The undead continued pouring out and Amon's military was out of bullets. The undead stepping free now seemed to stop. They seemed to look around. As if wandering where their bullet was. The Lieutenant firing squad all slowly stopped firing. They took a few steps back and for the first time fear settled over their faces. The hesitant undead looked at the firing squad with his cold empty eyes, he unhinged his jaw and released a vile his, leaning forward and spreading his arms at his sides.
The squad all seemed to shrill as the undead began barreling forward at a running pace. His friends joined him, launching from the trailer and swarming the inner wall. Screams pitched into the air as undead sunk their teeth in. Handguns were drawn and shots were fired deliberately before the gun owner was caught off guard and dragged kicking and screaming through the mud where he was mauled by three hungry undead. Gunmen attempted to climb the roofs of cars only to have their ankle seized by undead and shredded by clamping down teeth.
The Lieutenant had yet to recover after a few seconds. Korra took her chance and slapped the gun from his hands.
She rolled over in the dirt and onto her hands, pushing herself up from the ground; she smirked, waved four fingers towards her chin and pouted her lips, "Come on. Fight me, chump." She took up a fighting stance as the Lieutenant circled around her.
The lieutenant shook his head and removed his machete from his belt buckle, "It won't change anything. Some of my men will die, sure, but that just leaves more rations for me. All you've done is ensured my survival." He swung for her with his machete. She easily blocked his arm, dashing forward; she clipped his jaw with an arcing fist. As she lifted one foot in an attempt to kick the man, his ankle linked with her own, pinning her foot to the ground as he slashed with his machete for her face. She thrust herself back as the machete just barely grazed her cheek. The lieutenant removed his ankle from the locking position it held on her own. The slippery mud beneath her feet was slick and she stumbled back into the hands of a welcoming undead.
She reacted quickly; taking hold of his wrist she spun free and threw the undead towards the lieutenant.
The Lieutenant hacked through the undead's neck and as the undead dropped from view Korra's solid body assailed him with a two scissoring kicks. He ducked the first and was caught in the eye with the second. The Lieutenant was thrust aside by the brute force of Korra's foot, his hands catching in the mud as he sprawled to the ground; his eyes rapidly blinked back mud and dirt.
Korra continued her advance on the man. He jabbed the machete in her direction but with one eye his aim was just off. She easily took hold of his wrist with one hand and pried the machete free with the other before smashing a fist into his throat.
The lieutenant gasped falling backwards in the mud and clutching his throat as Korra continued forward, mud and rain parting with each decisive step. He fell forward into the mud, his hands pushing out. Korra's eyes watched the hands for a moment, wandering where they could be going.
She realized and dove to the ground as the Lieutenant whipped around, armed with the gun he'd intended to execute her with just moments before.
The gun shot rang and Korra looked up in time to see the Lieutenant aim once more for her head. She froze. He had her dead to rights.
But the undead had him. He threw his body atop the Lieutenants like a blanket, one of his straggly hands turned the Lieutenants head on the side as he unhinged and took his first bite. Blood popped free and the Lieutenant screamed in agony as the undead shook his head back and forth shamelessly burrowing deeper and deeper in before pulling back and removing a chunk of his flesh. The man screamed, pushing the undead off and into the mud. The undead's natural sway caused him to slip and fall but he kept coming. He'd gotten a taste and he wanted more so he trampled through the mud and rain on all floors, kicking aside the softened dirt beneath his arms and knees as he made his way back towards the lieutenant. The Lieutenant rose his gun taking aim and firing a round into the undead's skull. The force threw the undead back where he slumped on his side in the mud.
Korra was already in motion, grabbing the hilt of the machete she sent the blade flying, tucking head over heels and making impact directly with the Lieutenant's trigger hand.
The lieutenant gasped, the machete imbedded between the softer flesh of his knuckles. He still took aim and fired.
Korra dove aside once more, her stomach hitting a puddle of mud and an undead falling on top of her instantly. The undead straddled her back. Korra reached behind her, grabbing his neck and flipping his body over in front of her. Behind her she could hear the Lieutenant also being swarmed and firing round after round on advancing undead. She needed to clear these undead before he collected himself enough to kill her.
