Chapter 97: Visions
Showering in her Zaofu apartment, Anah turned the water as hot as it could be, steam filling the bathroom, yet still felt tense enough to shatter like ice.
A loud clank outside the door made her jump. She quickly bent a towel around herself, and levitated a full body mirror, creeping to the door and *quietly* opening it.
The steam poured out of the bathroom like a low fog in the dark apartment. Heart pounding, she jumped out of the corner, into the kitchen, and found... Bolin in a tank top and shorts, stuffing is mouth, fridge open behind him.
"Whoa!" Bolin garbled, awkwardly swallowing a huge bite of leftover food. "Easy, Anah!"
Anah almost broke the mirror as she let it drop, holding her chest.
"Sorry, I was hungry... Are you alright?"
Her face broke, and she shook her head. Bolin wrapped his big arms around her, and she started crying into his chest. "I'm so scared, Bo."
"We'll be fine. You've got a resident ghostbuster, remember?"
"Not. Funny," she scowled, breaking free. "How can you joke about this?"
"Sorry! It's how I cope." Bolin meekly held her hand. "I'm scared too. Really scared. But we don't know it's... you know."
"What if it's him!" Anah cried. "You weren't there. I watched him hold down Korra like she was nothing! What are *we* supposed to do!?"
"I dunno. But I'm not leaving your side, no matter-"
They both flinched at a knock on the door. "Got it," Bolin quickly said, wiping his mouth, and jogging over to open it. "Mako? Kylie? What are y'all doing here so late?"
"I come bearing gifts," Kylie announced. Still wet from rain, she waved a doughnut-shaped metal disk around, barged right into their bedroom, and set it on the floor.
"Um... what is that?" Anah asked.
"A mine," Kylie casually replied.
"WHAT!?" Bolin and Anah exclaimed.
"Relax," Mako assured. "It only triggers with metalbending, and you'll be fine as long as you stay in bed... I think."
"You will," Kylie confirmed, slyly looking around the room, then leaning in to whisper. "Don't tell a soul, but it's a spirit vine arc caster, my own design. Trust me, anything in front of it will have one terrible day."
Bolin's jaw dropped. "You're serious?"
"Deadly," Mako agreed.
"Wow..." Anah nodded, and stepped closer. "Thank you, Kylie. I know we've had, um, issues in the past, but I appreciate this."
"Issues? I was an ass, that's the issue," Kylie corrected. "Apologies aren't my thing, but... Sorry, Anah. What do you say we leave all that garbage behind? For good?"
"I'd like that," Anah agreed, smiling for the first time that day.
xXx
Later, Mako walked in step with Kylie through the work-in-progress dome, textured metal still wet, with some construction going on through the night. "I don't like this," Mako muttered.
"Too bad."
"Being *bait* for whatever's taking people? What would your brother say?"
"Nothing, because you're not going to tell him, or anyone else."
"You aren't thinking clearly! Take a breath, Kylie, and think this through."
Kylie stopped, perfectly calm, inhaling deeply. "I am, Mako. Every step is planned out, my head is clear... mostly thanks to you." She turned to face him. "And you *know* these killings are tied to the craters."
"That doesn't make them your responsibility."
"No. But whatever's going on is mixed up with the bombs, and I can't sit on them anymore. Besides, if you had a better idea, you'd have said something by now."
Mako frowned in worry. "Fine. Just... be careful, alright?"
"I'll stay sharp. But just in case-" Kylie closed the distance and kissed him on the lips. "Thanks, Mako. I'll check in soon."
Kylie's hand lingered on a stunned Mako before she slipped away, following a deliberate route through narrow streets, unfinished buildings, and even an alley were someone disappeared.
She settled in a little nook overlooking the refugee camp and crater, lights from both flickering in the distance, and pulled out a book. Alone. Alert.
But she couldn't focus on the words. Kylie worried about Ren. Traveling with Korra, though... he'd find his way.
That reminded her how different their lives are. Last year, it was just Kylie and Ren. They resigned themselves to swallowing their past, barely even talking about it, and only in code when they do. Trusting anyone? Unthinkable.
Then some homeless girl barged into their life. Now they're surrounded by trust. And Kylie is NOT letting another ghost sneak up and ruin it, even if it kills her.
xXx
Korra found herself floating above dark clouds, cold wind gently blowing her bob. She squinted, trying to make out the blurry figures floating towards her.
"We need you, Aang."
"...Gyatso?" the Avatar asked.
The sky full of Air Nomads spoke in unison. "Why did you disappear?"
