/*Edit: just a small think O-Ren says about the radio. Forgot it earlier*\
-Relics-
Korra picked at her sea prunes. Her mother was sweeping the house and eying her, confused.
"Korra, you aren't eating your dinner, are you feelings okay?" Senna asked.
"This is dinner?!" Korra exclaimed. She looked hopelessly at her plate, sadly realizing that this was as good as the meal was going to get that night. She pinched her nose shut and ate the remaining sea prunes on her plate so that she would not be hungry later.
"I don't understand why you don't like these, Korra. They are so popular in the village. Maybe you'll grow into it…"
Korra finished her plate and immediately fell onto her back on the ground. In her winter coat, she took the hood and pulled it up over the top half of her face. She let her tongue hang out of her mouth and made a groaning sound.
"What are you doing?" Senna asked.
"I'm dying, mommy. Agh, the sea prunes agh…"
Senna wasn't fazed by Korra's act. "They are good for you, Korra. No one has ever died eating sea prunes." Korra moaned louder, pretending to be sick from the healthy food any four year old would dislike. The door flew open and Tonraq walked in.
"Who's dying in this house?" he asked.
"Korra. She had sea prunes today. She is in terrible pain because of the awful food. But she ate it all…" Senna said, going along with Korra's game.
"Oh daddy, I can't make it, ohh the pain," Korra continued.
"Well that is too bad, Korra. We could all have higher quality, MEATIER food around here if some little devil wasn't sneaking it out and eating it," he said, looking right at Korra.
"I haven't been eating the meat."
"Oh really? I've been wondering why our supply of meat has been decreasing at a faster rate than we have been consuming it. Then just yesterday and today, after more went missing, I found this not far from here," Tonraq held up a bone, chewed up, once containing meat. "Looks like you wanted to eat the bone too, Korra."
"That wasn't me, dad I swear!"
Tonraq dropped his hand, defeated, hoping his daughter would just confess and he could find the reason why their food has been decreasing. "Well, that didn't work." He looked at Senna. "Has someone been breaking in or something?"
"No, it was the spirit!" Korra said. "It comes every night and begs for food while you are asleep. I can hear her, though. I've been giving her food!" Korra said with a big smile.
"So it was you that's been taking all the food," Tonraq said.
"But I haven't been the one eating it! That was Naga."
"Naga?"
"That's what I've named her."
Tonraq didn't like what he heard. It was never a comforting thing for parents to hear that their child was being visited by a hungry Spirit. He looked at Senna and decided to wait out that night for the Spirit to appear, and hopefully fend it off so that they could live in peace…
Korra had dozed off. She blinked a few times and tried to remember where she was. She leaned against a rock at the top of a hill. Alone. The moon lit up the scene before her: the change in landscape from the wooded hills to the rocky plateaus. The rocky surface would soon turn to sand if they pressed on, and then they would be at the Si Wong Desert. What awaited them there? What hope was there anymore?
The team had left the burial ground of Naga hours earlier. Korra mourned the loss of her friend, but she knew she had to continue. It was a tough realization. That the world could not wait for her to get through her grief. She wanted at least one night. It was unusually comforting to know that soon Korra would be with her best friend again, whether she succeeded or not.
Asami drove across the abandoned dirt roads of the Earth Kingdom in one of the new Satomobiles from Misty Grove. She had driven it out of Metro along with Mako, Bolin and Sydney when CHAOS was sweeping it up. The team was jammed in the car together since they had the ill Rong with them.
"Why can't we just leave him like we did last time?" Asami asked.
"No," O-Ren said. "He's actually sick. I can't just leave him…no one will come looking for him. And who knows if he will awake from this coma, he could just die out there alone. He used his remaining strength to help us."
"How are you feeling?" Mako asked O-Ren.
"Good enough to walk," he replied. He tried to fiddle with the police transmitter invented by ONI.
"Still no signal?" Bolin asked.
"I got nothing. I wonder what happened to them. Just static. This light on the side of the radio has been blinking for a while now, though," he pointed to a red light flickering quickly. Bolin did not know either what the light meant. "I remember the last I saw Lin she led some of the refugees out of the city underground. Don't know about Tenzin. You think that monster actually got to them? It could be the airwaves are all screwed because the energy that big guy puts out…" O-Ren looked over to Bolin. "What happened to you?" O-Ren asked, directing the question at Bolin who was holding his arm tightly. Sydney was applying and reapplying several bandages.
