AUTHOR'S NOTES:

I found this chapter quite difficult to write, as I wanted to get across the point that, throughout Book 1, Korra has already addressed much of the "emotional muck" that would have blocked her Chakras. That said, any advice on how I could improve my writing on this kind of style would be very helpful.

The scene at the beginning of this chapter was inspired by the 'Follow Fi' segment of Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. The atmosphere and music in that game is beautiful. In fact, for maximum enjoyment, I suggest that you listen to that song on Youtube while reading this chapter.

Anyway, feel free to leave a comment, review, flame, or what have you. Thank you for your time and have a great day.

反射

Book 1.5: Reflections

Chapter 14: The Chakras

Cat-owls meow-hooted in the trees and cicadas chirped on the mainland. On Air Temple Island, pale moonlight shone through the open screen window as Korra tossed and turned in her bed, sleep evading her. She had been feeling anxious ever since the Equalists had hijacked the radio signal earlier that evening.

"Prepare yourself, Avatar. The battle for the hearts and minds of Republic City has only just begun…"

Her tumultuous thoughts were interrupted, and she sat bolt-upright when she heard… something in the air. It was strange… almost like…

There it is again!

Korra looked at her bedroom door. A strange, echoing sound drifted on the air – almost like an eerie, ghostly whisper…

She spared a glance across the room at Naga, but her faithful polar-bear dog was curled up on the floor, a solid mound of white fur, fast asleep.

The girl sat up on the edge of her bed, pulled on her boots and crept up to the door. She slowly slid it aside and stepped out into the hallway, glancing around. The women's dormitory was cast in darkness, all the screen doors that led into other bedrooms closed. Aside from the moonlight spilling in through her window behind her, there was no other light to be seen anywhere… except for that strange glow at the end of the corridor…

That was when she saw it.

Or rather… him.

A figure floated in the air at the far end of the hall, glowing softly with an eerie blue light. Korra stared for a moment, and then rubbed her eyes. However, when she looked again, the Air Nomad was still floating there. He beckoned her forward, and then floated backward and vanished through the building's entrance door.

I must be dreaming… she tried to convince herself.

Follow Aang…

Something spurred her to continue on. The young Avatar hurried down the length of the corridor, pushed open the door and stepped out into the cold night air. She looked around and spotted the spirit drifting away across the island, and quickly rushed after it. The dark trees whispered in the nocturnal breeze, and the soft lapping of ocean waves against the island's shores could be heard in the distance.

Despite her best efforts to keep up, Korra eventually lost sight of the ethereal figure. However, she had a very good idea of where the spirit was going. It was the same route she took herself every morning, to meet up with Tenzin and the kids for a session of meditation before breakfast.

The gazebo on the edge of the cliffs at the north-west point of the island.

Sure enough, when Korra arrived at the wooden structure, she could see that the lanterns hanging off the supporting posts had been lit, casting the area in a warm yellow glow. There, in the middle of the gazebo, was a very familiar monk, sitting cross-legged on the ground, his eyes closed in meditation, reminding her very much of Tenzin. In sharp contrast to the blue light she had seen him shrouded in when he led her here, there was nothing strange about his appearance – no glowing or floating. In fact, the man appeared to be very ordinary. However, across the water to the east, Korra could see the vast moonlit figure of Aang Memorial Island, almost seeming to highlight just who was sitting before her.

"Aang!" she said in surprise. Was this all just a dream? She had been trying for so long to connect with his spirit, and now he was sitting here, calmly meditating? It seemed surreal.

"Hello, Korra," her predecessor said, opening his eyes and looking at her with a warm expression on his face. "I'm glad you came."

"I've finally connected with you again, Aang!" she exclaimed excitedly, sitting down on the ground in front of him. "I've been trying so hard for so long, and now you're here!"

"I'm glad you've made such an effort to address your spirituality in the past few weeks. It never has been your forte, has it?" he said lightly, no scolding tone in his words. "You took the same approach to solving the issue of the Equalists. However, when you learned to appreciate the fact that your enemy cannot be fought physically, and must instead be fought with words, and ideology, you opened your mind. When the mind is enlightened, the spirit is free and the body matters not."

His words sparked something in Korra's subconsciousness. "I've heard that somewhere before," she commented.

