A/N: Last chapter, not continuing the story anymore, too much to do. Ha, APRIL FOOLS, like I would ever give up on you guys. No way, this story is my life. It is officially Spring Break, and though I have to do a project, take 3 tests (1 down this morning though) and I have to read a book for school, I hope to update some time this week... or Sunday night. Reviews make me write much faster. Lets get them to 50 and I will throw you all a digital party in your honor. Bring your own unicorns and there will be streamers! If you don't like unicorns, bring some other fantasy creature of your choice! But only if we reach that magic number. Thank you to everyone who is still bearing with me and I love you all.
Disclaimer: I own nothing sadly. I make no profit, I am broke... completely, to the point where all my socks have holes (that is exaggerated, only some of them do). But free is better and I would go on a rampage if I had to buy fanfictions so it's for the best.
Previously on Events Unexpected…
"Choose your duty as Avatar and you will be hailed as a hero," the water changed again, showing the four sigils of the nations in harmony with each other. There was another scream, but it died down fairly quickly and it was much quieter than the others had been. Still, Korra much preferred the others to that one; it held so much fear and pain that she could feel her knees weaken. "The war will most probably be abandoned as too costly if you were to assert your powers and cripple the armed forces. Should that happen, I want you to bring the girl to me. You must swear to it, that Kaji will be mine as soon as her armies fall. That is my price Avatar Korra."
I may not be well informed about Water Tribe tradition, but this is for you as a token of my feelings.
K.
Korra slipped the note back into the folds of the white parchment container. Her hand dug into the little pouch until it touched something cold. It was smooth, but not a rock. It had ridges that felt like metal, but the majority of the surface was something familiar. Korra gripped the small medallion and lifted it out to where she could scrutinize it with her eyes. It was a small circle, similar to the ornament adorning Katara's necklace. The one given to girls as a gift of engagement, a token of the other person's heart. This one, instead of being light blue and emblazoned with the crest of the Water Tribes, was a dark torrent of blue mixed with white to match Kaji's flames and had the Fire Nation crest entwined on the surface in silver. Another piece of paper was stuck to the back groove of the metal. On it read:
I expect mine soon.
Katara hung her head. From under the shadow created by her brow, she finished her story with her own implied question, "Well, child, that is all there is to say. I do not know what the future holds in store for us, but it is up to you to decide which course we take. What is your choice, Avatar?"
The marshes were extensive, drifting in their bleak grey fields until the pale horizon engulfed them in its oblique light. Trees dotted the landscape in patches, surrounded by shrubbery that was more of an intricate web of twigs than actual greenery. Mosses and lichens hung from the bows of wood or floated by on the slow streams of water. There was no sound coming from the place that could have spoken for the hidden ecosystems and the organisms they housed. It was a dead place. Silent to the point that even the creak of the branches had ceased. They were dead too, the trees. A plop signified a fallen droplet of water, the ripple created spreading in its endless circles before the calm settled in again. It was a dead place… there was no breath there, no heartbeat.
Nothing.
Nothing, but the girl that walked through it.
Korra gazed up to try and see the sun, to pinpoint her location in the maze of rushes and swampland. A thin layer of sickly beige clouds hung over the entire expanse of sky, hiding the celestial body and distorting its rays into cold streams of pallid light. Had there been a wind to tell her where the sea was, perhaps she would have navigated her way out of the delta, but there was not even the slightest hint of a breeze. She sighed in resignation, bemoaning the fact that there wasn't even enough dry earth for her to sit on. Her boots, brown hide, sunk into the bog's soft mud with each step, making sucking noises when she wrenched them free and when she sunk them back in. Once, she had become afraid that she had become ensnared in quicksand. Her hands instinctively reached for the nearest assortment of vines, hanging from a particularly decrepit old tree. As she pulled on it for the leverage necessary to hoist herself out of the mire, the fragile gnarled limb strained and finally broke under the tension. The flustered Avatar had come out of the experience sopping wet and thoroughly frustrated- having discovered that her foot had not been stuck due to sinking mud, but a root wound around the toe of her boot.