She blinked. Now the Avatar was in the Fire Nation Royal Palace, with everything in slow motion. Walls were busted and smoking, fires burning, wires sparking, and General Iroh was standing in front of his mother, Fire Lord Izumi, bending fire at a Red Lotus squad.
"Why did you abandon us, Avatar Korra?" Iroh asked.
"I'm sorry!" Korra yelled.
A combustion blast exploded in front of them. "We need you," Izumi called out as the explosion slowly engulfed them both.
"Noooo!"
Korra blinked again, finding herself standing on a battlefield with Ba Sing Se's outer wall looming in the distance, crops burning, and two armies clashing all around her. "Stop! Please!"
Her pleading was pointless. Soldiers slaughtered soldiers, the sounds of crashing elements, clanking metal, and the smell of blood thick in the air when a man in White Lotus robes walked up. Korra firebent at him, but her feet were stuck. Fire didn't come.
"You're still weak, Avatar," Xai Bau taunted.
She barred her teeth. "I'll kill you!"
His head unnaturally twisted, coming back around as Kuru. "Pussy."
It tilted up, and all the way around. "Tyrant," Zaheer's face accused. Like a living shadow, Father Glowworm's putrid tentacles slithered out of the ground, embraced Zaheer, and restrained Korra. "You are my prey, Raava."
"NO!" Korra screamed, struggling against the tentacles. She blinked again, and Zaheer morphed into Giam, neck mangled, levitating a spirit vine bomb in his hands. "DON'T!"
It exploded in slow motion, arcs crawling out of the disintegrating orb, turning her skin an eerie black... But in the corner of her eye, Korra spotted a dry, orange leaf hanging in the air.
Now she was in her cold room in the White Lotus compound, bruised, the tiny emergency radio flipped on. "*Since you went away, the days grow long*" Korra sang with it.
It faded to her old sewer grate, stroking Phoebe's hair, watching the sun set as the same song played. "*And soon I'll hear old winter's song.*"
Outside Zaofu's Palace Dome, in the sunny courtyard, Sara, Asami, Kylie and Korra all teared up as the song played, still mourning their friend. "*But I miss you most of all my darling.*"
...And back in the Earth Kingdom, singing with Ren under a tree, with Naga snoring beside them, leaves falling around them. "*When autumn leaves start to fall.*"
Another brief flash on the Tree of Time, the Banyan Grove Tree, and that pitch black outline of herself looking back, eyes white. Again? But when she opened her eyes, she was already sitting up in bed, staring into Ren's.
He brushed some hair aside, worried sick over her screaming in her sleep. "Korra, are you OK?"
Korra lurched forward and squeezed him tight, head over his shoulder. "Mhm," she barely hummed.
Squeezing tense muscles with his hands, Ren hugged her back, both their heart rates slowing as he rubbed her head. With how many nightmares they held each other through, it's almost automatic now.
Yet Ren's psyche was split. His own nightmares were fading. He missed his friends, helping Korra felt right. And he kept remembering that acorn.
Still...
"What are you smirking about?" Korra prodded after she pulled back.
"You know what today is?"
Her eyes opened wide. "We met on the beach..."
"Exactly one year ago."
She shook her head in disbelief. "It feels more like a decade."
"At least." Ren smiled. "Uh, thanks, Korra. For sticking with me this long, for... everything."
Korra just smiled back, and hugged him even tighter, nuzzling his neck.
xXx
Ren and Korra slipped into travel gear, and emerged into another crater town in the middle of the Foggy Swamp, one of a hundred that popped up. Workers and heavy equipment *filled* the single road, lined with freshly built factory complexes, warehouses, labs, air docks, restaurants, housing, schools and more. Some mimicked Ren's makeshift Spirit World equipment, all an odd sight in the misty swamp.
Korra stopped Ren in front of a spicy fried catgator stall. "Hungry?" he asked.
She bit her lip. "Actually... I radioed Sara and Asami yesterday. Being so close to Zaofu, we decided to meet up."
"...Oh."
"You don't have to go," she quickly added.
"No, um, I'll go," he hesitantly agreed. Rationally, he knew ignoring everyone this long is ridiculous, but he felt more fear than when he first saw Vaatu.
Ugh. He felt like a spirit floating outside his body, watching it get torn in half.
xXx
Nervous, Ren looked on as Asami and Sara stepped off the gangplank, and Korra ran up to hug them both. Asami was in her fitted Future Industries getup, with baggy pockets for tools, now fashionably trimmed with plenty of metal, and Sara wore a tight red robe resembling a Bhanti Sage, sleeves pulled up to show off her muscled arms. Those two are *vicious* when they're mad, hence Ren braced himself for a chewing out.
...Or worse, them walking away.
