Hello loves! Sorry for the late update; I traveled back to school recently and have been getting settled and what not. Anyway, here is the latest chapter and I hope you enjoy it. ^_^

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Chapter 37

Too soon

Korra was flying, despite lacking wings to do so. Her loose hair was rushing behind her as she whipped through the air. Something was pulling on her, tugging her forward – though it wasn't from her arms. Rather, it was from her chest. She opened her eyes to find a bright white light flashing in front of her. It wasn't just any ordinary light; this one wasn't blinding and sight filling like the others had been. Instead, this one was confined to a few streams weaving and cascading out and in from a single source.

Herself.

The scenery zipped by much too fast for her to analyze. It was dark, with random bursts of light coming and going in a split second. The motion was starting to make her queasy, if that was even possible.

"What – what's happening?" She called out to the light in hopes of an answer.

There was nothing but silence and the whirring sound of her speeding along against her will.

Korra reached out and tried to hold some of the wave in front of her. She managed to grip it and braced herself, expecting it to be burning hot from its glow. When it wasn't, she cracked her lids in shock. "Who are you? Where are you taking me?"

The light grew brighter and brighter in her sight, shifting into the blinding flash that she was more accustomed to. It filled her eyes until she could no longer see. She shielded her eyes from the light. Everything around her shook in her sightlessness. Her body stopped shooting through the skies when the gleam dimmed down. She felt woozy, but stable. She unshielded her face by removing her arm and peeked at the sight before her. The crossing beams of white were gone. She was left in a small, fire-lit room that looked…

Familiar.

Korra turned in her spot, examining the shadowed walls and tapestry. The chairs. The fur throw. The mantle. Her oceans fell on a young woman – perhaps in her mid-twenties – dressed in blue Water Tribe clothes standing by the window, staring at the darkened horizon. Her hands were just above waist level, from what Korra could see at her angle. Her hair was brown like hers, cascading at either side of her chest in thin, crisscrossing ties that matched her wardrobe. Korra's eyes widened when she realized who the woman was.

"Mom?" She took a step forward, arm outstretched.

"I hope you come back soon, Tonraq." Senna sighed, rubbing her hands up and down her abdomen.

"Mom," she called again, quickening her pace towards her parent. When she went to place a palm on Senna's shoulder, her hand went right through her. "What the hell?" She tried multiple times to grab her mother, all of which were in vain. Korra took a step back in horror and lifted her hands up about a foot from her own face. Upon closer inspection, she could see that her tan fingers were off color – just by a little bit – and that her body was…

Translucent?

Korra reached out again, a bit slower this time. She watched herself phase through the back of her mother's head in disbelief. "Okay, this is some really fucked up shit." She repeated the motion with a bit more vigor, similar to her previous attempts. "Am I dead?"

"Ah! Easy there, little baby," Senna flinched and rubbed her stomach, turning to the side just a bit. "You're a little kicker, that's for sure."

"Baby?" Korra stepped around and crouched down at her mother's ten. Her eyes fell upon a somewhat-large bump, hidden under Senna's robes. "Woah, is that… me?"

"You miss your daddy, don't you?" Senna glanced back out at the horizon, watching the storm clouds raging over their isolated part of the village. The wind howled and knocked into the window, forcing the woman to take a step back. "I miss him, too. He was supposed to be home three days ago from his hunting trip. I hope everything is okay." She grimaced as another kick shook her abdomen. "Easy. Easy there. If you're not careful, you're going to bruise my ribs again." She massaged her stomach and walked over to the fire place, passing right through the intangible Korra. She sat next to the fire and held her bump. "You know, the taakti says that you might be a girl, with the way that I'm carrying and from what she can sense with her Water Bending. I feel it, too." She closed her eyes and slid her hands under her robe, grazing her fingertips against the bare skin of her abdomen. She inhaled and felt the life of her child inside of her, a soft smile on her face. "There you are," she sighed in content.

Korra moved over to the mantle and crouched beside her mother, observing whatever this was. Her grin mirrored Senna's, in all honesty. She reached out to feel the baby but realized that wouldn't be possible just before she phased through Senna. She frowned in acceptance and pulled away.

"Believe it or not, but your father was pretty excited when he learned you were a girl. I thought he would be more excited for a boy, but you should have seen the tears that filled his eyes when the taakti told him." Senna smirked, fighting her own watering from the memory. "It was some of the best news we had ever gotten – that you were coming to us. I still remember the night it all happened about seven months ago, when your father and I marked the calendar and decided to –"

Korra grimaced and turned away, plugging her ears in the futile hope of not hearing her mother talk about having sex with her father. Now that the image was in her head, she couldn't escape it. Lucky for her, her mother didn't go into detail.

"–Well, you don't need to know about that or how it happened. Just know that you have a mommy and daddy who have been trying for a very long time to get you here and are very excited to bring you into this world." Senna's smile faded and she stopped massaging her belly. She opened her eyes and removed her hands from under her robe. Her face was full of concern as she glanced over her shoulder. The onset of heavy snow was hitting the side of their small home like daggers in her heart. "Please come back soon, Tonraq. I –" She screamed out and clenched her abdomen. A painful contraction shot through her body; it was the worst she had ever felt. "Easy, there, little baby. Shhhh, relax. It's not time to – ahhh!" She keeled over again, almost falling off of the mantle in the process.

"Mom!" Korra reached out to her in an attempt to hold her up. It was of no use. She cursed under her breath and tried to grab onto her mother's shoulders to comfort her. It failed once more. "Dammit!"