"Lovely," she grumbled. Spirit dreams, for that was obviously what this was, had rarely been enjoyable in the past few months. If anything, she was just hoping that whoever had summoned her here made a point to show up soon. That way, she would be able to find herself back in her comfortable bed in the Air Temple and out of the stench of the bog.
Her eyes widened at the novel olfactory sensation. She had not been able to smell anything just moments before. Now, suddenly, an entire rush of corruption and rot descended on her. Korra scrambled to her feet, hands moving up to cup her mouth and nose so that she did not choke. Looking down, she saw that the murky water had become a dark shade of red, almost black as it flowed, tarlike, around her legs. The redness writhed among the thick ooze in slithery, serpentine patterns, created by the sudden appearance of the setting sun in the distance. Only, this sun was different than the one she was used to seeing. This sun was massive, at least three times bigger than the yellow star. That, and it was the color of a blood-orange. No, it was even deeper than that, a sunburst of scarlet laced with a tinge of yellow so as to turn it slightly orange at its circumference.
"What is this place?" she mouthed. Sound was still foreign in the strange space. A hidden taboo kept Korra from making it.
"A sunset," a voice echoed over the expanse. "Or perhaps a sunrise. One could not be sure until it moves either up or down. But then again, a sunset in one location is the sunrise of another, is it not?"
Korra spun around, eyes searching for the source of the voice. It was strange, almost a mixture of outward vocalization and an inner whisper coursing through her mind. There was a feminine lilt to it, but also a masculine depth. It was childishly soft and cracked with age. Beautiful, like a song as well as sharp, raucous as a raven-crow's caw.
There was a figure, a silhouette more like, leaning against one of the festering trunks to her left. Korra turned to it, only to see it fade into the shadows of the tree. Shadows were everywhere now, cast by the blood sun, rising and setting behind her. Even her own shadow seemed a monstrous distortion, standing as a giant against the tiny little bushes and streams of oil. Ghastly bubbles spurted their gooey innards in little torrents of drops. The figure was back, sitting with its legs crossed just at the top of Korra's vision. She peered at it cautiously, making no sudden movement to catch a complete glimpse of it. She would rather not have to hunt for it again if it chose to disappear like it had the first time.
"Who are you?" she asked. 'What are you?' did not seem the best way to get into the Spirit's good graces and Korra did not wish to offend. If it decided to leave her, she could well end up stuck in the dying lands until one of her past lives decided to come to her aid.
"Me?" the voice rang out in a whisper. The waters churned as though the sound was a physical force, ripples expanding until they hit her legs and broke into a plethora of smaller ripples moving opposite their predecessors.
"You," Korra affirmed. She had finally been able to take in the slight build of the shade, though its face was still obscured to her. It wore baggy pants, black and torn and splattered with mud. Not an inch of skin showed along its legs, white gauze was wrapped around its feet and the beginning of its calves to make up for the lack of protection afforded by the wooden sandals it wore. The gauze was also stained, though whatever had made it so looked to be more akin to ink than dirt. The pants were held together along with the dark grey shirt by a belt of worn thread. It had once been as black as the lower portion of the shade's attire, but time had weathered it to a hue closer to the shirt. A flowing coat of moving darkness had been precariously slung over the slight shoulders to hide the arms and upper torso where the shirt dipped and exposed the skin… if it was skin that lay beneath. Korra's eyes risked looking up enough to see her companion's face. A shawl of gold, the only color on the thing, wrapped around the head of it, shrouding everything from sight except for a patch of ashen face paint and two very round eyes peering from a gap in the fabric. It was almost as if they were made of buttons sown into the figure itself, glistening black buttons alight with the fire from the red star it faced.
"I," the figure stood as though it had no spine, its back arching and arms flailing until the feet were grounded. Then, like some kind of rubber band uncoiling, it straightened and came to look upon her again. Korra gasped at it. It stood at least ten feet tall, its arms hanging limply from its sides with hands and fingers wrapped in gauze much like the feet. The shawl had shifted slightly in its ascent, uncovering the slope of the nose, also splayed with the paint.