Instead, they beamed with happy surprise, and strode over. "Ren? You're here!" Sara exclaimed.
Asami and Sara excitedly hugged him, resting their heads on both his shoulders. "It's so good to see you again," Asami sighed.
Heart melting, Ren couldn't help but hug them back, and bury his face in their hair. "I missed you two."
Sara pulled away first. "I was worried! You've *never* shut Kylie and I out like this," she said in an uncharacteristically panicked tone.
"I'm sorry," Ren apologized, looking down. "I just... I dunno."
"You didn't want to drag us in? Again?" Asami guessed, crossing her arms. "Don't act like we don't know you, Ren."
"...Yeah."
"Come on!" Sara gestured to herself. "After this year, you really think we'd judge you? I'm so screwed up, I almost started a fire waking up!"
Asami had to laugh. "And I *actually* broke the bed frame having a nightmare." Korra nodded in sympathetic agreement.
Now he felt selfish. "Sorry."
"Urgh, That's not what I meant." Sara argued, putting hands on her hips in frustration. "The war wasn't your fault."
"Exactly. Ren you have *got* to stop bottling up so much," Asami pleaded. "No one wants you to pretend you're OK, or hide from us. We want to help."
"That's what I've been trying to tell you!" Korra interjected.
Ren's lower lip quivered, looking between them all. "Fine. You wanna know what I'm thinking? Why I almost didn't come? I don't wanna hurt you."
"You won't," Asami soothed.
"I will! I blew up my hometown, blew up Zaheer, poisoned Father Glowworm. Look what I did to the world," he gestured. "I threaten people, more and more. Can't you see? I'm... I'm losing it, just like Giam."
"What? *That's* what you're worried about?" Korra exclaimed.
Ren started crying. "Everything I touch turns to ash. I'm... I'm becoming him. And I *never* want to hurt you like he did."
"No." Asami grabbed his shoulder. "You're not hurting us."
"Why can't you see it?" Ren mumbled between sobs, before getting loose and pulling back. "I'm beyond fixing, and don't deserve it. Just... forget about me."
Sara forcefully pressed her forehead against his, holding his head so he was looking straight into her gray-yellow eyes. "Listen, Ren. You're not mad. You don't need fixing. And you're NOT Giam! When I look at you now, I see that same, gentle soul I met behind a dumpster, who had my back on the streets, who held me together when I fell apart, who stuck with us through all this chaos... My buddy." She teared up too. "You promised me we're in this together. Remember?"
At the street party, looking out on the beach. "I remember," Ren sobbed.
Sara cracked a weak smile. "And we survived a lot more than those brain-dead gangsters, huh?" She pulled him back into a hug. "So don't leave us yet, Ren. M'kay?"
Asami joined from the other side, Korra squeezed his arm, even Naga nuzzled him from behind. Closing his eyes, Ren felt overwhelmed.
He loves them. He trusts them, implicitly. Why shouldn't he believe them?
"...OK."
xXx
After composing themselves, Sara declared she needs some comfort food. Korra led them to the fried catgator stand, and bought a bucket, extra spicy with sticky sauce.
Asami popped a fried catgator bite into her mouth, spices tingling her tongue and nose. "This is amazing."
"No kidding," Sara contently agreed.
The Foggy Swamp Tribesman beamed proudly under his leaf hat. "You folks never had real corn batter, huh?"
"Not like this," Korra garbled, already buying another two buckets. It was better than Huu's. "...So you're really from the Foggy Swamp Tribe?"
"Sure am!"
"What are you doing here?" Sara asked.
"Feedin' hungry mouths, that's what... besides, our part of the Tribe got 'relocated' by them soldiers. So I'm makin' the best of it."
Korra winced. "You lived near the Banyan Grove Tree?"
"Sure did. What was all that fuss about anyway, Avatar?"
"The tree needs protection," which was the official line. It was really to quarantine the spirit vines, of course. "Sorry. Is there anything I can do?"
"Well..." he shifted, scratching his beard. "I'm alright, but can you do anythin' 'bout the missing folks around here?"
"...Missing folks?" Korra asked.
"I can't find my neighbor! And I heard someone else complainin' 'bout the same thing."
"Oh no. Here, too?" Asami worried.
"Wait, what do you mean, Asami?" Korra asked.
"Mako's been working missing person cases in Zaofu. There's no proof, but he... Thinks it could be a dark spirit-"
"WHAT!?" Korra shrieked. "Why didn't you tell me!?"
"Because we knew you'd barge in and scare whatever it is into hiding," Sara argued. "Tell me I'm wrong."
