Chapter Text
"You can't fight me and the poison."
Pain. That was all the young woman could feel as she lay slumped on a rocky plateau. It coursed through her muscles, penetrated her bones, and left her unable to move.
Yet the woman refused to give up. Her name, was Korra.
"The poison has done its work. Now, the Avatar Cycle will be over," a voice cut through the air. The bald man in grey robes hovered weightlessly in the air, untethered to the ground, like some sort of ghost or malicious spirit. His name, was Zaheer.
Everything screamed in Korra to keep fighting. To not give up. To use whatever energy was left inside and then some. But there was nothing left. Her eyes still glowed brilliant white as the power of a thousand past lives filled her spirit, but the poison inside was ravaging her body, and it took everything in her just to stay alive. There was nothing more she could do.
With another motion the man manifested a sphere around her head, drawing the very air out her lungs. It felt like she was choking on hot coals as she struggled against it. The voice inside telling her not to give up slowly faded into nothingness as did her consciousness. Despite all her fighting, all her perseverance, and all her struggle, she couldn't fight against him.
But it wasn't over.
A great whirlwind swept towards her from the valley. It was the combined effort from the airbenders below, who stood around the mighty tempest in their orange and yellow robes, feeding the whirlwind as it grew bigger and bigger. Eventually, it reached the woman stuck on the rock plateau. The air pockets trapping her dissipated, and her limp body started to be dragged away in the wind.
But Zaheer wasn't going to give up just yet. In a grey blur he swooped in and caught his enemy, trying to flee so he could finish ending her life another time. But he couldn't get away. As the airbenders fought to save their friend, the man fought to escape their vortex.
Eventually, he and the woman were dragged into the thick of it, spinning and flailing around as they headed towards the earth.
In a last-ditch effort Zaheer seized Korra's arm, holding on and pushing with everything he had to get away. But as he looked down, he saw her eyes light up once more. She had lost consciousness on the plateau, but now that her lungs were filled with air again and she had one more burst of energy left inside. Zaheer reluctantly let go, though as he flew upwards, something caught his ankle and yanked him down. It was the metal chain, used to keep his prisoner in place, and now the instrument of his demise.
With a powerful heave, Korra pulled herself and Zaheer towards the earth. She slammed into the rock, bringing her captor down with her. Despite all Zaheer's efforts to poison and kill her, she had still beaten him.
But it had come at a cost; The poison had seeped into every part of her body. With a cry escaping her lips, Korra fell to the ground.
Immediately the airbender leading her rescue ran over, placing a hand on her body and watching anxiously. Another joined Korra. She felt his familiar warm embrace, as he looked down with tear-filled eyes. "Korra, sweetheart. It's me, dad. Please hang on."
The words didn't sink in. Was she dying and passing into the afterlife? No, she could still feel the solid earth beneath her, so this meant her father was in fact alive. Her glowing eyes widened, and she reached up to touch his face, just to check it was really true. Though she couldn't hold out. Her head slumped, and her eyes closed slowly. And everything inside her gave out.
The next few seconds were a hazy blur, but when Korra finally came to, she felt something move through her body. She coughed up the metallic liquid, spluttering and nearly choking as a burning pain lined her throat. But once it was out, she could breathe again. Her body was in terrible pain, with numbness and tingling throughout her limbs and body, but she was no longer fighting against the poison. She watched Suyin draw the last of it out of her, and flung the poison away.
"Dad, you're alive," Korra formed a smile. Her body ached and stung, but she couldn't help feeling immense joy at seeing her father alive.
"I'm here for you," Tonraq reassured, pulling his daughter close. "And I'm never going to let you go."
It was finally over. The torture at the hands of Zaheer and the Red Lotus. The struggle against fighting the poison destroying her from the inside. The fear that she might be the last Avatar and the world would be thrown into chaos. She had fought with everything she had, and now, she could rest. Korra heaved a sigh and sunk into her father's arms.
The next week or so merged together in Korra's mind. It was filled with sleep, a lot of sleep, and visits from healers and loved ones. It had only been a week and Korra knew that it was unlikely she'd make a quick recovery, but still, there had been nothing the healers could do to get her walking again. Another week went by, bringing the same disappointments. She could see it in the faces of her healers, who wore solemn expressions as they told her the news that they didn't know what was wrong with her.
But it wasn't until the airbending ceremony where it hit home and finally became clear for Korra. Jinora, the new airbending master who had helped save Korra, stood alongside her father as he announced that the Air Nation would take up their nomadic lifestyle once more. They would be the protectors of the world, bringing balance and peace to the unstable Earth Kingdom. It was in that moment where it finally became clear to Korra; the world didn't need an Avatar anymore. It didn't need her anymore. And despite losing three of his comrades and being thrown in prison again, Zaheer and the Red Lotus had won.
~ ~ ~ ~
One would have thought that after such a selfless display of courage and sacrifice from a being with such power that the world would have changed and learnt from the Avatar's example. But alas, humanity did not. In the three years that followed they clung to their unjust ways, and the Avatar faded into distant memory.
Instead of giving the people freedom and life, the world leaders chose to support the pompous and self-centred Prince Wu as the next successor for the Earth Kingdom throne. Even after all my children sacrificed in overthrowing the previous earth monarch, it seems the common people will once again suffer under the powerful and elite.
But I write to you now, my children, to not lose hope. We must not forget why it is that we do what we do.
I have long foreseen a terrible future, a vision of a great calamity between humankind and spirit, that threatens the fabric of both the material world and the Spirit World. And this future will be brought about by the weakness and complacency of humankind. They worship those with power, forgetting that it was all of our ancestors who crawled out of the mud and found the strength to survive. And then there is the Avatar, the servant of Raava. The great spirit of order and peace belittled herself by bonding to a human form. This power was never meant to be wielded by a human, and up until the Avatar retired three years ago, the masses flocked to her because of this unworthy power.
Humanity cannot continue to worship these figureheads and do nothing for themselves. If we cannot prepare our strength and resolve for the destiny that lies ahead, we will all perish. Such a future is one that fills me with worry and dread.
But do not despair; for in this great calamity, there is chaos. And chaos, is the natural order of freedom.
--Grand Lotus