I did it! I'm sorry it took so long, but I finally did it; I updated a chapter of History lol. I'm excited for you to read this, so I'll keep it short, sweet, and to the point: thank-you, I love you, I appreciate you taking the time to read my story, and I apologize in advance for this cliffhanger.

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Chapter 39

The realization

Korra didn't want to open her eyes. Why? Because everything hurt. Everything hurt way more than she expected it to. Her mind was fuzzy, the images of whatever just happened to her flicking from crisp to foggy and back. A jolt forced her from the darkness swelling inside. She fought through the energized turmoil buzzing in her chest and allowed the feeling to come back to her body. When she felt the familiar slender – but powerful – fingers in her own, she gave them a squeeze.

"Korra?" An excited voice called to her, the palm gripping back.

"A – Asa –" Her throat ached as she tried to speak. A loud bark penetrated her thrumming ears. The swirl inside her mind was overbearing as she returned into herself. She groaned and lifted her free hand to her head, part of her unaware that she was even doing so. She cracked her lids open one pair at a time and flinched to the moonlight above; Yue was much too bright for her after being surrounded by blackness.

"Easy, Korra. Take your time."

"Mas – Katar –" She grimaced again.

Katara ushered Naga back from her sitting position. "I know you're excited, but give her some space, Naga." She brought her attention back to the younger woman. "Relax, Korra. Take deep breaths. In and out. Do you feel a tingling in the tips of your toes?"

How did she… She nodded, too strained to finish the mental question.

"Good. That means your body is coming back to you, unfrozen." Katara smiled and eyed Korra.

Asami mirrored her grin, her peridots glued on Korra as she sighed in relief.

With another massive groan, Korra forced herself upright, gritting her teeth the whole time. She rubbed her temples and opened her eyes for a second time. Her vision swapped from blurry to focused, as did her thoughts and memories. "What – what happened," she asked herself more than the women around her.

"You tell us," Katara urged, a knowing look on her face.

"I – I'm not sure what happened. I – I saw a lot of stuff. My birth. My parents. You and –" A sharp pain shot into her skull. She flinched and buried her hands in her scalp, shutting her lids once more.

"Shhhh, easy, Korra. How about we do something different?"

Asami raised a confused brow at Katara. She watched with curiosity as Katara retrieved the animal skin pouch beside her.

Katara pulled the ties open, speaking while she did so.

"I've carried this little pouch around with me for eighteen years. Many young Benders have seen what's inside." Katara fished out a small item, holding it by its brown handle. Attached to it was a wooden, circular piece with a yellow and orange swirl on each side. Tied to the frame holding it in place were two small, green beads. "Take a look at this for me, would you, Korra?" She held her hand open to the woman in front of her, a focused look on her face.

Once the throbbing simmered, Korra removed her palms from her scalp and opened her eyes. They fell upon the small object. She took the item from Katara and held it between her fingers. Without an ounce of hesitation, she responded. "This was one of my toys when I was a kid. I used to play with it all the time. It was my favorite."

Katara grinned, her heart doing somersaults in her chest. She pulled a small slip of paper with a broken white seal from her parka and held it in front of her. "Now, read this."

Korra lifted her eyebrow and took the slip, still holding onto the toy. She unfurled it, though she didn't recognize the script. "I think you were right about Korra," she read aloud, even more confused than she was before. She lowered her hands into her lap and met Katara's blue eyes. "Master Katara, I don't think I understand."

Asami was in very much the same state, though she didn't need to reveal it through words; her perplexed expression was enough.

"Korra, I have never shown this object to you. Not a single time, until now. And of all the people I have shown it to, you were the only one who could identify it – with confidence."

"Wait, you… you never… but I remember. I remember playing with it."

"Not in this life, Korra. It's a very old relic." Katara took the object from Korra's loose grip and spun it between her fingers, making the beads clack against the board. "That note in your hands came from the White Lotus headquarters in the Fire Nation Capitol, written by Zuko himself."

Korra's heart dropped.

She – she knows I went to the Fire Nation. He told her.