The view was disturbing. Dead droopy eyes on a small frame. She'd wandered why flipping this undead had been so easy, now she knew the undead had turned as a child. He unhinged as she took a firm hold of his matted blonde hair and bashed his head into the mud puddle beneath them. She sunk his head low beneath the softer layer of dirt until he hit the hard rock beneath. Pulling back she could see his jaw had been broken, she rammed his head again, his eyes bulged from the skull, but she could hear him breathing. She smashed the skull once more and felt his brains lazily creep out from cracks in his skull and into her hands.
She flipped over onto her back and found a second undead closing in on top of her. She powered her foot through his chest and sent him reeling in the mud. She managed to her feet quickly as she caught sight of one of Amon's men taking aim at her from a few feet away.
She rethought her attack on the second undead. Instead, it was a female undead, she grabbed her long dirty hair and ripped her back wards pulling her flush against her body. Amon's military man began to fire on Korra, with each bullet meant for her, she felt it instead make purchase in the undead's body.
The Undead shook from the impact, but didn't falter. He continued wrestling violently in Korra's hands to consume her. She advanced on Amon's man with the undead as a shield, one hand tucking the undead's arm behind it's back the other in its hair. She could feel the weak scalp of the undead so far decayed that it began pulling away from the head itself, tearing with the strain her hand placed on it.
With three feet between them Korra released the undead shoving her atop the man who took aim for the head and fired. Decisively. What he hadn't noticed was the undead shuffling behind him that now bit down hard into his upper arms and propelled him backwards to the slick ground below as they began to gorge on the living flesh.
It was the metal against her temple that made Korra halt in her tracks. She swallowed and turned around slowly to the muzzle of the Lieutenant's gun pointed directly at her head.
"Die bitch." He pulled back on the trigger and was rewarded with a short click. He looked down at the weapon, out of bullets.
Korra attacked then. One hand on his mid arm, she dropped a heavy kick on his head. As he fell to the ground she fell atop of him, her hands around his throat and tightening.
The man's eyes bulged and death began chanting in his ears. He struggled, his hands clasping around hers, the rain water that consumed them did nothing to loosen the grip. She ground her teeth and pushed down further and further.
It seemed to be silence then. A peace. He flipped over, bucking her hands for only a moment before she retook his neck between one barring arm and held her wrist with her hand to reinforce the grip. The Lieutenant struggled still. His mouth open and shutting to bring in the much needed air but to no avail, Korra wasn't going to relent. She sat, their knees entrenched in mud, blood and dirt peppering her wounds, her body aching terribly and the rain soaking the world. The Lieutenant struggled. Kicking the mud, his finger nails digging into Korra's skin.
And when he'd just managed a tight grip on her hands, Korra decided then, changing her hand position, she twisted his neck beneath her hands and heard the residual snap of his spine and skull.
The corpse fell to the ground limp.
Korra's arms fell at her sides, "I'm sorry." She heard the threading sound of tires in the mud and looked to the gates with tedious effort. They were open and her cavalry stormed the city.
Kai had succeeded. He'd opened the gates. Now their small forces flooded inside. They took Amon's few remaining men by surprise. Hammering into them and the undead alike with their fresh supply of weapons. The undead had served their purpose. They'd decimated the majority of Amon's military. The Lieutenant, head of Amon's military, now lay dead in the mud.
They'd taken the inner walls.
Asami would be on one of the arriving buses. She stood up slowly thinking of green eyes. They'd done it. They'd found a way to survive.
"Korra," Said a quiet strangled voice. Her body aching she looked around for whoever had said her name so desperately, "Korra," the voice croaked. She looked around. At some point the fight had taken her a good ways from the trailer. Now she stood in what appeared to be the hanger of a military base.
The mansion had taken a lot of the helicopter's debris when they'd been blown from the sky. The roof was caved in, large pieces of the helicopter weighed against it even now.
She moved towards the wreckage. She'd been so caught up in the fight she'd forgotten she, Lin and Iroh and Daw had been aboard the helicopter.
She limped forward, her body suddenly calm enough to remember how much pain she was in.
When she stumbled further into the darkness of the garage she did so with a piece of metal in her hand, her eyes darting back and forth for undead.
"Korra," she turned a corner and found the voice belonged to Iroh.
The man had been impaled with a propeller from the helicopter. It rose from his abdomen and cut into the sky as if an angry god had speared him through.
His mouth trailed blood to his shirt. To his right was an undead. He'd been mauled on. Korra could imagine it. Waking up to the feeling of an undead chewing through his arm. He'd killed the undead with what looked like vigor and a rusted screw.