Korra pouted, grumbled and cursed under her breath as Sara reigned her in, but eventually accepted defeat. "Fine! I'll stay out of it. But if anything goes wrong-"
"We will *tell* you," Sara firmly stated. "Let's just settle down, and eat."
xXx
After lunch, Ren and Asami split from the group to check up on a Future Industries outpost. But Korra led Sara and Naga to some old, moss covered temple ruins she spotted earlier, sitting down to meditate into the Spirit World.
"What's up, Korra? Spirit trouble?"
"Yes... No. Ugh, it's better if I explain it when we get there."
Sara nodded, sitting down across from the Avatar and spawning a little flame in her hands. She focused on her element, felt her soul rise out of her body, and...
Korra didn't follow? The Avatar seemed anxious. Scared? "Korra?"
"I'm focusing!"
Sara opened an eye, and after a few stubborn seconds, Korra opened hers and dropped her head in shame. "Ugh, sorry. I've been trying and trying, but I haven't meditated into the Spirit World since the Night War. Some Avatar I am," she bitterly complained.
"No worries," Sara comforted, scooting over to hold Korra's hand. "I'll guide you, like before."
Sara did just that, focusing on Korra's bright soul and reaching out with her own when she hit the barrier between worlds. Before either of them knew it, Korra and Sara found themselves on a colorful, lush mountain, overlooking the Tree of time far in the distance, and Jinora's bright face there to greet them. "Korra! Sara!" she jumped into their arms.
"Oh, I missed you," Korra laughed.
"How's the old man holding up?" Sara playfully asked. "Still stressed, like always?"
Jinora groaned and rolled her eyes. "Like always."
"Is it the Red Lotus?" Korra worried.
"No, they've been great. Even Ming-Hua is *surprisingly* helpful. It's, well..."
"Catching up from everything else," Korra finished.
Jinora nodded. "Don't worry about that. What about you? Why did you bring us here?"
"Just wanted to meet, face to face. It's probably nothing, but... I've been having nightmares," Korra confessed. "Like vivid, twisted memories, from past lives too."
"I'm sorry, Korra." Jinora sympathized. "Hmm. Yangchen dealt with that all her life. Have you considered reaching out to her?"
"I already did!" Korra stared at the grass. "Raava says things are just out of balance, Yangchen says the dreams will get better as they settle, but I don't know..."
"Maybe she's right." Jinora held her hand. "In Yangchen's journals, her visions ebbed and flowed with her state of mind. You're human, just like she was, and you need time to heal, too. So take some... for me?"
"OK." Korra agreed, looking back up. "There's one more little thing. At the end of every nightmare, I see the Tree of Time, the Banyan-Grove Tree, back and forth... and then myself. Like a black silhouette in the Avatar State. You think it means anything?"
Jinora scratched her hair. "I'll ask the Air Acolytes. But I've never heard of a dream like that..."
xXx
Back in their bodies, Sara opened her eyes, face twisted in worry, just in time to see Korra open hers.
Jinora means well, Sara thought, but she doesn't really get how significant this is. Korra grew up fearing for her life, and when you *live* like that, you learn to squelch it real quick. Just like Sara did.
But Korra is the Avatar.
So for it to bubble to the surface like this? This feels like more than stress, and maybe she can coax whatever it is out.
"Wait," Sara pleaded, stopping her from sitting up. "I'm not Raava or anything, but I've been around enough to know dreams are kinda like thoughts you can't quite get out, a window into your subconscious."
"Yeah, well maybe Jinora's right," Korra sighed. "Maybe I just need to relax."
"She is right. You're human... but you aren't like us, Korra. You're nature's voice, its hand. Its *Avatar*. If it feels like something is up, I say you should listen."
"To what? A bad dream?"
"Or more. Lay down, lemme try something."
Having no reason to resist, Korra laid down on her back, and Sara spawned strange, ethereal looking flames in open palms, leaving long trails as she waved them up and down Korra's body. She felt a... pop, along her spine? Then another. "What are you doing? It feels great, but weird."
"I'm knocking your chakras loose, an old Bhanti firebending trick," Sara explained, pulling her up when she was done. "Whoa, easy."
Korra nearly lost her balance. "Everything's so *bright*."
"That means it worked." She patted Korra's back. "Good. You'll adjust."
xXx
Korra followed her friends around in a daze, cutting through the thick crowd. They seemed happy about the company thing, but... they were so *loud*. Korra and Ren both zoned out, watching people go about their business as Sara and Asami carried on.
The Avatar stopped dead, and Ren bumped into her, shaking him out of his own reverie. "Korra?" Ren followed her eyes into the crowd, and didn't see much. But Korra was staring into the white eyes of... her. That pitch black silhouette from her dreams.