"CHAOS uplifted cars and houses in Metro," Sydney explained. "This huge wave of debris came for a group of citizens but Bolin held it off with his earth bending…"
Bolin looked sadly at Mako who was sitting in the front seat. "A police officer snuck up on Bolin and tried to kill him," Sydney continued. "Catching a 'terrorist' was more important to that man than the safety of his own people. His metal bending did this to Bolin's arm." Underneath the bandages was a deep gash in Bolin's arm as the officer had bent several scraps of metal toward Bolin.
"I would have been dead if it wasn't for Mako," Bolin said. Mako's hands started to tremble slightly. He didn't respond, just looked out the window at the passing trees. Korra listened intently, although she did not speak. She inferred that Mako was upset about what had happened to Bolin, perhaps with himself. It was hard enough losing her best friend, but losing a family member, she could not imagine how that would feel right now…
The moon was full in the cloudless sky. The Team had come to a large pond. The body of water seemed to mark the end of the forest environment and the beginning of the desert region. The diverse Earth Kingdom. The pond glowed as it reflected the moonlight in a very peculiar way. As if it was perfectly placed in that spot to reflect the light of the moon onto the trees around it, making them appear like crystals, glistening in the dark, sparkling with a strange blue color that they did not emit in normal lighting. Asami stopped the car, sensing the desire of the Team to find a place to rest after the long day. The Team looked in awe as the moonlight seemed to uncover a hidden, more beautiful world around them.
"Wow. It's so… pretty out here," Sydney said solemnly, realizing at the same time the end that was coming for this wonderful place.
Mako and Asami marveled in the way the water looked in the light. "I can see myself perfectly in it. So calm. Like looking at ice," Asami said. Mako stared hard at his own reflection. Asami gently touched the water. Her reflection became distorted, but the ripples that her fingers sent off sparkled as they traversed outward. Like blades of light traveling before her.
"This is incredible."
Korra looked beyond the lake. A small hill rested on the exact boundary of the two regions: forest and desert. Atop the hill, she could see a shadow of some small structure in the moonlight. As if someone had rudimentarily made a fortress on the summit out of rocks. She looked around at her friends reveling in the beauty of their current environment.
"This place is special," she said to herself, looking down at the ground she was standing on, blue in the moonlight. "I know it."
"Is this water magic or something?" O-Ren said, taking some in his hands and splashing it on Rong's face. Nothing happened. "C'mon you pig, wake up."
Korra suddenly found it hard to find her own voice after being quiet and distant for a few hours. "Everyone," Korra said. Everyone stopped and looked her way, surprised, anxious to hear what she had to say. "I truly thank you for all that you have done. Not even just the events that happened today, but for everything. I think I am going to be okay…I just need some time. Just a little. To think…" to think about what I'm going to do next.
Korra started to walk toward the aforementioned hill. She was drawn to it. She felt that she could figure out the path forward there. Perhaps even see it before her. Soon CHAOS would reach the Memorial in the desert. She could feel it. Feel the immense power of the beast, the gigantic body, like a cat or a lion, slowly trekking through the desert. Burning with a heat more intense. Its human face with its green eyes staring straight as it walked through the sands, directed by the ambassador Solomon. Following him. His orders. Making its way to the Memorial. Making its way to its army.
The SPORE.
What will happen tomorrow? Where will we be? What will become of the human race?
The Team watched Korra go. They needed her, but they understood her wish to be alone. At least for a little while, they would comply. Many burned with questions, and she was looked to as the leader.
Sydney sat with Bolin. She brought him some water and herbs to treat his wounds. "I hope these are the right ones," she said. "I guess it can't be too dangerous."
Bolin slightly cringed at the contact of the water and his wound. The bandages were removed to reveal the gash in his arm. "I have a hard time believing any of these plants would be dangerous in a place like this. Agh, hm, maybe I shouldn't have helped move that gigantic polar bear dog, probably didn't help this wound much," Bolin said, trying as hard as possible to be his old self. Dealing with sadness through humor. Sydney smiled, understanding his attempt to ease the tension. She kissed him on the forehead. Bolin blushed and smiled.
"I thought you were really brave today, Bolin," she said while she tended to his arm.
"Thanks…I thought you were, too."
"I hope I helped at least a little."
