Note: This is a pretty long chapter compared to the previous ones. Hopefully you like it. I kind of reworked the idea of chakras and the Avatar state to my own likings (so like it or leave it). Also, I almost have like 30 followers on this. How is that possible? It makes me blush. Also to RashestRumble16: I always intended Qilaq to be in her early 30s who would look something like Ava Gardner. She's a tough as nails kind of woman but looks like a femme fatale.
When she woke up, Korra saw nothing but darkness. She reached out and touched a crumbling stone wall. The sediment was all over her palms. She wiped her hands on suit as she stumbled about. From what she could tell, she was in a basement somewhere. She grasped at empty spaces before hitting her arm across some bars. Korra felt around the bars and felt nothing. Frustrated at her situation, she sat down. The wetness of the ground seeped into her suit, making her uncomfortable. All she could think of was how she was going to get out of there.
In times of desperation though, Korra needed desperate measures, but she couldn't even begin to see where she was or metalbend her way out of this prison. She thought of the last time she was in this exact situation- two or so years ago, in Tarrlok's cabin. When she thought about it, she didn't exactly get out of there herself. She made it out because of Amon and the Equalists. Korra never bothered asking Noatak about what happened that night. She always wondered though. She wondered how he even knew to go there. Korra always suspected that he never expected to see her there though. Her mind ran a particular moment from that night- when he stopped and looked at her. She questioned why, and she never seemed comfortable with asking Noatak what he was thinking at that moment. It was times like that where Korra wished she were more forthright with Noatak about their previous history.
Korra's mind lulled as thought about those moments. Her mind blanked in the way it never could in all those meditation sessions she had with Tenzin. She nodded off before snapping back into consciousness. The prison cell was illuminated now with a strange white-blue light. Korra looked around until she looked to her right. The spirit of a woman wrapped in furs with thick braids sat next to her.
"Hello?" Korra said.
The woman turned around and stared at Korra.
"Hello," the woman said.
"Who are you? And how did you get here?" Korra said.
"My name is Atka, and I am here because you summoned me here," Atka said.
"Atka? Wait! Are you the woman that Noatak used to be engaged to?" Korra said.
"Who?" Atka said.
"I guess not…" Korra said.
"I am Atka, and like you, I am an Avatar."
"You're an Avatar?"
"Yes."
"Wow… You don't know how to get my bending back or how to get out of here. Do you?"
"I don't know anything about giving back anyone's bending. I do know how to get out of here though."
Korra clapped and smiled.
"Well what are we waiting for?" Korra said.
"Be patient. You have much to learn before you can leave this place," Atka said.
Korra sighed and sat cross-legged. She put her hands on her knees and sat up straight. Atka nodded and bent the water from the ground into an orb in front of Korra.
"Long before you were Avatar, several cycles before you, I was the Avatar. I was also the chief of my tribe," Atka said.
The orb changed shape and turned into a small depiction of the Northern Tribe all those years ago.
"Our tribe was very prosperous despite the great war between many of the other water tribes," Atka said.
A flash of fire appeared and gave way to an image of people running and fighting.
"At the time, being a waterbender was synonymous with being a bloodbender. Learning to bloodbend was a rite of passage into adulthood. The best warriors were bloodbenders- as were the best healers," Atka said.
"And you were a bloodbender?" Korra said.
"Yes, but it was a skill I begrudgingly took on. I was very much frowned upon as an Avatar by the rest of the world- while I was not very well received as the chief in my tribe. My people wanted me to solve their problems and the war with my powers as the Avatar."
"I've never really heard of you before this."
"I have been erased from history- partially because of my powers and also because I could not save my people from destruction. My brother was supposed to be the chief of the tribe, but when the tribe discovered that I was to be the Avatar, they relinquished my brother's duties as chief and gave the title to me. My brother resented me for this and took it upon himself to relieve me of that post through my unwillingness to move the tribe into an era of great power. My only desire was to unite all of the tribes as one and live in harmony, but my duties as the Avatar prevented me from devoting all of my life to the tribe.
'So when I refused to join my brother and the rest of the tribe to invade the other tribe, he went to our tribal elders and managed to convince them to throw me out of power. They planned to execute me. So they threw me in this pit where we currently are, but I managed to escape this prison. I lived the rest of my life in seclusion in the Southern Water Tribes where I was well received. I left my family in the north- my husband and my children- and started anew in the South. I never did stop thinking about them even when I married again and had a new family."
Atka stood up and let the water swirl around her. She took a step and bent the water straight at the wall, taking out a large chunk of the stone down. She stepped back and took her place by Korra.
"I had two accomplishments as an Avatar," Atka said.
"And what are they?" Korra asked.
"I was the first Avatar to successfully master the Avatar state at will, and I was also the first bloodbender to learn how to remove someone's bending," Atka said.
"So… I don't know what this has to do with me," Korra said.
"Your path to three of the elements has been severed except when you are in the Avatar state. You must master the Avatar state if you wish to escape here," Atka said.
"And what about the other thing?" Korra said.