It bolted, sprinting into the swamp.
"Hey! Get back here!" Korra yelled, pushing the crowd aside and chasing it into the mist.
Momentarily stunned, Ren, Asami and Sara sprinted to catch up, ducking under trees, leaping over roots and bending mud aside.
Asami and Ren, while fit, were no Sara or Korra, and fell behind first. As the sticky swamp thickened and darkened, they lost each other, and Sara lost Korra in a fog...
xXx
Asami's stride slowed through thicker and thicker mud. She kept having to swat away bugs, frogs, lizards, and who-knows-what. "Korra!? Where are you!?"
No response. "Urgh!" Now her boot was stuck. A puff of green smoke from a nearby stump made her cough and hack, and the other foot got stuck too. "Sara!? Ren!?"
Asami's vision went blurry, her head spinning from the noxious gas. "Help!" she panicked. The more she struggled, the deeper she sank into the muddy quicksand. "Somebody... please!"
No answer.
Fear gripped her heart, and puffs of gas made her hallucinate. She saw that Agni Kai gangster hold her family up, the Equalist Movement crumble, Future Industries decline, friends die, the world burn... A scared, helpless witness, struggling for air.
It's who she is, isn't it? And that's how she'll die.
But with the mud up to her chest, she remembered Kylie and Ren barging into her company, then her life. Korra changing *everything, and Sara sharing her soul, both so fierce and unafraid. Ryu, Zenjin, Tenzin, Jinora and so many more allies and friends *empowering* her...
Even granting her earthbending.
Asami focused through the mental fog, and managed to feel earth inside the muddy water. Twisting her body, waving her arms, she awkwardly bent herself out of the quicksand, and hardened it beneath her feet. Another puff of gas made her grit her teeth.
With a loud stomp of her boot into stone, and a thrust of two arms, Asami bent a line of lava front of her, burning noxious stumps and gas away. Then another, and another, until its glow lit the forest, and her vision cleared.
Asami Sato smirked, just a little, and took off.
xXx
"Ah!" Sara screamed in frustration, falling flat in the mud again. Every time she cut through vines with fire, they attacked back, grabbing her ankles or wrists. She fell into a mucky swamp, coughed green water up, and pulled a giant leech off her arm. "Korra!?"
She looked around, fog thickening. "Ren!? Asami!?"
Sara took some slow breaths to center herself, yet anxiety flooded her mind. "Korra!?" She thought she saw Korra in the fog, and sprinted towards her, but tripped over a stump, again. "Ugh, my head..."
Rattled, she shook it off, but could barely see her own two hands in the mist. Yet she saw a face, right in front of her. "...Mom? What are you doing here?"
The ghostly figure disappeared again. Sara kept running into them. Childhood friends, bookies and gangsters, her dad... was she going crazy? "Mushi! Stop! Don't leave!"
Lost, alone, dizzy and feverish, Sara eventually dropped to her knees, and started to cry like a kid. "Don't leave me."
"Breathe, Sara," Mushi's kind voice called out, half in her head, half a memory. "Focus on your inner fire." Doing as her master asked, Sara spawned a little flame in two hands. Shallow breaths became deeper ones. "What are you afraid of?"
"I'm not afraid," she resolutely lied.
The misty face laughed jubilantly. "Always so brave, aren't you? Don't let defiance cloud your mind, Sara," it soothed, a foggy hand holding her knee.
Sara's expression softened. "I'm... I'm afraid of being abandoned, Mushi. My own family, my Pro Bending team, everyone on the streets dropped me like a rock. Ren's already thinking about it. So who's next? Jinora? Korra? Asami?"
"Sara?" a cool voice called out. Sara thought it was another hallucination, but Asami's very real hand grabbed her shoulder. "Are you alright?"
She wiped her teary face, and stood up. "Fine."
Clearly not. What did the swamp do to her? "I'm not abandoning you, Sara. None of us would."
Sara felt as raw as ever. "Not yet. But you're *Asami Sato, and deep down, I'm a street urchin no one wants. I love you, but... I think we both know how this ends."
She had never seen Sara so vulnerable. Asami *refused* to let this stand, yet any response she formulated sounded so hollow, so inadequate... Calculated words aren't enough.
Be Korra. Be Sara. Be brave, and just do.
"What are you fishing out of your pocket?" Sara asked, confused.