"Of course you did! You helped thousands of people escape their deaths. I'd say you have a very calming demeanor that sort of eased the sense of panic in those refugees. They tended to you because of that. That…and the fact that you were able to stop that tital wave that overflowed the banks from drowning and killing all of us. That was pretty important, too."
Sydney did not look very pleased. Her smile sunk slightly as she continued tending to Bolin.
"Hey, do you think the water would be good for healing? You know how to heal using waterbending right?" Bolin asked.
Sydney sullenly looked at the water. "I thought the herbs were doing a pretty good job," she said quietly. She didn't want to heal him with water. Not that she didn't want Bolin to get better, she just wanted to do it herself. "Bolin, I've been thinking about things lately."
"Like what?"
"Well, I've been getting…scared. We came here to find something to help us. And we did. Korra told us we had found the answer, but I don't know what is happening now. I don't know where we are going or what's really happening. If what she said was true, we might all be dead soon, you know?"
Bolin did not argue with her about having hope. His was dwindling as well. He would trust and follow Korra. He would continue to fight against the forces bringing the human race to the end. But he was also being realistic, and that meant that the odds were stacking against them with every minute, especially now that ONI seemed out of the mix.
"I'm really glad I could spend this time with you Bolin, out of everyone else in the world." Bolin looked at her, slightly surprised in the direction she had taken the conversation. "I am so glad that I met you that day. It's brought me so far from everything I know but when I think about it I don't really know who I am. I've discovered a new side of myself because of you, but I'm not sure how I was before. If this is going to be our last moments alive, I want my whole being to be with you. I want my past and my present here. I don't want to be the girl that can bend water. That isn't who I am, and that isn't what I want to be loved for. I want to feel, and I want those feelings to be driven by everything I've been through. I want to be with you as I really am."
Sydney rested her head on Bolin's lap and stared at the water. He ran his hands through her hair. "I will. I don't see you as you are because of your bending, Sydney. You've taught me things. You've taught me the importance of life, a concept that even a Spirit, comprised of raw power, can't even understand. I don't think bending characterizes anyone. I don't admire you because you have this ability. I admire you because you are here, willing to fight for something important. Willing to preserve the things that you cherish because you believe they are good…"
Sydney smiled and snuggled into Bolin's chest. "I just want to be myself again," she whispered to herself.
Mako, a short distance from the two lovebirds, stood at the edge of the pond. He had snagged a pack of cigarettes from the city that day and was smoking one, disgusted with his reflection of himself doing the act.
"Thought you didn't smoke?" O-Ren said. He walked up to Mako and dropped the unconscious Rong off of his back and breathed heavily.
"You just going to carry him around with you everywhere?" Mako asked, looking at Rong.
"In case he does something. I want to be there. I know what he is going through, and it looks serious. He needs someone who knows this pain."
"What would you do if he woke up?"
"That's good question. What are you doing here all alone and sulky?"
"It was a rough day."
"Yeah, tell me about it. Nothing worse than seeing an innocent polar bear dog getting struck by lightning. That is pretty rough. Korra, though, she is something else, man. A pretty amazing person. She told me how grateful she was. She saved my life probably countless times before today, and yet she has the humility to express her thanks to me."
"What did you do?"
"Not much. I should have acted sooner…but I helped her take down Qu, Milan, Naga's assassin, whatever. Just the thought of seeing that man killing Korra's friend again makes me sick. I've seen death before, but that was just scary. He had no inhibition. He had descended into madness. Become a complete monster." O-Ren got the feeling that what he was saying made Mako feel worse. He was looking away. "What is it? What happened to you today?"