"I," the figure slouched so that it was only about a foot away from her. Korra's breathing turned erratic at the sight of those eyes, staring intently at her. She held back a scream when it became clear that she had been wrong in her analogy, for the eyes were, truly, made of two dark black buttons sown into the face. The skin was patchy, falling in certain places, held together by staples and stitches in others.
"I am Bezliki Deviat, ninth of the Order of Those Without Faces. Simply, you may call me Bezl Nine… or should it be only Bezl since adding the Nine would be too long for a nickname?" the thing rocked back on its heels, head lolling back and then forward.
"W-what do you want?" Korra repressed the urge to send a volley of fire at the shade, Bezliki, whatever it was, and then run for her life. Its Order, the name itself, reminded her of someone she could not hope to ignore anymore. Still, she was uncertain as to whether she would have rather faced Bezliki's master. Him, at least, she had become somewhat accustomed to. The Faceless, she was not so keen about.
"I?" Bezliki tilted its head so far to the right that there was a pop from the shade's neck. Jolting it back into a straight position, the Faceless continued, "I do not want anything. Perhaps you were inquiring as to what my master wishes?"
"You know what I meant," Korra bit out. She was in no way patient enough to sit through technicalities with the unnatural phantasm. She had heard, from Aang and Tenzin, what happened to those whose faces Koh stole whilst bodily in the Spirit World. They turned into shades, like the one before her, forever trapped as Koh's servants. Forever trapped in the agony and pain that corrupted their dark, crystalline hearts still housed within their chests. Korra had never seen one before, and she doubted that she knew anyone who had. Even Aang had said that he had been spared the experience. Unless, he had lied to her so as not to have to relive an experience no one would have wanted.
"I will accept your remark as a positive answer, Avatar Korra," Bezliki said. Stretching out the freakish length that was its arm, it held its fist suspended, fingers facing downward to the pools of blackness. "I have a gift, from Master."
The hand twisted upward in an outward arc, bones and tendons cracking as the wrist detached and readjusted itself to compensate for the fact that it was not meant to be turned in such a manner. The fingers opened, gauze swaying despite the absence of a breeze. Nestled in the palm of the creature's hand was something small and shiny. Not shiny as with jewels or precious metals. This was the shine of rock, smooth and polished. Korra stood on her toes, attempting to see the thing more clearly. She had not expected a gift, nor did she trust it anymore than she could throw it and the messenger carrying it, but her curiosity was more of a driving factor than her trepidation. She doubted that Bezl's master would harm her now, not when he had had so many chances before.
"My apologies," Bezliki lowered the hand, its shoulder popping as the shade leaned to its side so as to place the thing directly in her line of sight. Korra's eyes widened. She did not completely understand what to make of what she saw. In the opened clutch of the Faceless, lying pale and serene in the shade of Korra's cast shadow, was a small necklace. The circular pendant was carved of white bone though it was made to reflect the rays of the red giant star as well as marble. Engraved into its surface was the sigil of the Water Tribes, the waves crashing in harmony with the slight elliptical shape of the medallion. The lines were traced in indigo dye. A small hole had been drilled into the top center, strung with a cerulean lace as thick as Korra's pinky. It was a perfect reflection of her eyes and fell in beautiful contrast to the cadaverous white fabric shielding it from the deteriorating corpse hand beneath.
"What is this for?" Korra genuinely could not see why she was being given this. She could not keep the secret hope that Bezliki's master had lost control of his faculties from blossoming in the pit of her stomach.
Bezliki seemed about to shrug nonchalantly in a 'he didn't say, I didn't ask' manner, when its stature became rigid. It looked a disfigured post of some sort, still and erect. Then the seizures took it. Hands, legs, torso, it did not matter; everything was moving, flailing as though without any muscular or skeletal system. The Faceless was a flag, flapping through a monsoon, shaking until Korra was sure that its insides were all misplaced within the hollowed chest. And the aspect that frightened her most: it was levitating; its body had not hit the ground in this epileptic episode, but rather seemed content to defy gravity and keep hanging in the air as a puppet on strings. Korra jumped back as one of Bezliki's hands nearly took off her head as the body began spinning in midflight.