Korra sunk to her knees at his side. She didn't need to be Katara to know he wasn't going to make it. It was a wonder he was still even alive. She took his limp hand in her own, his reflexes causing his fingers to fold down.
"Korra," He said again, staring straight forward, unable to muster many words. "The," he blinked hard and shuddered as an untold pain rippled through his body, "recording." Korra nodded understanding, "Pocket."
Korra's hands splayed over the man's body in search of the silver device until she finally pulled free the recording device, "They should know, Korra. The world should know."
Korra nodded and smiled, suddenly wanting to bring meaning to the death in her hands, "We won the wall," Korra smiled to the man's dead eyes, "We won because of you."
Iroh shook his head and cleared his throat; the flow of blood ebbed but only for a moment before it continued to leak from the corner of his mouth, "Because of you."
They sat in a silent solace with one another. She'd just finished taking another man's life. She'd been the hands that had massacred Amon's military within the inner wall. This was what victory felt like. But somehow holding the hand of a man who was just as deeply in love with the same woman as she was, this didn't feel like victory. This felt like a tragedy. The truth was she could have been in; the only reason she wasn't was sheer luck.
"I don't want to turn, Korra," Iroh said. Korra nodded. She could kill the Lieutenant - it wasn't pleasant - but he'd earned it. Killing hundreds of men and women without trial. Leaving hundreds more outside the wall to die. It was a necessary evil.
But iroh, even after having brought about this horrid world had done so I order to save the horrid world as it was. The same could be said for Kuvira, betraying her when she needed her most, but even still she'd only done so out of a natural desire to survive, just as Korra had betrayed her humanity by bringing the undead to Amon's doorstep.
Her hesitation showed on her face. Showed in the way her hand began to shake while dutifully clasping around Iroh's.
"Korra," Iroh plead, "I don't want to be one of them." He extended the bloody and blunt edged screw to her, "Please don't let me be one of them."
Korra felt her hands come undone from Iroh's. Four hours ago, when she'd found him in the nursery she'd wanted to kill him for what he'd done to Asami. It would have been easy. She'd reasoned that at the end of the world there was only vengeance.
"Please." The man plead once more, then he took a deep breath. Cheney stokes settled in, his last breaths of life were hard gasps, "Take care of them for me. Take care of-,"
He was silent then, his head dropped to the side. His eyes settled on the earth. His mouth streamed blood. Protecting people. Betraying beliefs. All of these things Korra had done. It was like being asked to kill her own reflection.
Korra looked away from the man, her mouth drawn into a hard line.
She'd been so wrong then. To think vengeance lay at the end of the world.
With a horrified cry of disgust she pressed the flat headed screw into Iroh's neck. The sound of his flesh parting as she pushed in, the thick rusted steel in her hand cutting in, blood coating her hands, she gasped, and grunted, burrowing deeper still. The blunt edge and ridges confronted one slow obstacle after the other. She gripped his head with her other hand, holding him in place as she made her way through his spine, until finally she'd run the man's neck through.
She felt tears roll down her face, stinging her busted lip as she removed the screw; blood released and swam over Iroh's shirt. Hands shaking she released her grip of the instrument, and listened to the music of rain as the screw clattered to the ground.
Heavy footfalls announced a new arrival. "Korra?"
Her father encased the young woman in his arm, his eyes taking in what she'd done for only a moment before he lay his head flat on her own. She released the pain she'd been holding, shuddering into the storms cold air she began to sob, clutching the arms that wound around her.
"Sh…" He whispered to her kindly running his hands through her hair, "I've got you."
But he didn't. No one had her. Not even Asami. No one could promise what tomorrow would bring.
"Mercy." She said into the crook of his arms. She could feel him dip his head towards her, and release a soft 'Hm?' from his throat, "At the end of the world all there is is mercy."
Asami's body was no longer meant for climbing. She ground her teeth. "Damn this," She swore reaching for the next shelf, her leg came from under her and she felt the world tip back as she came crashing down.
She'd attempted to climb the book case near the glass window. It was their best way out. She held, tucked under her arm, a table leg wrapped in some of the cloth ripped from the curtain. She allowed the leg to fall to the floor.
Wing walked up behind Asami, "Let me help you." He said seeing the young woman's struggle. She closed her eyes. Her pride in self sufficiency so greatly bruised with just that statement alone.
She slowly nodded and felt his hand take the table leg from her. He climbed the shelves almost easily, tossing books from the shelves as needed to make better foot holds. He finally reached the top.
