Chapter 12

Pieces

Korra felt… tall. Not ridiculously tall – like skyscraper levels – but much, much taller than she did on a day to day basis. The wind was at her back, blowing her green robes around as she stood in all her might. The horizon was almost gold and grey, with puffy clouds spotting the sky to add to the effect of the setting sun. Waves crashed on the nearby shore as she stood there and stared ahead.

A man was before her, just a few feet away. A very short man. His body was covered in green and gold armor. An army of soldiers wearing similar plating stood behind him in neat, ordered lines.

"This is the end. After we claim your village and this final portion of the peninsula, we will head to Ba Sing Se. Soon, the entire Earth Kingdom will be mine! So stand aside and no one will die."

Korra didn't even have to know the context of this altercation to know that conquering all of the Earth Kingdom wasn't a good idea; it was immense in size, scattered across a continent that took up a large portion of the world, and had way too many Benders in it for the fight to be easy. She had read and heard too many stories of unfruitful subjugations that led to imprisonment or death. But not only would they fail to get through Ba Sing Se – as most did – they would fail to get through her.

She took a step forward – calm in her approach, but firm in her reprimand. "I will warn you only once; I will not sit passively while you try to take over my people and my home."

That's not my voice. Those aren't even the words I wanted to say. I wanted to go more along the lines of 'fuck off'.

"I tried to be reasonable and offered you a chance to avoid bloodshed by yielding. But I will not surrender upon your threats. I am Chin the Conqueror, not Chin the Coward."

He crouched in what appeared to be an Earth Bending stance, prepared to fight for the land that wasn't his to take.

Chin the Conqueror? I remember him.

She stood there, unimpressed. Her eyebrow raised on its own, as did her hand to her hip. "You dare to defy me?" She slid a fan from her robes and pointed it at the man, a huge gust of air shooting out from it. Chin anchored his feet into the earth with his Bending to hold himself in his stubborn place. The gale was so powerful, his armor was ripped right off of his body. It flew behind him in pieces, bouncing off of the ground. Still, he refused to stand down.

Woah, Air Bending! Wait, I'm not an Air Bender…

"I have an army, Kyoshi. You cannot stop me. What do you have?"

Kyoshi? I – I'm –

She closed her eyes. "I am the Avatar." When she opened them, they were glowing white. She retrieved her other fan and expanded them in her hands. She jumped and rolled her arms to the left, her collision with the ground creating a colossal fissure in the earth.

Woah!

Korra couldn't control her actions, nor did she want to. To her, she was watching some of the most incredible Bending she's ever seen.

Another hop and a shift to the opposite side and the crack expanded, moving all the way to the opposing shore as the first one did. She spun the fans in her hands and shut them, bringing them closer to her chest. She slammed them into the ground, forcing the split between the two pieces of land to separate further. Lava rose from under the ocean. She straightened, swirling her arms as she did. The molten rock burst upwards, seeping across the current landscape.

"We are splitting from the mainland, Chin, and becoming our own entity. No longer will you try to harm the people in my village."

With a push of her arms and a lunge of her leg, a massive, massive, amount of air shot out of her fans. The force was so powerful that it not only took out half of his army, but it pushed the land further and further away.

Korra gawked, witnessing the absolute majesty that was Avatar Kyoshi Bending. It was when she saw Chin the Conqueror plummet into the ocean – the earth under his feet breaking on the edge of the cliff – that she put everything together.

Kyoshi Island…

She was observing firsthand something that people haven't seen in centuries.

It must have been all of those books I've read about the –

Then the real realization hit her; she wasn't just watching Avatar Kyoshi, she was Avatar Kyoshi.

Korra.

A grotesque pain shot into her skull. The image cracked all around her, as if it was painted on glass and someone had just thrown a rock through it. Some of the shards crashed beside her, shattering into a dozen pieces. Others hung in front of her, on the very edge of falling off. They dangled, enormous in their size compared to her tiny Water Tribe girl stature on the ground. What lie behind them was darkness, a darkness she had come to know too well.

Korra.

"Go away!" She grabbed a piece of glass from the floor and tossed it, hurling it at where she thought the voice was coming from.

Another surge rattled her. She dropped to her knees – the broken pieces cutting her legs upon impact – and cradled her head. Her lids met in agony.

"Make it stop." She panted and curled into herself, her face pointed at her legs. "It hurts. It hurts so much."

A pulse shook her. It hit her like a sonic wave that reverberated in her chest. She could feel the energy storm within her, several gushing, rapids pools and swirls of horrible pain and confusion. Her ears rang. She gritted her teeth and fisted her hair, struggling to get the throbbing to pass.

Korra succumbed. She caught herself with her palms, the stings of piercing glass forcing her to wince. She opened her eyes and crawled over to the nearest shard, one that was a few inches long with others of similar size scattered around it. Her reflection caught her sight, and she trembled backwards to what she saw.

Blood dripped down her arms as she scurried away, cutting herself further as she fled. The image was everywhere now, in every piece of glass she could see. She pushed herself to her feet and tried to run, only to lose her balance and fall when another pain in her skull threw her off balance. She crashed into the shards and cried out, some of them digging deep into her.