"Yes," the monk smiled, "you have."

"So…" she said hesitantly, "why are you here?" She was almost afraid that she might offend him and cause him to disappear again.

"Because you called me here. The knowledge of all the past Avatars is available to you. All you need to do is look deep inside yourself."

She took a deep breath. This could be her chance to fix everything. "Aang, I need your wisdom."

"I know. That's why I've appeared before you tonight." He placed his fists together and closed his eyes again. "I want you to meditate with me, Korra. The answers you seek will become clear to you in time."

The young woman looked on in confusion. Was he serious? She only had a million questions for him, and he wanted her to meditate?

Aang did not open his eyes again, or even stir, and so Korra sighed and decided to humour him. She took up a meditative stance, closed her eyes and focused on clearing her mind. However, her thoughts could not stop circulating back to her predecessor who sat before her.

Without warning, flashes of images shot through her mind: a roaring sky bison; a tanned and withered old man, with bushy white eyebrows and a bushy white beard; three mountains with blue-roofed temples, adjoined by bridges and shrouded in mist and clouds. It took the young Avatar a few seconds to realise that she was looking at the Eastern Air Temple.

Abruptly, Korra opened her eyes and the rush of exhilaration passed. "Whoa…" she breathed.

Aang did not open his eyes, or move in any way. It was almost as if he was waiting expectantly for her. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes again.

In her mind's eye, Korra found herself standing with the mysterious old man next to a swirling creek at the bottom of a rocky mountain canyon. Only… she was not seeing through her own eyes. She was looking through someone else's.

"If nothing else were around, this creek would flow pure and clear," the old man said, gazing into one of the pools. "However, life is messy and things tend to fall in the creek. And then what happens?" he asked over his shoulder.

"The creek can't flow?" Korra heard herself answer, only it was not her voice. It was instead the voice of a young boy.

"Yes," the strange man said, turning back and lifting a patch of moss out of the water with a stick. "But if we open the paths between the pools…"

"The energy flows!" the child's voice said in understanding. Surely enough, a pale blue light seemed to emanate from the water as it flowed away down the creek.

Abruptly, in a whirling rush of memories, Korra found herself in a deep cave in one of the mountains, sitting on a rocky plateau before the old man. Although she had never met him before, she somehow knew that his name was Pathik, and that Aang had met him at the Eastern Air Temple. Was it Aang's eyes that she was seeing through then?

"First, we will open the Earth Chakra, located at the base of the spine," the guru said, his voice echoing throughout the cave. "It deals with survival, and is blocked by fear. What are you most afraid of? Let your fears become clear to you."

At that moment, a series of visions passed before Korra's eyes in a flash.

Equalist airplanes swooping over the United Forces' warships. Tenzin and his three oldest children standing up on a stage before a leering crowd, their mouths gagged and their hands chained up behind their backs. Mako contorting in pain, under the influence of bloodbending.

Amon stepped forward out of the shadows.

"After I take your bending away, you will be nothing."

Korra shrieked in distress, but calmed herself when she heard Aang's voice in her mind.

"What you are seeing are fears you have already been faced with. Although you do not yet know it, you have already overcome this emotion many times. It is now time to open the Muladhara. Let your fears flow down the creek."

At his words, another blur of recollections flashed through her mind. Korra looking up as Amon stared down at her as he escaped into his airship – the point where she accepted to overcome her fear of him. Her and Mako taking the fight to the Equalists on the stage and freeing Tenzin and his family. Korra using her newly-discovered airbending to blow Amon out of the Arena window. His infamous mask floating to the surface of Yue Bay.

In that instant, it felt as though a vast emotional burden hanging over her evaporated.

The next memory Korra experienced was sitting before Pathik, on a rock ledge behind a mighty waterfall. The roar of water echoed across the mountain.

"The Water Chakra deals with pleasure, and is blocked by guilt. Now, look at all the guilt that burdens you so. What do you blame yourself for?"

"I kissed Mako..." Korra murmured, remembering the kiss she shared with him outside the Pro-Bending Arena after the Fire Ferrets' Quarterfinal match. Her euphoria at the time took a nosedive when she realised what she had done, and who had seen it. The hurt she saw in Bolin's eyes that night was terrible, and she felt twice as bad when she realised she had just kissed someone who already had a girlfriend.