"Something that is making me feel sick as well. But not for the same reasons. I've never…felt the way I did today. And I am scared that what I was is no better than Qu. I couldn't hold myself back. I saw Bolin, keeping the civilians safe from the destruction of the city. Asami and I were directing people out, but I saw him, that damn cop, pushing through the crowd to get to my brother who was keeping everyone safe. Like a rat he tries to subdue him while Bolin is distracted, and he gave him that gash in his arm. He was on Clasma, I knew it, he was earth bending and fire bending. He had gotten a hold of it somehow. All I could see was what I witnessed about ten years ago. A madman taking advantage of my family. The only family I have left is Bolin. I lost control. I couldn't bear to see history repeating itself. I couldn't bear to hesitate and risk my brother being killed. I thought it would happen at any second if I didn't do something, so I did." Mako looked at his hands. "Before the man could do anything else, even think, I was there, and I killed him. I knew I had to stop him, I wouldn't ever just stand by for fear of hurting him. But at the same time, I could have just taken him down, knocked him out, pushed him away so Bolin could escape, but I unleashed something else. A rage. Like it was this same man, to me, that killed my parents or something. No part of me wanted him alive. It seems so strange. The concept of ending a man's life to preserve another's makes sense if that man is trying to murder the other...Well, to someone who has never killed it does. But after seeing that man fall to the ground, after my extended outburst and prolonged beating and watching him desperately hold on to the small thread of life he had left, knowing that it was just going to escape his grasp…it's horrifying. No matter who the person is, it affects you. I felt wrong. I felt I was taking something I had no right to. That no one has a right to. I've seen death, too, but I've never killed, never like that."
"I'm sorry," O-Ren said, sincerely, in a manner that Mako was not used to hearing. "Bringing someone to their death, no matter how much they deserve it or have asked for it, is never easy, especially for someone like you."
"What do you mean like me?"
"Well, you value life. You value those you love but even realize that those you hate have value, too. In the end, though, that man gave up his humanity. He had forsaken his own human rights, and he did it to bring harm to another. It only seems right that someone who has forsaken their own being has already chosen death does it not?"
"I don't know," Mako said. He looked up at the hill in the distance. He saw the small blur of Korra walking up to its summit. "But now I see why it's so difficult for Korra, and why it was so difficult for Aang, as well. This isn't an easy thing to live with, and in the process of killing to save another…you can overlook the consequences it will have. On the world. On your friends. Or on yourself..."
Korra climbed up the rocks to the top of the hill. The layout of the rocks on the summit were organized strangely as if a human had put them there like that on purpose. Engravings on the rocks. Symbols Korra didn't understand. There was a crevice in the structure, big enough for several people. Like a short corridor that Korra could walk through to the precipice of a cliff atop the hill. Before her were the beginnings of the desert regions, lit up by the radiant moon.
Maybe we can just go to the moon…would we be safe there?
Korra felt a strong force emanating from the rocky walls within the crevice. She leaned against them, trying to understand the voices contained within them. Voices trapped inside. Voices of a race long lost. But there were too many speaking at once for her to understand. Crying out. A feeling of exhaustion, tiredness, deterioration. Not Korra's own pain, but theirs. It was like thousands of hands were reaching out of the walls of this place, trying to get her attention. The souls of the dead, working to keep the Spirit World connected to the physical world. Working to keep Korra put together.
The realization came to her. This was a Spiritual Place. Daya, in her reconstruction efforts of the planet, was unable to recreate this place. Unable to get rid of this hill. The souls of the dead protect it. Protect the pond, the mountain, for all future races that the Spirits create.
A piece of the old world…has survived…
If Korra failed, if the human race failed at stopping CHAOS, the world would end, but not this place. It was connected to the Spirit World. Those who died, returning to energy and back to the Spirit World, were still attached to this place, protecting it from Daya's reconstruction. A piece of themselves embedded in the walls, a relic of their race. So that hopefully a future race would discover it and realize the truth. And the cycle would end.
In all her hopelessness, this realization was depressingly comforting to Korra. If she failed, there was a small chance someone, some enlightened being would find this hill and hear her cries. Would they understand? Would they spread the word? Would they try to break the cycle?
You must break the cycle.
"I don't know if that is possible anymore."
We are holding strong for you, Korra. Daya has tried to disassemble you, but we have resisted. The souls of the dead work tirelessly to keep you alive. To keep you in tact. To break this cycle.
Korra couldn't tell if the voices she was hearing were coming from the walls, or if she was imagining them as she fell into a slumber, remembering the only thing she wanted to.
Naga.
Korra shot up, awake, when she heard footsteps approaching from the opening of the crevice to the pond.
"Korra?"
"Who's there?"
"It's me," the young girl walked into the moonlight, the color of her dark blue hair magnified in intensity by the moon. "I'm sorry. I know you wanted to be alone…I'm really sorry about what happened to your friend. That must be difficult for you."
Korra stood and smiled at Sydney, the girl she had never really been introduced to. "Thank you. It's okay. I've just been sulking anyway. I shouldn't even be this upset. I don't know. I haven't lost something nearly as significant as…well, what everyone else has lost."