"Oh, don't look so shocked, Korra. Zuko and I write each other quite often." She smiled and pulled the paper from her palm. "Now, do you know what Zuko was referring to in this letter?"

Korra met her eyes and shrugged.

"I've always known you were special, Korra, and that you were going to do great things. And I've always had this feeling, especially after you were brought to me and Kya when you were dying after you ran away from home. I've kept it a secret from you and most other people – for your own safety," she took a moment to hold the charm on her necklace, rubbing her thumb over the carving to bring her comfort as the memories of the attack on the Southern Water Tribe fourteen years ago filled her sight. She, of course, was one of three people who knew the true reason for the assault; it wasn't just about Tonraq being a 'world leader'. If anything, that was the cover the terrorists needed for their secret intentions; to capture Korra based on Katara's suspicions. It was her fault – her fault for revealing it to the wrong people, though she hadn't meant to. Her fault for them attacking, her fault for Sokka perishing… or so she believed, so she convinced herself in the beginning when the incident was fresh. And so she didn't say another word to another soul. Not Tonraq. Not Senna. Not even the young woman before her, the one who this was all about.

It was safer that way, as much as she hated it.

She inhaled to gather herself, her blue eyes meeting the oceans before her once more. "I've been waiting for the right time to talk to you about this, when I thought you were ready and when my inclinations were proven true instead of just relying on circumstance and suspicion. Perhaps I should have told you sooner or perhaps now's the better time. Either way, I didn't want to accuse or theorize anything until I had more evidence to back it up – something that took many trials and errors in my life to put into proper practice."

That, and I didn't want to risk another group trying to target her or even kill her like Ming-Hua and the rest tried to do.

Katara shuddered at the thought, her own emotions and mistakes tripping her up. "My mentality towards you faded a bit when you weren't able to Water Bend and I was almost convinced that you weren't the one, but I still held onto my hope, as crippling as my doubts had become. I just knew you had to be the one. Everything that I believed in wasn't confirmed until I saw you Fire Bend earlier. Now, I think it's time I finally told you what I've suspected for quite a while now." She took Korra's confused hands in hers and squeezed them. "Korra, you are the Avatar."

Korra threw her head back and laughed. "Me? The Avatar? I don't think so, Master Katara. You said it yourself – I can't Water Bend. What kind of Avatar can't even Bend all of the elements?"

"The Avatar doesn't always start off with the ability to Bend all four elements. When I met Aang, he only knew how to Air Bend. He was taught the rest, for the most part."

"But my parents tried teaching me Water Bending and it didn't work."

"That was something I couldn't figure out myself. Why do you think you can't Water Bend?"

She pulled her hands away and folded her arms across her chest. She averted her eyes in a pout, wanting nothing to do with thinking about the affair between her parents. "I don't know," she grumbled. Korra tried to keep up her avoidance, but she crumbled. With a sigh and a slouch of her shoulders, she confessed. "My mom cheated on my dad with a Fire Bender."

"Is that what you really believe?"

Korra looked through her brow at Katara. "It makes more sense than me being the Avatar."

"Does it? Think about it, Korra. Something pulled you into the Spirit World to show you your birth for a reason."

"You know about that? I never mentioned the white beam pulling…" Some of the blood drained from her face. "Wait, I was in the Spirit World?!"

Katara nodded. "I checked your body and your energy when you were gone. You felt the same way Aang did when he would meditate into the Spirit World."

The images started coming back to her. The flight. Her birth. The light. Aang – herself – on the bed. The shaking. Blood clots.

Blood clots.

Her body became very still as her mind poured through everything. All of the vessels in her brain expanded with the overflow.

The day she ran away. The voice calling to her in the darkness, clearer now than ever before.

The night she Fire Bended for the first time. Her heart was pounding. Her body was in terrible pain. She could see it in front of her as if she was there again, as if she had never left that moment. The flames that were welling up inside her. The power she pulled on, the blaze –

The white blaze.

The stinging and throbbing in her skull as it happened, like a chemical reaction was taking place from the adrenaline. The rush of blood, like a surge exploded inside of her. The feeling was an intensified version of what she felt her infant-self endure when…

The – the clot, the light, I –

The voice came back to her, calling:

Korra.