Korra scuttled onto her hands and knees, several pieces right in her line of sight. One chunk depicted a sliver of an older man, with pale skin and blue-grey eyes. There were wrinkles around his face and the faint trail of a brown beard and a light blue arrow. The next held the gaze of another old man, though this one was much further along in his age. His hair was white and long, with a bit of it pulled up in a small gold and red piece with a rod through it. His pupils locked onto hers with a force that made her tremble. She tried to turn away, only to meet a white and red-painted face staring back at her in a third piece of glass that was blocking her path. She stumbled onto her back and pushed herself away.

Korra.

"Go away!" She screamed, curling into herself to the terrible pain in her head. She fell to her side and buried her hands into her hair. Tears fell down her cheeks. "Why won't this stop?" Her lids touched as she tried to will the sting away.

Korra was sick of the pain, sick of the agony. She'd never felt so weak in her life. Frustration swelled in her. She wanted it to stop, she wanted to stop crying. But it hurt. It hurt more than anything she'd ever felt.

Just breathe. Just… breathe…

She opened her eyes when she could bear it and lifted her head. Several pieces of glass were underneath her. She rose to her hands and knees and stared at the image below. Though they were separated, they created a perfect reflection of a face. Each of the three people she saw before echoed back into her, a different part scattered through various shards. The only thing that was missing was the eyes. She leaned forward on shaking arms until her face aligned with theirs. Her irises – blue as they were – and her pupils – full of fear – completed the puzzle. These weren't just pieces of people on the ground, they were pieces of her.

Korra.

The floor fell out from underneath her. A violent pain shot from her skull out to the very tips of her extremities as she plummeted. Darkness surrounded her, the light from the glass shards far away. The wind whipped her hair. Her stomach turned. Everything hurt. Before she could think or react, her body slammed into something hard.

Korra jumped up, sweating. The pain from her dreams spread into reality. She folded into herself and rolled right over the side of her bed. She crashed into the floor with a yelp. Her lids touched as she panted, the images of her previous nightmare already fading from her grasp.

It was just a dream. It was just a dream.

She repeated the phrase until her heart calmed down and the sweating stopped. Korra opened her tired eyes and stared at the wall ahead of her. She inhaled and pushed herself upright, her head throbbing in the process. Her right palm steadied her skull as she swayed. She looked around the rest of the room to find it empty.

Asami?

Korra crawled over to the bed opposite of hers, eyeing her bag in the corner. She stood just enough to see that the bed was neat – neat and empty. Her pelt was in the closest corner, folded in a tidy fashion, though the blanket on top of the mattress was wrinkled from a body atop it.

She gazed at the fur with an absent mind. Her fingers traced over it before she brought it closer to her chest.

It smells like her.

Korra smiled and tied the pelt around her waist. She got to her feet and staggered for a moment.

That nightmare really took a lot out of me, didn't it?

On cue, a pain pulsed in her brain. She gritted her teeth until it passed.

Fuck. Calm down, I don't even remember what the stupid dream was about anyway. Damn fucking mind pains.

She slapped the door frame in frustration as she made her way out of her cabin. The sun was blaring by the time she emerged onto the deck. This didn't help her migraine one bit. Korra shielded her eyes with her forearm until her pupils adjusted, groaning in the process. She looked around, seeing no one from her crew in sight. The boat had stopped moving and was docked along the shores of what appeared to be an island or peninsula. Land surrounded her on each side except one, where the waves of the sea were dashing to and fro. It reminded her of the Fire Nation, the way the ends of the island curved inward to form a bay.

Korra braced herself for the pain upon remembering part of her long trip. When there wasn't an ounce of additional discomfort, she relaxed with an exhale.

Phew.

A gentle breeze danced across her skin. She shivered and rubbed her elbows to generate warmth.

We really are getting further south.

She quaked again and walked around the empty deck. "Hello? Is anyone here?" She circled towards the front. "Mom? Dad? Naga? Asami?" There wasn't a soul to be found by the time she completed her rounds.

Where is everyone?

Korra took another moment to survey her surroundings. There was a very fine white dust of snow on the trees past the docks, from what she could see. There were a few people moving around the shoreline, but other than that, the place looked empty.

Maybe they're still in their cabins.

Korra made her way back into the underbelly of the ship. She stopped at the top of the stairs, sighed, and descended them one aching step at a time; she was starting to feel the effect of all that fighting yesterday.

Am I ever going to be not-tired and not-sore and not-headachy again?

Maybe if you can get a solid night's sleep instead of a nightmare riddled one.

She groaned and rubbed the side of her head. "Yeah, you've got that right." She already knew her room was empty, so she searched the others. Each knock brought about silence. Each open door led to nothing but a barren room.

They didn't leave me here, right? They wouldn't just disappear to a different ship. Right?

Korra was almost convinced of this notion when the helm, too, was vacant. It wasn't until she heard some banging from the back of the boat that she got her hopes up. She rounded the corner of the small corridor to find a metal floor door pulled open. The closer she got to the entrance, the louder the sounds were.

"Hello?"

There was no response.

Hmm…

Korra gripped the railing and crept down the steps. The light was dim in this room. Machinery was everywhere around her. The clanking emanated from the back left corner. Her heart raced as she traced the noises further and further into the room.

"Asami? Mom? Dad?"

The sounds stopped. A quiet, eerie creaking filled the air as the boat bobbed in the water.

She looked around, unable to see anyone in the corners of the darkness. Korra crept around on her toes, listening, waiting.

Korra, you're being ridiculous. It's probably just –

A loud grumble and several profanities echoed in the room. Korra pivoted, running towards the source of the noise, knowing in an instant who made the sounds from the muffled voice alone.

"Asami?!"