"I did not develop that technique for people to receive their bending back. You, however, are not an ordinary person. With time and effort, you may be able to recover your connections to other elements. All will be more obvious once you master the Avatar state."
"I don't know if you saw, but I don't really have time to just master the Avatar state and get myself out of here. The people are in trouble!"
"The first thing about mastering the Avatar state is having patience in adversity."
Korra stood up and screamed. She wanted to be out of there. She didn't know what had happened in the Oasis and what happened to Noatak, Unalaq, Chu, Iluq, and Ingyu. For all she knew, Hahn and Desna could have killed them. Her memories of what happened were fragmented. After unwittingly going into the Avatar state, Korra had been unconscious. All she knew was the prison she currently was in. Now she was there with a spirit and no actual idea of what was going on or how long she had been out.
"Am I seriously not going to be able to get out of here without the Avatar state?" Korra said.
"I was able to escape out of this prison with my ability to earthbend- as will you," Atka said.
"Why can't you just do it yourself? I saw you just demolish a chunk of that wall," Korra said.
"I am not physically here, and that wall is still the same. Now, sit and meditate with me."
Korra sat in front of Atka and huffed. Atka smiled and closed her eyes.
"There is a calm required when accessing the Avatar state. It is the kind of calm that reaches through the eras and beyond. It unites all of us as we are spiritually linked as Avatars," Atka said.
Korra shut her eyes and tried to clear her mind. Her mind was anything but clear. She thought about everything like where Noatak and her uncle were, where she was, and if her baby was safe.
"You will not be able to do much without letting things go. The spiritual realm that grants you access to all of the Avatars' powers is not one that can be connected to this world. Certain Avatars would disagree with me, but I have yet to see a more successful way to achieve this status," Atka said.
"You mean Aang," Korra said.
"He always misunderstood what detachment meant. For some reason, a lot of Avatars do. Detachment does not mean we completely lose ourselves. It is a means for expansion. The less we concentrate on our selfish devotions, the more we are opened to possibilities- to the infinite. Unlocking your chakras does this."
Korra knitted her brows and concentrated on her breathing. She thought of her time with Noatak in the bath with him holding her, and his voice calming her.
"If you cannot reach detachment, think of what the chakras represent. It is a wheel of endless energy. It is not unlike Tui and La. They represent opposites that necessitate the other in an endless cycle- like male and female, light and dark, the spiritual and the physical. When I discovered how to unlock my Avatar state, I found myself in deep concentration over the nature of Tui and La," Atka said.
Korra nodded and thought of the oasis where Tui and La swam. She shuddered and thought of how helpless she felt.
"You are not concentrating," Atka said.
Korra's back stiffened. She wondered how Atka could even tell that she was having a difficult time with her meditation. She tried to get her mind back to Noatak and what he told her- to draw breath from deep below. Korra began to breath deep. She drew long breaths that seemed to expand her whole entire body.
"In our bodies, chakras are pools of energy, and when they unlock, they give us access to the limitless. You will need to free yourself from fear, guilt, anxiety, rejection, stagnation and insecurity, lies, and disillusionment. You will then see how energy can flow more fully in you. As you can see, chakras and chi are related. The more your chakras are opened, the more chi flows in your body as well. Chi is the energy that most people derive their bending from," Atka said.
"How do I do this? I don't really get this," Korra said.
"Unlocking your chakras means balancing the things that hold us back. You have lost your bending, and this has troubled you. Has it not?"
Korra bit her lip in hesitation of answering this.
"…Yes," Korra said.
"Then understand that even without your bending, you are a powerful being. The fear you have is only an illusion. It will hold you back from your potential," Atka said.
"But… I just can't… You have to understand. The one who took my bending away… he…" Korra said.
"…He is someone you love. Yes?"
"Very much."
"I would tell you to consider the act and the person who committed this act separately, but it looks like you've already done this. Remember, the fear you have over having lost your bending is an illusion. It only serves to hold you back. You are true power. Expand your mind, and you will truly understand this."
Korra grimaced to herself and thought over Atka's words. All of the things she felt holding her back were not really things holding her back. In a way, Korra admitted that she had placed part of those barriers up herself. Others, she understood were people's misguided desires. Even still, she could not get past these things. How could she? She had been so depressed over more than a year about these things. Now someone was telling her that her fears didn't exist, but it still created hope. Korra saw the hope she had long lasted for. She successfully summoned a past life, and this past life was telling her that the possibility for her bending to return was there.
"Avatar Korra, are you ready for more?" Atka said.
"Yes. I understand now… If I let my fear go, I will be able to replace my fear with true power?" Korra said.
"Not true power- cosmic energy, but yes, you balance your fear with hope. Hope does not exist without fear, but fear can completely shadow hope if we allow it to. There is always a balance in things," Atka said.
"But what about all of the other things? You said I should abandon these things," Korra said.
"Abandon them, yes, but do no fail to recognize why the other exists."
"Okay… I think I get this… Let's get on with the next lesson."
"Very well then…"