"Korra, you can never compare losses of something as important as a loved one. It can't work like that. The significance of the loss depends on how much you cared about her. I can see you cared about her a lot, the grief must be so hard. I envy you for that."
"You envy me? You envy pain and sorrow and regret?"
"Yes. I do. I envy it because it is the sign of our humanity. Of your humanity. The fact that you feel so much sadness over this loss proves your inclusion in this human race. Your separation from the Spirits, who no longer seem to understand this beautiful thing we have. Who choose to ignore it because they want to build a new race, so they heartlessly destroy the old one," Sydney was silent for a few second. "Anyway, I came here to ask you something. Ever since I met Bolin, I've been able to recall most of my memories. I've been able to remember who I was and what I had been through. But you see, this Clasma in me is still disrupting me. While I have my memories, it continues to mask my feelings. I can remember something that happened to me, but I can't remember what effect it had on me. I can't remember how it made me feel. How it shaped me as a person is lost. So, I want you to do it. I want you to free me from the Clasma. Free me from my water bending, from this fake identity trying to cover up the events of my life that made me who I am."
"You would give that up? You have something most people would kill for. You have an escape from pain, a horrible pain because of what horrible people have done to you, to your parents. You would give that up and once again feel the pain and grief? You want it that badly?"
"I've been lucky enough to remember these things. I've been lucky enough to feel almost like myself again, but I feel I will never truly know my identity, my own self, if I cannot feel the pain of the ones that I lost, the ones I loved so that were taken from me. I want that back. I want to feel human. I want it to shape me. I want to truly feel, to feel love, to know what it is like to lose a loved one, feel it as strongly as possible, especially love for someone else, and with all the pain I've been through, once I feel that, I know that I will be able to do that. With tomorrow bringing the unknown to us, I want to feel it now, before it may all be over."
"You're talking about Bolin?"
"Bolin has been there for me. He is the best person I have met. And I want to love him, but I want it to be me. Sydney, with my dark past, without my water bending, just Sydney. As I truly am."
Korra walked up to Sydney and placed her left on Sydney's shoulder. "I think you are brave, Sydney. I am glad my friend has found someone great like you. You've really…helped me. I hope you know that. I'm sorry that things have been so hectic. We never got a real chance to meet each other."
"Then let's meet, but on the other side."
Korra smiled. She placed her right hand on Sydney's forehead.
"Korra? If I may ask you to do this under a condition? I don't want to lose the memories or feelings I've developed since I've met you. All of you. Since I met Bolin."
"Certainly," Korra said. She pressed her thumb against Sydney's forehead, and the draining was complete. Sydney's hair slowly changed to a dark brown in the moonlight. The radiant blue was gone, but something brighter glowed within the girl before Korra.
"Thank you," Sydney said. She hugged Korra tightly. "I'm Sydney. It's so wonderful to meet you, Korra."
The sky was slowly being tinted with the paint of dawn. Korra knew in just a matter of hours, the next day would be upon her, and she had no idea what to do. The hill, the relic, called to her for help, to stop CHAOS. The support she thought she had may have been gone. All that was left was her.
ONI has failed me…
Down by the pond, the team slept, cooled by the air coming off the water. Bolin held the newly cleansed Sydney close to him. O-Ren rested against a tree, trying to stay awake to keep an eye on Rong but finding it difficult to do so. In his half-awake state, he thought he saw a tall dark figure walk to the hill. He wanted to warn Korra, before he realized that there was one person missing from their Team other than Korra.
The voices were muted within the crevice and replaced with periodic pulses. Korra turned her head and saw a new figure standing in the opening to the crevice. A new visitor.
It was late. Or early. Korra stood to make sure she wasn't hallucinating. Hallucinating Daya, a Spirit of the Dead from the mountain. She was scared, but as the figure approached, even before she could see the face, Korra felt warm inside. She knew it was safe.
Asami walked into the moonlight. Korra smiled at the sight of her. She felt her eyes begin to water and backed to the cliff, embarrassed.
"I needed to make sure you were okay, Korra. You always did for me," Asami said with a friendly smile.
"Thank you. I'm…getting there…I think. I've just been thinking a lot since I've been up here. About Naga," Korra smiled at the sound of her friend's name.