Korra.

Korra.

She screamed and held her skull between her hands, keeling over into herself. Her body started shaking beyond her control.

"Korra!" Asami reached out to her.

Katara grabbed her forearm to stop her.

Their eyes met, the peridots full of concern and rage that Katara would dare prevent her from helping the woman she loved. Naga howled beside them, pawing at the ground in distress.

Get out of my head! Korra pleaded, the pain amplifying.

Her dreams and memories that had been blurry and unclear started to sharpen.

Korra.

The white beast below her in the storm.

Korra.

The blue tattooed hands.

Korra.

The crash, the sinking, the –

Freezing myself in ice.

Korra.

It was Aang. That was Aang. That was… me…

Korra.

She gritted her teeth and started twitching. Everything was racing and pumping through her body and mind. Breath was becoming more difficult to come by.

Korra found herself pulling on the rage again, using the flames to Bend before she punched the pillar, leaving a considerable hole in the –

Stone.

Korra.

Another bolt shot through her. Tears were forming in her eyes.

She flew forward to her subconscious walk, her sight flipping between her own hands paddling through the waters leading to the Fire Nation and a pair of pale, tattooed ones, swimming towards a giant moving island in a similar state. Her mind skipped through to her time with Master Zuko, her body moving in a pattern she didn't know yet somehow recognized as the –

Dancing dragon.

Korra.

She saw herself performing the moves as her blindfolded Water Tribe self and as the young Air Bender, a teenage Zuko in her sight.

Korra.

Korra cried out again. The shaking intensified. She felt like her mind was going to explode from the pulsing. The buzzing in her chest got worse and worse, louder and louder.

She was surrounded with molten ash, the ground shaking underneath her. Her lungs burned from the natural chemicals of the smog as she fought for breath. She watched in horror as the plume rushed towards her, her dragon companion surrounding her in an attempt to shield her from the blast.

Wait, dragon. White hair. Volcano. Roku.

Korra.

She convulsed again, falling into the snow on her side. She shut her eyes, allowing the tears to fall down her cheeks.

She was on Air Temple Island now, skipping through her perfect Fire Bending kata back in Caldera City. She was near the two charmed necklaces just as they morphed into the images of people wearing them.

Two Air Benders.

Korra stepped closer in her mind, narrowing her eyes at the pair. She recognized the one on the right quicker than before as Master Aang. A second later, the one on the left clicked:

Avatar Yangchen.

Korra.

Another pulse, another cry, another tremble. The blood was rushing through her at a rapid rate. Something in her brain was churning, fighting through her vessels. The buzzing was so intense in her chest that she could feel her bones vibrate with it.

She saw herself performing the Air Bending kata with Meelo, the movement as natural as her Water and Fire Bending steps had been. Her body projected forward to her trying to Fire Bend, the pain worsening as she relived her attempts to pull on the energy inside of her.

Korra.

Korra crashed into her dream as Kyoshi, fast forwarding to the point where she fell onto the glass. She crawled, just as before, cutting her hands and knees on the shards while she did so. She moved until her face fit into the broken image, her eyes completing the puzzle of the face of past Avatars. Those same eyes widened as the realization hit her, as everything fell into place and became very clear to her.

Very clear, and very painful.

Her mind overloaded. Her heart was pounding out of her chest. She couldn't breathe. It took only a few seconds, only a fraction of a moment, for all of the thoughts and all of the pieces to connect from the moment Katara compared her and Aang's trips to the Spirit World.

The explosion was too much.

Her senses were on fire. The buzzing in her chest expanded out of her. White light blinded her in a powerful flash.

Soon, there was darkness. She had no thoughts, no sense of self.

Nothing.

"Korra!" Asami tried to break from Katara's grip as she watched Korra's body convulse out of control.

Korra's eyes opened just to reveal that they were rolled into the back of her head. Her limbs moved out of control, her back slamming against the snow.

"Don't move her!" Katara commanded as Korra rolled from her side to her spine. "She's having a seizure." She left Asami's side and picked up the engineer's coat from the ground.

