Winding Legacies: A 'The Legend of Korra' Rewrite

Episode 13: Darkness Falls Part 2

Korra coughed out the dust clouding in her lungs as Unalaq pinched something down in the depths of her being. She wriggled about, her eyes flaring white as her Avatar state raged for power. Then, she sucked in a large breath and let a steamy, loud fire rumble out of her. She burnt the tendrils strapped out her sides and they withered back into Unalaq as his projection kneeled to the ground.

She made a run for the tree and jumped up, preparing to slam her fist into the tree's roots and shake Unalaq out of whatever meditative trance he was in. But the tree stopped her, its roots flying up to yank Korra to the ground and hold her down beneath the tree.

Korra struggled to pull herself up, but the tree seemed to take her energy, and slowly the white glow in her eyes flickered and the Avatar state fell away. As Korra felt her power slipping into the tree's roots, most likely to recharge Unalaq's body from the damages he sustained from Korra, Unalaq's projected form stomped over to her.

"It is time for me to lead the world as the new Avatar!" Unalaq did not hesitate to drop his entire hand into Korra's chest, a scream erupting from her mouth as he squeezed the spirits within her with a forceful grip. Korra felt them shake in horror as Unalaq began to push them past the edges of Korra's soul and out into the world beyond.

Needing only a brief glance at them to differentiate the spirits, Unalaq let go of the both of them and only held his grip on Vaatu, leaving Raava to fling back into the depths of Korra's spirit and stretch the tether that held them together. Korra shouted out in pain as Vaatu escaped from her chest in Unalaq's hands, his tendrils snapping by the second as Unalaq distanced the spirits even more. Her eyes caved into desperate horror as the last tendril held on for dear life and then...snapped.

Korra tried to grip onto the earth beneath her hands, fling a rock at Unalaq, get him to drop Vaatu, anything, but she couldn't even muster the shift of a pebble. And it wasn't just the tree sucking her energy that did that. It was the destruction of the tether between her Avatar spirits.

Korra could do nothing as the projection of Unalaq stepped back over the tree, gently shrinking back down into Unalaq's body. An orange light flushed over the tree and a rumble shook the ground. It freed Korra from the vines gripping her wrists and she crawled away from the tree's base, trying each of her powers, hoping for something, anything, to stop whatever would come out of that tree once the light subsided.

Korra managed to push herself up with a weak gust of wind and only a few droplets of water fell from her pouch when she tried to reach for it. With half of her spirits gone, she only had half of her bending and only half of her energy at that. But she wouldn't give up. Not until she took her last breath.

So when the tree stopped glowing, when the orange light was replaced by Unalaq's human body stepping out of the tree, his eyes glowing the same red of Vaatu's accents, Korra was ready. And she ran at him with all of her might.

But all her might wasn't enough for the spiritual boost the tree gave Unalaq. And just as she landed a soft punch on his shoulder, he pushed them both right out of the Spirit World and through the Northern Portal on the other side of the tree.

Back in the real world, Korra could hardly think straight as frigid air rushed by her. Unalaq rammed her, high-speed, through the air right back to the South Pole, going the extra mile just to circumvent Korra's friends who waited on the Spirit World side of the Southern Portal.

Once Korra and Unalaq had escaped the Spirit World, the spirits had dissipated on their own. The five of them all looked around at each other before their eyes widened and they realized what it could mean. Spinning around, all of them flocked to get a good vantage point of the tree, to maybe see if their worst fears were true. But no bodies lied in or out of the trees. But that also meant no trace of Korra or Unalaq lied there either.