Senna let out another scream as a third contraction riddled her. She lowered herself to the ground, attempting to balance on her hands and knees. "What are you doing, little baby? This isn't the time. It's too –" She gritted her teeth and clenched her fists. "Early," she cried out after another contraction and what felt like a subtle 'pop' inside of her. A wet mass leaked out of her. "No," she panicked, her hand maneuvering through her waistband. "It's too soon," she breathed. Her fingers were soon soaked with slick fluid. The liquid trickled down her legs and seeped into her pants. "No!" She tried to get up but couldn't muster the strength; the contractions were too powerful and her legs were too shaky.

Korra stepped back, absolute shock and horror on her face. Her hands trembled, knowing there wasn't a damn thing she could do to help her suffering mother. "I – I didn't know I was early. I – I need to do something. Anything. White light, how can I help? Let me do something!"

There was no response.

"Dammit!" Korra wanted to kick something, but she knew that she would just move right through it. She knelt down beside her mother. "It's going to be okay, mom. It's going to be okay."

Senna cried out again and leaned against the mantle. "Tonraq, where are you?" She panted and gripped the stone of the fire place. She glanced out the window, watching the storm ensue. There was no way she would be able to get to the taakti in this condition and this weather. Her sweaty forehead rested against the cool rock. "Please, someone, anyone, hear me."

As if on cue, the door to the common room flew open. Tonraq came barreling inside, the wind pushing him forward. He slammed the door shut and leaned against it, grateful to be home. His face shifted from content to terror in a matter of seconds. "Senna!" He rushed over to his wife, running right through Korra's apparition. He dropped to his knees and grabbed his lover's hand. "Senna, Senna, what's wrong?"

"Tonraq, you're here. You heard me." She pushed herself into his arms and embraced him as another contraction hit her. "I thought you were dead."

"I'm not dead. I'm right here." He pulled her closer and stroked her hair. "We got caught in a storm and were waiting for it to pass. When we saw the second one coming, we knew we had to outrun it or else we wouldn't survive. We had to abandon the catch, but we all got back safely. But the storm, it's getting worse. I –"

He was interrupted when Senna cried out, a death grip on her husband's back.

"Senna, what's wrong? What's going on?"

"Tonraq, the – the baby. She's coming."

His eyes showed nothing but incredulity. "What? So soon? Are – are you sure?"

She locked onto his eyes with pain-induced fury in hers. "Do I look sure, Tonraq?"

He backed away a few inches, realizing he didn't ask the right question, and regrouped. "The taakti is all the way in Harbor City. There's no way I'll be able to get to him or get you to him in the storm."

"You need to find someone, Tonraq. If this were forty weeks, I would tell you not to worry about it but… I'm scared, Tonraq. I'm so scared." Tears fell down her face. Her arms were shaking as she buried her nose in her husband's neck. "I don't know why the baby is coming early, but what if something's wrong with her? What if she isn't developed or she's sick or something happens during the birth, Tonraq? I won't be in any shape to help her and you don't know a damn thing about Healing and infants and –" She sobbed, panic riddling her.

"D – don't worry, Senna. Everything is going to be okay. I'm going to find someone. I'll go right now."

"A Healer, Tonraq. I need a Healer. Someone who knows how to deliver babies."

He nodded and released her. "Let me help you out of your lower robes and pants so that if the baby starts coming out, it won't be blocked."

Senna bobbed her head and leaned on her husband's shoulders for support.

Korra watched as he started untying her knot. Before she could see anymore, the room began to fade as if she were being pulled into a vacuum. The area darkened while she was sucked away against her will. "Wait, no, I need to help. I need to do something. Where are you taking me? No! Let me help! Let me help!" She reached out to the faint image of her parents struggling with her childbirth. Soon, they were out of her sight.

This trip was much shorter than the last. It took maybe half a minute of rapid flying at stomach-turning speed for the scenery to still. There wasn't even a bright flash of light for this one.

Korra wobbled on unsteady legs from the sudden stop, still a bit shaken from what she just witnessed with her parents.

"Ugh," she groaned, a hand to her head. She walked around the empty room, noting the fire in the mantle. "This place looks familiar, too." She glanced at the walls, the chair in the corner and the one across from it. Faint voices from around a corner grabbed her attention. She meandered over to the hallway and stared at the open door towards its end. Gentle light escaped from it. The voices of two women and four men echoed to her. Only three of them resembled ones she's heard before. She crept closer and poked her head inside. "Woah."

Five of them were surrounding a bed in the center of the room, the headboard against the wall. An older man with a small beard and hair tied back into a ponytail was on the left side of the bed, his blue layers matching that of the woman near the same age across from him. A younger woman with graying hair was next to her, a bald man with a brown beard and blue tattoos adjacent to that spot. At the foot was a third male, his somewhat-tan skin paled by his disheveled brown hair and beard. They all had pained looks as they stared at the person in the bed; an aged man – though not as much as the two near his face – with a trimmed brown beard and a blue arrow on his forehead. His eyes were faint as he stared at the elder woman to his left. Their hands were locked, fingers interlaced for one last time. He shut his lids to cough in a voracious spell before returning his weak gaze to the woman at his side.

"Wait, is that… Master Katara?"

Shock made her useless as she realized what was happening. She started recognizing the faces.

Chief Sokka.

Master Kya.

Tenzin.

Bumi.

And in the bed, the Avatar himself.

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