"A seizure?" Asami's heart sunk while she shared in Korra's suffering. A million thoughts and urges ran through her, reducing her mind into a painful mess. Her breath grew short in her struggle. It was as if she could feel what Korra was experiencing – if not at the same potency, than to some portion of it.

Naga whimpered and howled, similar feelings of torment inside of her.

Katara nodded, her face grave. She folded the jacket up and placed it under Korra's head in as soft a motion as she could to support the spine around her neck. "When it comes to seizures, you just need to let them play out. Trying to stop it or holding the person down will make things worse. It might even kill them if they experience a neck injury."

"How – how do you know?"

"Because this has happened to Korra before. Once when she was born, and again when she was brought back from running away after her body warmed up from the cold. I suspect that's why she's been having such a hard time connecting to her Avatar Spirit."

"Avatar…" Asami's head was swirling. This was all too much for her. "Do – do you really think she's the Avatar?"

"Do you truly believe that her mother cheated on her father with a Fire Bender?"

Asami lowered her shoulders, her eyes glued in horrible torture to Korra's convulsing, unconscious body. "Truly? No. It made logical sense, but there was a part of me that just wouldn't buy it." Asami felt tears forming in her eyes; watching the woman she loved in such a state was breaking her from the inside out. She wanted nothing more than to help in some way, any way. Actually, there was something she wanted to do more than help, and it was look away. Seeing Korra like this… it was too much. But she wasn't strong enough to avert her peridots, just as she wasn't strong enough to look away from her mother's dying corpse in her arms. So they remained in place on the shaking Southerner. "How – how long do you think she'll be like this? I – I don't want her to suffer anymore…"

At that moment, Korra stopped shaking as if she could hear Asami's plea in her detached state. Her body grew very still, as was her breathing. It stayed like that for quite some time – one minute turned into two which turned into ten and even thirty. Her limbs were strewn to her sides, like she was just tossed out onto the snow from a charging polar bear dog. Her heartbeat was erratic, but there. The buzzing in her chest simmered down into the energy storms she had been feeling before, though it was less intense in some areas.

In others, though…

Her feeling came back to her in parts as the murky darkness lifted. She groaned in agony as she cracked her eyes open. The starry sky above her was spinning with her head.

"Korra," Asami finally managed to snap herself out of her nervous, frozen stupor. She took Korra's warm hand in hers.

"How – what happened?"

"Don't try to get up just yet, Korra. Your body is still recovering." Katara joined her other side and placed a palm on her shoulder.

"You had a seizure, Korra. You were knocked out for a while, but we didn't move you in case of any neck injuries."

"Can you feel your toes, Korra? On both sides?"

Korra closed her eyes and focused on her feet. With a pained command from her throbbing mind, her toes wiggled.

Katara noticed this – given the woman wasn't wearing boots – and smiled. "Good. Your spinal cord wasn't damaged."

She tried to sit up again but was met with resistance by the pair of women beside her.

"Not yet, Korra. Your eyes still aren't seeing straight, are they?"

She cracked her lids and watched their faces swirl around her. She shook her head as large white fluff filled her sight. A rough tongue on her cheek and a loud bark followed. Korra chuckled. "I'm still here, girl. At least, I think I am. Unless this is another dream of some sort…"

"What's the last thing you remember," Asami asked, their eyes locking at her question.

"The last thing I remember? I was –" It all zipped through her in a matter of seconds. Every last mind-destroying thought rummaged past, all the way up to her black-out seizure. She saw her reflection in those glass pieces and shuddered to the pain in her skull. "I – I was in the Spirit World. I saw it all happen. The Spirit. Me. I think – I think Master Katara's right. The Fire Bending, all the dreams I've been having... I – I'm, I'm the A –"

"Ah, Korra. We were just coming to see you." A group of three men dressed in blue and white robes approached the group on the glacier.

They all stopped and turned to the trio, the distraction allowing a pained Korra to push herself onto her elbows to do the same. She recognized them in an instant as members of the White Lotus.

She didn't know why, but her heart dropped into her chest.

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