"What were you thinking about?"
"The day I first met her," Korra said. She looked at Asami's face which implied that she wanted to her more. That she wanted Korra to talk to her about that day, so Korra continued. "I was just four or five, I don't remember, but I remember the exact day, everything that happened. For weeks, I thought a monster or Spirit was coming to our house, and me being the curious little girl that I was, fed the damn thing every night, to see if I could make it happy." Korra smiled as she got into her story. "It kept returning. Soon I judged it not to be threatening, but to be lonely. Scared. It whimpered. Hungry. So I kept feeding it. I fed it the meat my dad had hunted and stored.
"Soon he noticed our decrease in food and concluded that it was me, so I told him what I had been doing. My parents were really scared that something was coming to our house each night and I was provoking it by feeding it. I said it wasn't dangerous, but what did four year old me know, hah. So my parents stayed up that night…"
Tonraq sat outside the house, spear in hand, while Senna stayed inside, keeping the door closed so Korra wouldn't be hurt. Tonraq said it could have been a Spirit trying to lure children or something.
From inside, the young Korra heard Tonraq shriek. He shot up and prepared to attack whatever was running for the house.
"No, Dad! Don't hurt it." But Senna did not let Korra get near the window, saying it was for her own safety.
There were no sounds of struggle from outside. Soon, Tonraq called for Senna to come outside and look. Not long after that, the two parents came in and asked if Korra would like to see the 'Spirit', Naga, that she had been feeding the last few weeks.
"It's an extremely dangerous creature, but as long as you stay back and behind me, I'll let you see it!"
Korra walked outside, protected behind the shield of her father. In the distance, the small polar bear dog, a pup, breathed heavily, panting. Whimper in its breath. Crying out for food. For safety from the wilderness. For something at all. It was no more than a few months old. Just a baby, like Korra, trying to survive without anyone there to protect it.
"Korra, polar bear dogs are very dangerous. They are not to be tamed by humans, ever, so please just don't…" Tonraq looked down and saw Korra was no longer behind him. She was walking toward the polar bear dog. Fearless. A big, excited smile on her face, ready to hug it. "KORRA! My Spirits, what did I tell you?!" Tonraq raised his spear. Korra strolled up to the weak beast and happily embraced it in a hug, laughing with extreme enjoyment from finally meeting the Spirit, the white polar bear dog, that she had been keeping alive. "Korra get away from it, right now!"
"It's not an 'it', Dad! It's a 'she'," Korra said, looking into the face of the pup. "It's a 'she', and she is my friend. Naga. She's come to me every night, Dad! She's my friend! I won't let you hurt her."
"I don't know if it was the fact that I had been feeding her every night, keeping her from dying inadvertently since I thought she was a Spirit, or, maybe, something just clicked between us, but whatever the reason, Naga and I became inseparable from that moment. My father tried to do it, he tried to scare her away, to prevent her from returning or finding us again, but I was always a step ahead of him. I don't blame him for wanting me to be safe, but I wanted Naga more. He would come home to find Naga, who he thought he had just gotten out of the house, sitting next to me in our living room, smiling up at him. She was so friendly to us that he eventually accepted her, although he was still scared knowing the great size she would grow to be. And she did, but with her size I just like to believe that her heart grew as well."
Asami could tell Korra was not lamenting as she told Asami all of this. Korra missed her friend and moarned over her death, but the memories they shared did not exist to make her sad. Korra knew this. They made her happy. Happy that she had the fortune to spend nearly her whole life with such a loving friend. A lifelong relationship, and Korra knew that even though she was only eighteen, it was a relationship she sustained for her whole life. For in the near future, no matter what, Korra's life would end.
"It was…one of the most wonderful things I could ask for. A relationship like that. One which lasted nearly my whole life," Korra said.
"I am so sorry about what happened to Naga, Korra."
"It's okay…Naga is gone, but as long as I remember her. As long as I continue to love her…she is still here. I will see her again soon."