"I've been thinking about bringing this up, but might as well skip the pretense," Asami nervously chuckled. Opening a little box, Sara nearly fell over when Asami pulled out a ring, woven with different colors of metals, studded with big, light orange gems the color of Sara's eyes. Asami made a mental note to thank Kylie for the help. "I wove the metal and carved the fire sapphires myself, because nothing else is good enough for you." She held Sara's hand. "You're the strongest, wisest, most beautiful and amazing partner I could ever ask for. I don't want to leave you. No, I want to spend the rest of my life with you, if you'll have me." Asami slipped the ring on Sara's finger. "So what do you say, Sara? Will you marry me?"
Sara stared at the ring, then Asami, eyes wide, mouth open. Asami flashed that perfect celebrity smile, and Sara's face lit up the swamp. "YES!" She leapt forward and kissed Asami harder than ever, almost lifting her off the ground with a hug, pulling her head close and crying from sheer joy. "Yes! Yes, I'll marry you, 'Sami!"
Sara peppered her cheek with more affectionate kisses. "Sorry about the timing," Asami laughed.
"Are you kidding!? You couldn't pick a more romantic spot," Sara teased back, gesturing to the stinking swamp. "I'm so excited!"
"I am too!"
Sara looked like she was going to take off. "We gotta find Korra and Ren. I can't wait to tell them!"
xXx
Through sheer luck, Ren made it farther into the swamp. Bioluminescent moss lit the trees above, little plant spirits darted around the darkness below, and Ren leaned against a trunk covered in glowing mushrooms to catch is breath, and assess the situation.
Turns out the mushrooms were spirits, too. "Hey, watch where you're leaning," one of them complained.
It squeaked as he stood straight. "Sorry."
Another hopped onto his shoulder, and took a long whiff. "You're smelly. Really smelly."
"Yeah, yeah, I know."
"Ren?" another plant spirit recognized, hopping up. "It's you! This is the human saved me from Harmonic Convergence!" It affectionately jumped onto his other shoulder. "The smell is his exposed soul from his back."
"Ohhh," the other spirits realized.
Was he hallucinating this, too? His life is so weird. "What's this fog? I swear, it's making me see things."
"The Foggy Swamp connects you to others you've touched," the leafy spirit explained.
"It's why we live here," a mushroom added.
"...I'm not sure I want that. Maybe the world would be better off if it forgot me."
"What? If that were true, you wouldn't see anything," a moss spirit pointed out.
"Besides, it's not your choice. Bonds are hard to break," another added.
The plant spirit, recalling how Ren gets, gently floated down to his back. "Don't fight the swamp, Ren. Let it help."
"I dunno."
"Relax..." Its leafy arms started to glow as they traced his scars. More of Ren's soul poured out, and the swirling mist started to take shapes of people.
...They were all from Bao Sui. His neighbors, his schoolmates. Mom and Dad. Mera and Goro.
"See?"
"You can see them too?" Ren asked.
"They're connected to you, no matter how far you run," the spirit replied. "Talk to them, Ren."
"...Hello?" He hesitantly stepped forward, and some figures tilted their heads.
They didn't say anything, but floated a little closer.
"I killed you all, and ran from that the rest of my life. All I did was try to forget..." He looked to his parents and friends, then averted his eyes, and confessed. "I love you. I miss you. I never stopped, no matter how much I tried, and I *still* don't know if that's right or wrong..." Ren looked back up. "What would you want? Should I disappear? Will I turn into Giam if I keep going?"
They stepped closer.
"Would you forgive me?" he whimpered.
Ren's parents grabbed his shoulders, beaming with so much pride. Goro clapped his hand, like he always used to. And Mera leaned in, with that mischievous smile barely visible in the fog, and kissed Ren on the lips. It felt so real, so warm, like they were all really there, and the onlooking spirits' coloration brightened as Ren's soul flowed out.
Sara spotted the glow from a distance, and came running up. "Ren!" she cheered, bounding through the fog and grabbing his sides. "Ren, guess what?! I'm getting married!"
"What!?"
Sara showed off the ring, too hyped to even keep her hand still. "Asami just asked!" She wrapped her friend in a death hug and hoisted him off the ground. "Oh, spirits, I'm so happy!"
Shocked, Ren embraced Sara back, and cried tears of joy, so, so happy for her, too. And he didn't feel guilty about it.
xXx
The swamp all but tried to swallow Korra, with vines and roots reaching for limbs, but she refused to lose sight of that *thing*.
Korra landed in a bog with a loud thump, cornering the inky ghost against a cliff. It turned to face her, chest rising and falling like it was panting.
"What are you?" Korra demanded, stance defensive.
Its eyes narrowed, angry, and dropped to a firebending stance itself.
"...You're just in my mind. You're not real."