Then it stilled. The head lolled, boneless. The hands reached to just below its hips, the belt had unraveled some and hung limply with them. The scarf was flapping wildly still, almost as if the Spirit that had occupied the empty vessel was somehow still trapped within the fabric.
The button eyes met hers, glistening, then turning milky and watery. Liquid poured from the holes, disintegrating the cobalt disks until stern, brown orbs gazed at her. They were vacant at first, blind and pale, but soon they filled with the dark essence of the one Korra had been anticipating. The hand that had held the necklace returned to its outstretched position, offering the trinket which had, amazingly, not been discarded in the violent possession of the body. Korra stepped back, keeping a wide void between herself and those flaky extensions.
The voice that was heard from behind the golden scarf was no longer the coalition of a multitude of different pitches and frequencies, but one low, gruff voice. It was certainly a man's voice, spiced with the accent of the northern provinces of the Fire Nation. The dialect was old; probably over one hundred, maybe even two hundred, years old, but Korra could still understand the words. Koh had ensured that with his arrival.
"Take it Avatar. You have chosen yes?" his eyes boar into her. He could see it all, everything, and she knew it. Korra knew that, despite her indecision in the light of Kaji's past and the revelations of her mentor, she could not betray the trust of the innocent people who believed in her. She loved Kaji, she knew that, but she had let her go when she had accepted the Avatar State. She knew that her choice was the world. It had to be. But she also knew what that choice entailed. She had prayed to all of the Spirits, the one currently facing her excluded, for a solution that would not force her to forsake the girl she had once given her heart to. Even Agni, her lover turned enemy's own god. She had prayed, beseeched, begged, but there had been no answer and no help. Now, facing the dark creature and the even darker entity that had taken residence within it, she doubted that even hope was left.
"I have chosen…" she could not say the words. She refused to say them. Koh was well aware of her course of action; she felt no obligation to force herself into uttering those vile words.
"Then take it," the pendant was offered once more; it tinkled as it hit the palm of the Faceless hand.
"And do what with it?" Korra growled. The bone, once so quaint and pretty now looked more toxic than a bottle of arsenic.
"Present it to her as a token of your love of course," Koh's face laughed. Korra could not see it happening and the sound was that of nails scraping against a chalkboard, and yet she was still able to recognize it for what it was.
"What are you planning, Koh?"
The Spirit sounded offended. It was astonishing how good he was at it, even if it was meant to be mocking, "Oh, do you not trust me. I assure you I have your best intentions in mind."
Korra raised an eyebrow at that. Even a skilled liar like Koh was not able to pull off that one. He cackled at her expression, his mirth grating on her already frayed nerves. "Very well; give the Fire Lord this pendant the moment you see her. It will open a gateway that will allow her to come into the Spirit World, body and mind and all. After that, I will consider the debt repaid, and you will no longer have to fear me Avatar… unless you request my aid in the future."
He stopped; Korra looked at the tiny piece of jewelry in his hand. Her mind worked in a whirlwind. She gazed at the garbed fingers and up; the gauze extended up along the forearm until it was lost among the black smoke swirling along the sleeve of the shadow cloak. Body and mind and all, she repeated. Body and mind and all. Her eyes snapped up to meet the hard brown ones ingrained in the cadaver where its buttons used to be. Body, she realized. Koh did not simply want Kaji's face; he wanted her to become another of his Faceless, a servant for eternity, and he needed her body for it. Her gasp must have alerted him to her conclusion as he reached out with the speed of a viper and seized her arm just below the wrist. The cloth was scratchy and the flesh- where it had been bared from its bindings- icy cold. Korra screamed, fighting to get the thing off of her, clawing at its arm to no avail. Her fingernails collected scraps of dead skin, falling away in clumps from where she gauged the flesh, but still there was no slackening to her shackle.