"Now what?" he asked Asami who had pulled herself upright in a comfortable sofa.
"See how that panel of windows is separate from the rest of the glass?"
"Yeah?"
"If we were to open it there wouldn't be enough space to crawl through, so we need to just break it. Use the table leg."
Wing nodded and began beating the window senseless.
Exhausted from the short climb, she placed her attention on finding where Bolin had gone. She looked around the room and found the young man had moved towards the closet door where Mako attempted to beat his way out.
Not Mako. Asami reminded herself. An undead. Mako was gone.
The boy placed his hand on the door, his eyes teary. Just then a loud crack split the air and the glass began to give inward from the weight against it.
"Bolin!" Asami hollered, "Bolin." They were out of time. She got back to her feet and moved towards the shelves. Ready to climb. Physical limitation be damned. She was not being eaten alive again.
Wing smashed the glass. But it had taken the undead several minutes to get through themselves. Wing was finding the same issue; this glass for some reason had been made to stand repeated blows. The glass puckered with one strong blow but still wouldn't give.
"Bolin!" Asami screamed as the undead pushed the glass further inward. Bolin reached for the door handle of the closet, "Bolin no!"
Bolin opened the closet door and the young man on the other side came racing forward.
The undead charged Bolin, his hands grabbing Bolin's shoulders and driving him backwards. Bolin grabbed him just as equally rough.
"I'm sorry." He said. But the undead didn't care about apologies. He writhed in his arms, yanking his arm clean from its socket to slip from his hold.
The glass gave way all at once to the demanding hands of the undead. Shattering inward and falling to the ground in sheets. Simultaneously Wing's window gave way. He looked down at Asami who had taken to climbing a few paces away from the window. She'd just reached the sixth shelf.
Below her she could see Korra's best friend struggling with his brother. Struggling to make a decision. To allow himself to be bitten or to do what he should have done before it had even come this far, "Bolin, listen to me!" Asami shouted as the undead began to swim the massive room, "You think all of your family is dead but that's not true. You have Opal. She's the love of your life. Believe me there are some people that become just as much your family without having a drop of your blood."
Her head beading with sweat. Her nails clawing through the wood. She desperately was holding on to the shelf, she couldn't communicate any more powerfully. She couldn't explain everything. Losing her mother. Losing her father then later being disowned by him. But having Korra. It had changed everything. It had made being parentless bearable. It had cut through the depression in the world around her.
"I'm sorry," Bolin said again, taking out his gun. He turned his head aside and pulled the trigger. The flash cut through the darkness of the room and Mako's undead body sunk the floor, resting in as much peace as this world had to offer.
A wave of undead surged upon Bolin. He fired at the closet undead in his path and made his way through the room slaughtering undead with crushing blows from his machete. Firing his gun only when absolutely necessary. Undead began falling left and right as strong boy cut them down like wheat.
He galloped towards the shelf, pulling himself up the shelves so swiftly and only barely paused to wrap his muscled arm around Asami's waist. He anchored her to his side and tugged her up and over to the window.
Below the undead reached for them, their hand beating and shaking the shelves, willing to pull the whole thing down just for a bite of them.
Wing was waiting from above, having already climbed through the space he hung his body off the roof and extended his hands to the occupants from above. Asami took his hands and he pulled her through. Bolin climbed out soon after.
The rain washed over them immediately, and Asami allowed herself to lay back on the flat surface of the libraries roof. The rain washing her body in cold water, it was a nice relief from the fever that festered in her body.
Wing sat down beside her and Bolin stood looking over the roof to the ground below. It seemed the amount of undead collecting there simply continued to grow until there were hundreds of undead, reaching to the roof top.
"Now what?" Wing asked the intelligent woman beside him.
Asami closed her eyes, "Now we wait for Korra."
1 MONTH LATER
Korra stood in the hallways of the retirement home where Katara and Toph had created a small safe-haven. The work to keep this place safe was tiring, but at the end of the day she knew Asami lay her head somewhere safe at night. She'd taken up most of Iroh's rolls since he'd passed - taking the inner wall had proved she was a capable leader - and that meant hardly ever having time to enjoy the safe-haven she kept running.
This morning was as good as any, Korra told herself again.
There was never going to be a right time. So with a machete on her hip, a shot gun strapped to her back and a supply run requiring her attendance less than an hour from then, she extended her fist towards Asami Sato's bedroom door. Her stomach knotted and she dropped her fist to knock.