"Korra. You have your whole life. I know it, once we win this, once we are free, you can feel that way again. The way you felt with Naga, the feeling of being with someone who loves you no matter what. Knowing that if that person was suddenly gone, you would be crushed, and while it is painful to think of such a thing happening, at the same time you feel complete, you feel human, you feel warmth and love because you have or had someone in your life like that. Because you cared that much about someone who was there for you and would fight for you," Asami grabbed her own left forearm as if she was in pain, but let go a second later. She stepped toward Korra, who couldn't find her words. "I never told my story back at the campfire because I didn't know if I could. But I will now. I've been so confused and frustrated this last year. Lost, feeling like my purpose was diminishing. But then you showed up, weak and unconscious in the street that day. And you gave me something: a reason to keep going. A reason to push the pain aside and continue to find my purpose. I came to you, because I thought that doing so would help me find that purpose. I felt something when I was around you. I saw you differently than I had before. Before you were the Avatar. You were a bender whose duty it was to keep balance in the world. But at some point, you lost that, you lost those abilities.
"But when I saw you again, you were not this Avatar. You were not some incarnated god sent here to perform a duty. Your purpose became unclear, and like me, you were trying to find it. You were a confused and lost girl, just like myself, and yet, even without your bending, you became something more unstoppable than what you could have ever been before. You continued to fight, for your own reasons, not from some divine orders, but your own conscious. Even without the power or role of the Avatar, you pressed onward, into danger and darkness, to protect the ones you loved just the same. And you did it as Korra…and when I realized this, you inspired me. You fueled my drive, to find my own purpose. But it was something else, too. The feeling when I was around you. A burning within me that I could see in you as well…something I couldn't ignore. The warmth and comfort of your presence. And...and everything tells me not to, but I am…I'm falling for you."
"I'm sorry, Asami."
Asami was saddened to hear this response to her confession. She looked away and was silent. Tears streamed down Korra's face. Her breathing rate increased after hearing what Asami said. Asami spoke, "Sorry for what? I wanted to…" she began, but was interrupted.
"I'm sorry I haven't done what I was supposed to." Korra sat down. "You've got the wrong person. I couldn't get things right, get the help we needed. My plan was a failure, and we wasted all this time and now CHAOS is somewhere in the desert, ready to kill us all. All I've done is cost lives," Korra yelled.
"But you've saved them too. People that would have been dead if it wasn't for your warning to ONI. People who had no way of knowing. You haven't failed." Asami kneeled behind Korra, waiting for her to answer, to turn around and see the truth in what Asami was telling her.
"I don't know," Korra said.
"You already saved the world. And you'll save it again, but you can't give up."
Even as dawn approached, the moon seemed to burn brighter. Korra's breathing slowed. Asami could tell. She watched her back rising and descending, the rate getting slower and slower as Korra was calmed by Asami's words. Asami closed her eyes and looked down, feeling as though her one opportunity to express her true feelings was squandered. Tears came to her eyes. She heard the sound of movement, and opened them to see Korra, turned around, facing her, water in her eyes as well.
Korra's insides suddenly boiled with intense passion. She leaned forward quickly, nearly leaping at Asami, and embraced her in a kiss. The kiss she had wanted for so long. She let her passion go unleashed, breaking through the layers of inhibitions keeping her from experiencing the thing she truly wanted before the end came for her. Knowing that now she would be taking more from Asami when the time came. Although it felt impulsive, the tug of her emotions was too much to handle for the longest time on top of everything else. Korra wanted this last chance to love someone, someone whose values, whose very existence, provoked every bit of her desire.
Korra wanted this. Asami wanted this.
At least this one night, give me what I actually want, before everything is gone.
The tint of the sky grew brighter. The sun would be rising soon. On the summit of the hill, the relic, within the crevice of the rocks, the two girls slept next to each other, Asami's arm over Korra, the feeling of finally being close to each other making them feel so complete. Their last peaceful sleep, for it was unclear what the coming day would bring them. But both Korra and Asami knew that whatever it brought, they would both be willing to protect each other, no matter what happened, until the end.
/*1. Found that 'bar' icon :p finally.
2. I hope the last scene was foreshadowed enough, possibly overforeshadowed. I never had the intention of making this fic completely centered around Korrasami, but I do think that pairing is cool. Would've liked to see that in the show, not just because it's lesbians, but because I actually think it would be a good pairing. Two girls in love in a world where we aren't sure what people believe about couples i.e. strictly man and woman. That probably won't happen the avatar universe because of Nickelodeon, although Grey has basically made Tyzula happen. Anyway, the story is most important to me, but having this subplot is cool. It's a changing world and this emphasizes that. Thanks for reading this far! The end is near I swear. The last couple chapters will be PACKED!*/