Chapter Text
For a place Korra was so keen to have her see, it looked slightly menacing. There was a purple glow around the sky as if it was in a perpetual state of twilight and the beams of the spirit portals seemed to stretch on forever. There were cracks in the ground and huge boulders overturned everywhere you looked. It looked like a battlefield.
“So this is where you fought with Unalaq?” Asami asked, taking in the jagged peaks and gnarled trees.
“Yeah, that’s where he ripped Raava out of me and severed my connections with my past lives.” Korra pointed to a snow covered boulder and then to the Southern Portal. “And that’s where he fused with Vaatu.”
“Does it make you uncomfortable to be here?” Asami asked, studying Korra for any signs of distress.
Korra shook her head. “No, I’ve pretty much accepted what happened here. I even came back here when I was, uh… Well, you know.”
Asami cocked an eyebrow at Korra’s hesitation. “You don’t have to dance around the topic. I know why you left and you don’t have to explain anything to me. We’re starting fresh, remember?” Asami told her, grabbing her hand and threading their fingers. “But I would like to hear anything you’d like to tell me about it. When you’re ready.”
“I want to tell you about it. It’s just hard.” Korra sighed, staring momentarily at their hands.
“There’s no rush.” Asami assured her and Korra smiled in response.
Korra thought about that. Those three years were still hard for her to talk about but there was a part of her that was ready to start letting someone in. “I came back here to try and reconnect with Raava. It didn’t work at the time but I ended up meeting a young spirit here. He wanted to help and, even though I turned him down at the time, he was the one that guided me to the swamp. As you know, that’s where I met Toph and that’s where the Airbender kids found me.”
Asami nodded. “One of these days you’re going to have to tell me everything that happened with Toph.”
“It was crazy; I’ll definitely give you that.” Korra laughed, leading Asami over to the base of a large tree. “I can’t imagine what she must have been like when she was young. I don’t think I can picture her like Su but I can’t see her acting like Lin, either.”
Asami laughed. “The way Bolin tells it, she was a bit of a hell raiser.”
“She still is!” Korra shouted, jumping up and swinging from one of the tree roots that were suspended in the air. “She was tossing me around that swamp like a rag doll and she’s ancient!”
“So this is the Tree of Time?” Asami asked, climbing over the first root.
“Yup. During Harmonic Convergence, I saw visions of my past within the tree.” Korra shrugged. “When I came back to try and reach Raava, I was so blocked that I didn’t see anything. I’m hoping this time will be different.”
A spot of cold hitting her cheek let Asami know that something was off. Looking up, she noticed that there were a few severe looking storm clouds rolling in and there was the distant pitter-patter that was getting closer.
“Is that… rain?” Asami asked, holding her hand out and feeling a drop of water hit her palm.
“What?” Korra asked distractedly until a drop of water hit her too. “I didn’t know it rained in the spirit world!”
“You didn’t?” Asami blinked, confused.
“I haven’t spent a ton of time here.” Korra reminded her, pointing to the opening in the large tree. “Come on in here, we can at least wait out the rain.”
They climbed over the huge roots of the tree, Korra letting the water pelt them so that she could help Asami up to the platform within the tree. The inside was cavernous, twisting around to give the tree high walls and a ceiling that created a wide, protected, room for them to sit.
“Did you get wet?” Korra asked, helping Asami into the tree.
“Not even. But is that… lightning?” Asami gasped, watching the clouds darken and rumble. She leaned over the ledge of the tree, gazing out towards the flashing sky. A tendril of lightning hit a nearby tree, lighting it on fire and causing both girls to jump back. “That’s not something I expected to see here.”
“Asami, look out!” Korra shouted, rushing forward and placing herself directly in the path of the lightning. Korra’s eyes flashed white as she caught the lightning with one hand, pulling it into herself.
Asami watched as the lightning circled around Korra’s shoulders, the bender’s face skewed in concentration, as she redirected the lightning away from Asami and towards the back of the tree. Panic flared as Korra fell forward, body limp and her eyes returning to their normal blue. Asami rushed over to Korra, rolling her over awkwardly since she was still wearing her pack, and noted how Korra smelt slightly singed.
“Are you ok?” Asami asked, cradling her head.
“That’s the first time I’ve redirected lightning.” Korra mumbled, sounding disoriented. “It was harder than I thought.”
“Mako would be proud.” Asami chuckled, getting a weak smile in return.
“Do you hear a weird ringing?” Korra asked, her brow knit in confusion.
At first, Asami assumed that it was just a side effect of the lightning but, as she focused, she became aware of an ethereal ringing and flashing lights behind her. Looking over her shoulder, Asami saw pictures projected against the wall of the tree as if she was watching one of Varrick’s movers.
“What in the world?” Asami gasped, unable to take her eyes off of the people in the pictures. This must have been what Korra had been talking about earlier. “Is the tree supposed to be doing that?”
“Yeah, but… are they moving backwards?” Korra asked, following Asami’s gaze.
The pictures were, indeed, moving in reverse. The figures moving almost too fast to make out anything distinguishable until they stopped on a picture of a little boy with blue arrows tattooed all over his body. Behind him were several other kids but they were distorted.
“Avatar Aang?” Korra gasped, not sure what she was seeing.
“Is it getting warm in here?” Asami asked, feeling the ground around her heating up.
All around them the tree was beginning to glow and heat up until it was searing through their clothes. Electricity continued to hum in the air and Asami felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up.
“What’s going on?” Korra wondered, struggling to sit up.
“I don’t know but we should get out of here.” Asami suggested, jumping to her feet.
“Asami, my legs still feel like jelly.” Korra said, rubbing her thighs. “It’s gotta be the lightning.”
“Ok, come on!” Asami leaned down, wrapped her arms around Korra’s waist and heaved upwards.
Korra was a lot heavier than Asami remembered, causing them both to stagger until Korra was able to regain her footing. Asami chalked it up to Korra’s restored muscles, the girl had lost a ton of weight after the fight with Zaheer, and was thankful that she had kept up her own training regime during their three years apart.
Finally on her feet, Korra grabbed Asami’s hand and tried to lead them out of the tree but they were cut off by an influx of wind that seemed to be pouring in from the storm outside. It pulled at their hair and clothes, keeping them inside the tree of time. Korra tried to use airbending to shift the raging wind away but it was quickly becoming a vortex.
“Hang on to me! I’m going to try and airbend us out of here!” Korra shouted, her voice barely audible over the roaring wind.
Asami gripped Korra’s waist as the bender tried to lift them out of storm but the wind around them was too powerful and they found themselves thrown back to the ground. Unable to move more than a few steps one way or the other, Asami felt Korra wrap her arms around her waist, shielding each other as the wind whipped around them and her vision faded to black.