"I hurt Asami..." A pang of guilt touched Korra's heart as she remembered the looks of anger and betrayal in the heiress' eyes when she, Tenzin and then-Police Chief Beifong accused Hiroshi Sato of being involved with the Equalists.

Guru Pathik's voice invaded her subconsciousness. "Accept the reality that these things happen. But do not let them cloud and poison your energy. If you are to be a positive influence on the world, you need to forgive yourself."

Whatever was happening to her, Korra was finding it to be an intense experience. Half of her wanted to stop, but the other half realised that Aang must be showing her these memories for a specific reason. She steeled her will and resolved to continue.

As soon as she came to this decision, she found herself looking out at a sunrise, across the cloudy peaks of the mountain range where the Eastern Air Temple was. It truly was a breathtaking view. Her perch was a red earthy pathway near the peak of the mountain temple.

"Third is the Fire Chakra, located in the stomach," Pathik said lightly from his seat on the ground beside her. "This chakra deals with willpower, and is blocked by shame."

Korra felt her stomach twisting, reliving the memory of hiding out in the tunnels below Republic City while the Equalists celebrated their victories in the streets above.

"What are you ashamed of?"

She felt Amon's thumb on her forehead, and the gut-wrenching feeling worsened. Her severed earth, fire and waterbending connections were still a sore subject for her, and now they were being thrown back in her face.

Perhaps she should not have decided to continue this experience after all.

"What are your biggest disappointments in yourself?"

She saw her teardrop glistening in the dreary sunlight of the South Pole as it fell over the edge of the icy cliff.

"It is heart-rending to see what the Order of the White Lotus has done to you," Aang said, breaking her out of her reverie.

Korra opened her eyes to see the monk gazing at her, sympathy written on his face.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Much of your shame comes from your fear of not being able to live up to my legacy. A fear of failure in general," the previous Avatar replied. "I tasked the White Lotus with keeping you safe while you mastered the four elements, but it appears that they were more invested in your training as the Avatar than your well-being as a person."

A moment of silence passed between them, through which only the chirps of cicadas in the foliage, and the lapping of the ocean waves below, could be heard.

"Believe me, I know," Aang continued. "The world seems to see the Avatar as a deity, but fails to realise that we are all still human. It's almost as if once you become the Avatar, you lose your right to be treated like a human being."

"Why are you telling me all this?"

"I lost my way when I first found out who I was. I never wanted to be the Avatar. I sense that you too have lost your way in the past few weeks. However, your dilemma is different – while your heart, spirit and good intentions are as strong as ever, you are not sure of your identity anymore."

"Aang…" Korra said, finally raising the question which had been bothering her since she tried to reach out to the captured Equalists outside City Hall the other day. "Do you think that I haven't been doing a good job of listening to the voices of the people? That I turned my back on non-benders?"

The monk looked across the water at his memorial statue, standing watch over Yue Bay. "Shame and fear often go hand-in-hand, but their roots come from different trees. Mistakes are made, and people are hurt. What matters is how we respond to the past." He returned his gaze to Korra, a serious look in his eyes. "There is much to learn, and the only way to do it is to walk the path."

She nodded slowly, beginning to see where he was going with this train of thought. "I'm ready."

"And that's what makes you a stronger person than me," he replied, smiling. "When I first learned of whom I was, I ran away from the Southern Air Temple, wanting nothing more than to outrun my destiny. But you've never run away from anything in your life, have you Korra?"

The girl in question closed her eyes and sighed happily. It felt incredible to communicate about her problems with her past life. The conflict with the Equalists, her lost bending – things suddenly did not seem as unsurpassable anymore.

"Thank you," she said softly, opening her eyes, but frowned in confusion.

Aang was gone.

Korra looked around, but there was nothing to be seen, aside from the moonlit ocean. She tried meditating to conjure his spirit again, but to no avail. Eventually, she began to feel sleepy again. The young woman climbed to her feet and extinguished the lanterns, wondering if the whole thing had just been a dream. As she made her way back toward the women's dormitory, she noticed that she felt decidedly less emotionally burdened than she had in months.