"You will do this, or I will take you right now," Koh threatened. Korra's large, frightened eyes met the cold ones looking down at her. She had almost forgotten about the need to keep apathetic in the presence of the Face-Snatcher as he had never taken the opportunity to take her visage before. He had always told her that she had to uphold the bargain; it had been her only trump card and so blatantly defying the Spirit was treacherous at best… fatal at worst.
"I…" Korra choked. Her voice was small, squeaky, like a child's.
"Take. It," it was a hiss. Her shaking hand, the one not held by the demonic entity, reached up to transfer the necklace from his possession to hers. At first, she could not find the motor skills to pick the thing up, her fingers slipping together over nothing, or the smooth bone slid through the clammy sweat that caked the tips of her thumb and forefinger. Then, her nails digging in for extra grip, she had it. She held the monstrous thing that was going to be Kaji's undoing and she knew that she would be the one to give it to the girl. And Kaji would have that heartbreaking light in her eyes, just as she always did whenever she saw Korra. Korra wanted to scream, she wanted to make her arm fling the wretched object into the depths of the swamp and face whatever fate awaited her at Koh's hand. She was not a coward; she was the Avatar; and yet she stood statuesque as Koh pulled away, hand gripping the pendant for dear life.
"You will come to thank me Avatar Korra," Koh strutted with his overly long legs, pacing in a circle around her as a leopard-sharp does to its prey. "Without Kaji, the entire conquest will fall apart and you will have saved the day."
His laugh was the last thing she saw before she was shaken from her trance and found herself lying on the hard floorboards of her room. Sunlight, real, brilliant, warm sunlight, streamed through her windows. Her sheets had fallen with her in haphazard streams of linen and she could see a pillow leaning limply against one of the far walls. It had certainly been quite the violent dream.
Picking herself up, Korra shook the last vestiges of the nightmare from her dazed mind. She rubbed the sore spot on her wrist, noticing the bruising that was starting to show along the dark skin. She had to make sure to put her bands over it so that no one questioned its origin. As she moved to get her bed back to its presentable tidiness, an idea struck the dark-skinned girl. The feelings had been real, but her hand had been empty when she had awoken. There was always the small chance that Koh's necklace had not made it back with her once she had awoken into the corporeal world. Rummaging through the sheets and pillows, Korra was starting to feel the familiar, welcome buzz of excitement. There was nothing, not a trace of the betrothal necklace in sight. The floor was likewise empty, as was the underside of her bed, and then the pockets of her pants and jackets. Korra's feet were light as feathers when her eyes caught on the last unchecked piece of furniture in her room. Her fingers trembled as she pulled open the top drawer to her bedside table. She inhaled at the sight of the necklace Kaji had presented to her, its Fire Nation symbol burning brilliantly as it was exposed to the sun's rays. And there, to the right of it, lay the intricate white-bone necklace with the indigo waves of the Water Tribe. Korra's tears came without her even noticing them. Her knees became weak, falling out from under her as she slumped to the floor, forehead pressed against the opened drawer. Her hand blindly searched along the interior for the cool metal of Kaji's betrothal necklace, the one that belonged now to Korra. The first contact was with the other necklace. Korra angrily pushed it to slide to the back of the table with a thud. Her fingers closed over her intended target. Taps sounded as the product of her sobs landed on her wooden floorboards. Her fingers clutched the necklace so hard that she dented the engraving ever so slightly. The pain became more and more shallow the harder she pressed against it. She could feel her heartbeat throbbing through her capillaries, pressed against the metal.
"Korra?" Korra inwardly cursed at her bad luck. She had hoped that no one would have found her at the moment of her weakness. Strong arms wrapped themselves around her and pulled her face into the familiar furs and sturdy wool garb.
"Master Katara," Korra strained to keep her voice from cracking. She hated it when her vocal chords broke and distorted the syllables.
"What is wrong child?" Katara questioned.
Korra sucked in a breath. She did not know whether it would be prudent to reveal to anyone her promise with the dark Spirit. She was afraid, more afraid than she had ever been in her life, and it was not for herself that she feared. How could she ever express in words the travesty she was going to perform?
"I- I did something foolish, and now I have to pay for it," Korra finally managed. She had to tell someone. It had been a burden kept to herself for far too long.