It inhaled deeply, leaned back, fear gripping Korra as she saw what it was doing. A combustion blast erupted its forehead, and Korra threw out a wave of fire just in time to intercept it feet away, sending her skidding over mud and crashing into a fat trunk, knocking the wind out of her.
It wants to fight? Alright.
Korra popped up and returned the favor with a combustion bending blast of her own, but the apparition unnaturally lurched out of the way. It punched boulders of mud her way, and Korra deftly spun around them, kicking a lance of blue fire back. With a circular twist of its arms, the dark Korra dissipated the flames, then flipped forward, slicing wheels of wind at her.
Korra crouched to hop away, but vines shot up and wrapped around her ankles. "Hey!" she yelped as the wind throw her back again, sending her rolling along the ground, and coughing up swamp water as she jumped up.
Eyes still an that eerie white, the specter stood low and stretched its arms wide, collapsing the entire cliff face and hurling the rubble her way. Korra's eyes momentarily flashed with Vaatu's power, and she spun around flung the mass right back, burying it.
Korra breathed heavily, tense and sweaty as she approached the rubble. She didn't even bother talking to Raava or Vaatu; Neither knew what this thing is.
That disturbed her. Deeply.
Korra nearly jumped out of her skin when it blew the enormous pile of rubble apart, the apparition's eyes glowing bright with rage. It screamed in Korra's voice, breathing blue fire like a dragon, and the Avatar raised her arms block it, hair and arms getting singed by the intense flames.
No more playing nice, Korra thought. Time to end this.
Bending up air and rubble as a distraction, Korra's eyes flashed again, and she moved her arms back and forth, precisely and methodically, building up enough charge to cripple any spirit she knew. A bolt of lightning shot out of her fingers...
To her horror, the dark Avatar caught it with two fingers, shadows of hair whipping around her face, and sent it right back.
The Avatar barely channeled the lighting around her body, falling back into mud and spasming. "Aaah! HELP!" Korra screamed. Vines wrapped around her limbs, her mouth, her torso.
Then she heard a bark.
"Naga!" Korra yelled in relief. The polar bear pounced on top of her, bit clean through vines and tore them away. She helped pull a shaky Korra up with her head.
Naga looked right at the apparition.
"You can see it, too?" Korra asked.
Her animal friend barked, tilting her head in confusion.
"Behind me, girl," Korra ordered, but oddly, Naga disobeyed. "Wait, stop! It's dangerous!"
Her spirit animal sniffed the air, and slowly stepped forward. For in the apparition's eyes, Naga saw what she saw in Korra's in the White Lotus compound, a mask of anger, of fierce determination, and sensed what she always hid behind it.
Fear.
And despair.
The dark Avatar didn't react at first, but Naga whined sadly, nudging it with her nose. Its face broke, throwing its arms around Naga's neck, closing its eyes and rubbing Naga's fur for comfort.
Korra blinked, dropping her bending stance. "You're not a spirit, are you?"
The apparition stared back at Korra, refusing to let go of Naga.
"I'm not going to hurt you," Korra assured.
It seemed to relax a little more. Naga helped the shadow stand, lifting her by an arm, curling its body around it to make it feel safe.
Standing closer, Korra recognized the outline of a filthy bob, a sullen expression, even the exact ratty clothes she used to wear. It was her, homeless in Republic City, before she met Phoebe. Deeply ashamed, so frustrated, and all alone.
This is Korra, when she was talking herself into suicide.
"Don't be scared," Korra sobbed. "Oh, I remember how much it hurts, like there's a knife in your chest."
The reflection cried back, white tears streaming down its pitch black face.
Korra tentatively reached forward and held its hands, vines sprouting up to meet hers. "I know. You can't forget. You think you'll always be one step from the edge, but we are *not* that person anymore." She pulled it closer. "We aren't alone."
"Korra!?" Ren's voice called out. Her three friends trotted out of thick jungle to find Korra standing alone, eyes wide, tears pouring down her face. "Are you hurt?"
Korra's expression just broke, and she started crying.
"Oh, Korra," Asami soothed, the three of them wasting no time wrapping her in a tight hug. "It's alright."
"We've got you," Sara promised.
"Always," Ren agreed, rubbing her back.
Korra hugged them back, bawling tears of anguish, terror, relief, love... everything. Naga nuzzled her from behind, and her spirits and past lives warmed her soul.
xXx
The emotional whiplash was real.
When everyone recovered, Sara slyly showed off the ring, and Korra's eyes nearly popped out of her head. "No. Way. You didn't."
"I did," Asami smiled.
