Winding Legacies: A 'The Legend of Korra' Rewrite

Episode 2: Korra Alone Part 2

When she returned to the Spirit World, Ashi was waiting for her, curled up just as it was the day Korra first found it. It was so long ago and yet Korra still remembered it like it was the day before. Sometimes, she felt like nothing had changed until she remembered every single way in which it had. "Ready to go, Ashi?" The dragon-bird perked up but seemed hesitant as it noticed the dark circles lining Korra's eyes. The spirit said nothing, though, and let Korra climb onto its mane and take off into the skies.

For more weeks it was the same old, same old. Korra would find a rift, repair it, and then go off to find another. The only thing that was ever different was how dark the Spirit World had started to feel as dark clouds lingered almost everywhere they stopped. It was wildly annoying to try and sleep through claps of lightning, so much so that Korra had relented to staying up and seeing if somehow she could use her mind to get the clouds to shut up.

Ashi slept quietly beside her and Korra thought for a moment that she had actually done it before a distant strike broke against her ears. Groaning loudly, Korra stamped her foot into the ground, and, just like the other times, nothing happened. Not even a pebble shaking out of pity. It had been months and the little bending she had before was almost completely gone, she was no more spiritual than she had left, and she still had no connection with her inner self to show for it.

All in all, she felt like a complete and utter failure.

The trees rustled in every direction. She would have thought it was the wind except for the fact that there was hardly ever a breeze in the Spirit World. Rising to her feet, Korra whipped her head around the small clearing, tugging up the edges of her gloves to her forearm. It would most definitely hurt, but she raised her fists, ready for the first strike.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Korra braced herself as the ground fissured down the center of the clearing. She had only one moment to fling herself back a safe distance before the ground crumbled beneath where she had once stood. The words clawed out of her throat as she screamed for Ashi, but the spirit had already been swallowed by the ground and stolen from her view.

Her breathing began to shallow as noises swept past her ears and lodged into every single one of her senses. Suddenly, a wave of darkness poured out from the woods and Korra scrambled to her feet and began to run in the opposite direction. Spirits zipped from every direction trying to trip her and knock her off her feet. She managed to dodge most except for the brunt impact of a boar slamming into her side.

Korra's body ran cold as her fingers clung tightly to the thick roots of the only twisting tree on the gaping ledge. Beneath her, tunnels of roots extended out into a deep crater that would no doubt hurt to fall into, and a bright, glowing light called out to her from the fissures of the root system. Despite the thrums of pain nipping at her wrists, she dug her right hand deeper into the ground so she could pull herself up. Her left hand jerked back as something large slithered underneath her fingers and she screamed as the small head of a lizard-like spirit burst open like a spout and a myriad of biting heads jumped at her face.

Within seconds, she had lost her footing on the ridge and began tumbling down to the roots, her arms instinctively reaching out for help even though she knew no one was coming.

"Come back when you're finally the Avatar again."

Korra recoiled as she plummeted into a wet, sloshy substance. She tried to push herself to her feet, but everything ached. She managed to grab hold of something sturdy, using the cold metal to hoist herself up. When she regained her bearings, nothing was familiar.

Tall chained fences rose into the sky and blocked her view from whatever was beyond. She spun around to search for the breach so that she could get back and finish what she started but all she could see was a shattered wall the remnants of broken glass following her to where she stood. She flinched as an alarm began to blare and she stumbled toward the only thing that looked like a way out.