"What! What do you mean child? Is someone trying to harm you?" Katara's concern made Korra smile ruefully.
"No, no one is harming me. Would that it was so simple."
Katara waited. She hated to admit it, but Korra's remark put her spirit slightly more at ease. If Korra was not in danger, then it was something she was confident would be solvable with time and careful thought.
"I made an accord with Koh…" Korra retold her initial desperation to find Kaji when she had been taken by the 'Northern Water Tribe' assassins and how she had pleaded for the centipede's help. She recalled the deal, and the debt that needed to be paid. Finally, she finished with the recollection of her dream and the necklace and her horrible purpose. Her tears flowed faster and with more violence as she hiccupped, "I don't know how I am going to do this. If I choose Kaji, the balance is forfeit. If I choose the world, I condemn the woman I love to an eternity of pain and agony. If I betray Koh, there is no telling what he will do to me, to Kaji… what do I do?"
Katara remained silent. Korra could sense that, as phenomenal as it was, her mentor was at a loss for what to do. Her hand continued to rub against Korra's back, warming the girl as the wool of her clothes heated from the friction.
In the end, she simply said quietly, in a ghostly murmur, "The Order is ready. Iroh II and the White Lotus will perform a covert surprise attack on Kaji at Omashu. We leave tomorrow and we need you to lead us Korra."
Korra's spirits plummeted. She did not think that she could come up with a solution in a hundred years, much less the few days that it would take them to come upon Omashu. Her throat constricted to the point that she could only nod.
Katara looked down at her pupil, feeling a great pain in her chest as she saw the girl struggle under her burdens. She tried to remember, to even envision ever having to deal with something like the complicated problem facing Korra. She came up empty. All she could think of now, under the circumstances, was standing by the girl and supporting her in whatever decision she made. She would surely need that support. Even if Katara could not think of a parallel situation, she knew the feeling of having to make a choice that she would have to carry for the rest of her life, and she was determined to give Korra as much love as she needed to get her through it.
"I will find a way to beat him," Korra said. She wished that she sounded stronger, more sure of herself, but it took practically all of her strength to simply get that out. She held no delusions of coming out of this unscathed, hell alive even, but she had to try. She had to save Kaji and herself somehow or else she would never be able to look at herself in a mirror ever again. "I will find a way to save us both… or at least save her and the world."
Katara held Korra at arm's length. Her eyes were darker than usual, angry even, "Korra, you listen to me! Do not become the martyr. Koh is not someone to be trivialized. If it means sacrificing one… I cannot condone forfeiting Kaji's life, not even after all that she had done, but you are the one I want to come back. I want to see you smiling and alive. You deserve it, above all others!"
Korra smiled sadly at the woman who had nurtured and cherished her throughout her life. She saw herself reflected in those pools of sapphire and knew that she could not do what Katara wanted. The old waterbender had raised her to be the hero, to be the one who tried to save as many as she could and then more. And Korra would never have had it any other way. Katara seemed to have recognized the look in Korra's eyes and joined the Avatar in her tears. Both clung to each other as though for the last time. Korra was unsure of what was to unfold once she reached Omashu, but she knew that, somehow, she would either escape with Kaji, or die with her morals intact.
"I have to save them, Master Katara," she said, strength finally flowering her voice, flowing with determination and the fire that Koh had somehow managed to extinguish, "It's in my job description; that or die trying."
P.S: Short, I know. But next chapter is when things get intense so hold onto your hats people. God, that made me sound nerdy... anyway, almost up to 350 pages on my Word Document. I can brag to my old English teacher now. How is THAT for too short. :P I can do it if I want to! Hrrmm, sorry. Well, I do believe that is it. Review, Happy Easter and such, hope you all got chocolate, even if you don't celebrate. I don't really celebrate it and I still stuffed my face, because chocolate is good and any excuse to have it is a good excuse to me. So.. until next time. For any fan of Game of Thrones it's back on and I am going on a marathon of it! Yes! But I will forsake that marathon if there are reviews... hint hint. bye now.