"Aaaaah!" Korra hoisted them *both* up in a giant bear hug, so excited she could barely contain herself. She talked at the speed of light, rambling on about a wedding, the ring, and how utterly how incredible it is. "I'm gonna be a bridesmaid! Oh, I can't wait!"
...But soon, emotional whiplash hit again.
Ren nearly had a heart attack when loud thunder echoed though the canopy. He looked up through a clearing, and saw the Banyan Grove Tree looming in the distance. Another arc of purple lightning ran along its branches and bark, then another crack roared past.
"Whoa," Sara breathed. "Is that what the swamp showed you?"
The Avatar nodded seriously. "The Foggy Swamp is hurting. It's what that thing was trying to show me."
Or so she thought.
"It makes sense," Ren dismally agreed. "The vines are like conductors, and the tree, a ground to the Spirit World. All that energy flowed through here..."
Asami pouted curiously, noting their heading. "But you aren't taking us to the tree, are you, Korra?"
"No."
"Uh, then where are we going?" Sara asked.
Korra sighed gravely. "You'll see. Come on, we better hurry."
xXx
Korra led them into thickest, darkest part of the swamp, where the canopy towered out of sight and roots and vines hung down like a jungle. Naga growled at creatures watching them from the shadows. She didn't like this place, and normally, the swamp didn't let anyone in this far, not even the local tribes.
They stopped at a huge clearing, where a shaft of light shone onto a lake, half nestled in a cave. In the center, partially lit, sat what looked like a round mountain, covered in moss, a few spirits circling around it.
Moving closer, Korra's friends realized the mountain was slowly rising and falling, as if taking labored breaths. The Avatar felt her spirits stir, and something massive rose out of the lake, with a swirling sigil carved into it. A head...
A water Lion Turtle.
But as their eyes adjusted, they realized its titanic body was covered in lighting scars, eyes weak, expression pained, unable to even stand. Another arc from the vines it was entangled in shot across its body, making the water shake and wave with its groan.
"It's dying," Sara sadly observed. This was heavy, even for her.
Korra waded into the water, her face just as grave as the turtle's, voice already echoing with Raava's. "Ancient One."
"Avatar," it slowly rasped back, blood seeping from its mouth. "I have seen your lives, through roots and vines."
"I wish I could have seen yours sooner," the Avatar respectfully replied.
"Closer," it requested, waiting for her to wade in. "In past ages, we protected nature from what would consume it, but-" the turtle coughed up blood, shaking the trees.
"You mean humans?" Korra guessed. "I'll protect nature from people. I swear it."
"No. Not from man." It wheezed heavily, consciousness fading. It needed to warn the Avatar, the other turtles... but there was no time. Weakly raising a leg, its claw touched her forehead and chest, bending the Avatar's energy with its last vestige of strength. "Since beginningless time, darkness thrives in the void, but always yields to purifying light."
Even Raava was confused by the enigma. That's exactly what the fire turtle told Aang in his lifetime. Was it not speaking of Ozai? Of energybending?
"The power of water is yours to keep, Avatar Korra. Heal this world. Guard it... From..." Its head collapsed into the water, sending a huge wave crashing over her. But it didn't knock Korra over.
She could feel water again.
Few Avatars tie their being to the elements as much as Korra. Earth was her foundation, her endurance. Fire, her power and will. Air is freedom, inner peace. But water? It's what she bent before she could even speak, what hurt the most when Xai Bau stripped it away. It's back.
And she knew what to do.
Flooded with sympathy for the fading Lion Turtle, and Korra's *refusal* to just watch it die, Raava and Vaatu found themselves in rare agreement. *Their* Avatar's eyes flashed bright gold, and she moved her arms in smooth, flowing circles, raising water out of the lake into a giant ball. Pressing it against the Lion Turtle, pulling her arms back, then pushing them forward, Korra poured her soul into it, turning the water the same shade of gold.
It's healing glow travelled across the Lion Turtle's vast body, sealing festering wounds, healing cracked flesh and peeled skin, pulling vines away. As she circled it, remembering Katara's lessons and channeling millennia of wisdom, the turtle's expression turned from a painful wince to an exhausted, relieved one, eyes struggling to stay open.
Korra rubbed its nose. "Rest, Ancient One," she cooed, voice in sync with both spirits. "We'll watch over you."
Drained, the Lion Turtle could only succumb to sleep. Sara and Asami were in awe.
But Ren?
He was in tears. An acorn dropped out of his hand and into the mud.
"Are you OK?" Asami asked.
"I am. I... I think I finally am," he sniffled.
Asami glanced to the side, and saw a look on Ren she never had. Not his shy smile, not a smirk or laugh, but a wide, toothy, serene grin and bright eyes.