The door was pulled away just before Korra's fist made purchase as if it had perceived her presence. She stopped and stared into the speckled emerald eyes of the woman. Coming up short the woman stumbled back, just barely managing to catch herself with the crutch under her arm and assistance from a nearby table.
"Sorry, I…Uhm…" Korra began. Asami's mouth hung slightly open in curiosity and surprise, "I was just coming to see you."
Asami glanced down the hall in both directions, then smiled alluding to the fact that there seemed to be no other door on this hallway except Asami's, "I can see that." Asami smiled humored by the sheer amount of dorkiness Korra possessed in her body.
"Right," Korra's resolve began slipping away.
Maybe tomorrow. She just had to get back from this supply run and then she could tell Asami how she felt. She started talking more to distract herself than anything, "We're going for a supply run and Suyin wanted me to ask if there was anything you wanted to add to the list before Daw and I head out."
She watched Asami's raven hair cascade over her face. Without thinking she moved the hair into place for the girl and continued, "Lin knows how important your work is so she'll prioritize anything you put on the list for us to collect."
Tomorrow sounds fabulous-
Wait. She became aware of her actions and froze; locking eyes with the girl in front of her, realizing her hand hovered just beside her ear. Realizing she'd been staring at Asami's lips for the entirety of what she'd been saying, and Asami had been doing pretty much the same.
Asami turned her head aside and Korra became away of the soft raven hair being pulled from her grasp, "I can't keep doing this," Asami said softly.
Korra gulped. Statement like that were for tomorrow, "Doing what?"
Asami all but whispered the words, her eyes flickering from the floor to Korra's only every so often, "Sleeping just down the hall from you."
"Kai snores that loud, huh? I can go knock his skull around a bit if you like…" Korra trailed off when Asami glared at her. She knew full well that hadn't been what Asami meant and Asami knew she was avoiding the subject.
They'd danced like this for so long; flirting with one another and writing it off as witty banter, looking for excuses to touch one another like Asami's hair falling out of place, or Korra learning the mechanics of a car. The lovely playful kisses they'd given to one another…
It was toeing a line of friendship and something more.
Korra took a breath and braced herself for whatever came next, "I know what you mean."
"Last month when we were caught in that migration, when the people we cared about were hurt and losing their lives and I lost my leg, I understood the need to wait. -we needed to survive. But, today I woke up wandering…" She tailed off, her gaze went to the floor and she chewed her lower lip to lock the words away.
"Wandering why you lay in an empty bed?" Korra finished her thoughts.
Asami's head lurched upward in shock.
Those had been the thoughts that had lead Korra here. It had all been so transparent a month ago. She'd conquer a damned city for Asami. She'd bleed for Asami and even kill to insure her safety. So why was it that when things were quiet did the transparency slipped away?
Those words had been the most honest thing Korra had said in the entirety of the last month. And now, she lifted Asami's chin and couldn't resist the smile that broke over her face, "It doesn't sound good."
Asami squinted unable to follow Korra's thoughts, and Korra wandered briefly is she should explain but she couldn't. Not quite yet. Her thumb crept over Asami's lips and she felt the kind woman press her cheek into the rest of her fingers. Asami closed her eyes, her breaths slowed and she indulged in Korra's sudden consuming touch. Korra couldn't stop herself, she didn't have the strength not to press her lips into Asami Sato's.
It was a hard kiss, harder than Korra had even intended, but slightly beyond her control, even when it was her tongue that started requesting Asami's lips part and allow Korra entrance.
Now she understood. Now she could explain.
She pulled away just enough that their lips had space between them, enough space to feel one another's breaths drift between them with a perfect balance of cold and warmth, "Tomorrow doesn't sound good at all. Not if I wake up without you in my bed."
END
Arthur Notes:
I can't believe this is the last chapter I will post for infection. Now what will I do with my excess of free time…? Oh right, aren't I in college or something? XD
As I mentioned before I am starting to work on another Korrasami AU. And you know I love me some violence and Korrasami, so hopefully we bump into each other once again.
I am so proud to finish this work. I loved writing every chapter. I adored everyone who left a comment and appreciated every single kudos you guys dropped. Seriously, without you guys egging me on, I would have abandoned this story long ago. You guys are amazing!
Come message/follow me on Tumblr AvatarUncanon for more Korrasami and all my other queer ramblings.
PS Did you like the ending? Hate the ending? Review and let me know what you think. You know how much I love comments. They make my gory little heart sing.