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Chapter Text

When the avatar emerges from the bushes elation surges through you. You see the way her eyes widen at the sight of the massive canon that - in all honesty by complete and utter chance - had landed not so far away from the upper half of the Colossus and you revel in the victory. For a moment you forget the crippling pain in your ribs, the way your legs feel unsteady from the platinum giant's fall. Your hands do not shake and your voice is steady. 

"Now it's over." You say it with the collectedness that can only stem from complete and utter confidence and when the avatar yells for you to stop you clench your jaw. Fools. Why can't they see that what you're doing is necessary? Are they truly that blind? It frustrates you, angers you even. All these years the Earth Kingdom had been falling apart. No-one with the power to make a difference had spared it so much as a glance and now that progress was finally being made they even stood in its way. 

And so you push the handle forward, unleashing the power of the spirit vines on the avatar. There is a small part in you that can appreciate the irony of blasting the most spiritual person on the world to smithereens with the power of the spirits themselves. She manages to evade the blast, however, and the beam burrows itself into the ground. The devastation it causes makes you pause. You hadn't seen it up this close before and the devastation it causes is overwhelming, the platinum under your right foot and hand trembling under the strain. It is a delight to experience until you notice that the spirit vines holding the cannon up are reacting to the energy, destabilising it and there is nothing you can do but hang on and watch as the beam sheers through even more of the already heavily damaged Republic City. From the ground, the avatar again pleads with you to stop, to shut it down. Seeing the damage it is doing in its unstable state, you concur - and stumble when the cannon does not respond. 

It is only then that fear truly strikes you. This is very, very bad. Power like this is a tool to be used, something to be controlled. This cannon is officially out of your control, making it the greatest threat you have ever faced. Looking down in horror you yell, "I can't!" and immediately afterward a particularly powerful jerk from the vines shakes you loose from the cannon, and you are flung onto the ground with tremendous force. It knocks the air out of your lungs and you are sure ribs that might have been simply been sore are now cracked. You grunt, your face contorting in pain, but there is no time to be laying around. You need to get up. Functioning on adrenaline more than anything you prop yourself up and are met by the sight of the cannon swaying directly toward you.

Every muscle in your body grows taut and you freeze. Your mind short-circuits and all you can think is how this is slightly poetic. Spirit energy and you honestly do not get along. Not that you can blame it after all you did to the swamp. Strangely, aside from the survival instinct kicking in the sight of that beam of pure destruction growing closer actually makes you feel at peace. A fitting end.

But then there's movement from your right and your breathing stops entirely as you watch how avatar Korra skids to a stop in front of you, plants herself firmly on the ground and summons the avatar state with an actually tangible surge of power, arms extending forward as if she intends to physically stop the beam. The outrageousness of the action shocks you back to regaining control of your limbs and you sit up straighter, wanting to reach out and yank her out of the way. The impact is imminent, you are not mobile enough to make it out and even though you're not an expert on avatar business you're pretty sure that there are much better things to do with the avatar state than getting yourself killed in it, but you're not quick enough and you can feel the ground shake as the beam approaches, the pink glow blinding and then a shockwave as you have never experienced before hits.

Your mouth drops open as you gaze upon the avatar's silhouette bending this unstoppable force as it splits into a thousand shards, striking all around you. In your chest, there is a painful void. This helplessness is something you had hoped never to experience again. You had grown strong to make it so, climbed your way up the ranks into Suyin's guard, you were the bloody prodigy, respected throughout Zaofu and later on the entire Earth Empire and yet you are nothing when faced with forces such as these. Such as the avatar. On the ground, you fingers dig into the dirt. All that work, all that dedication, and still you are not in control, still you are helpless. And yet, in the few seconds that this silhouette is the only thing you can see, there is a warmth you had not expected. 

Never before has someone risked their life to save yours. You had always been the saviour, the one with the power, the one in control and when you weren't at least you made sure nobody suspected it. The sight of this girl so selflessly throwing herself in front of a weapon of mass destruction in order to save her enemy seems to you something straight out of a fairy tale. An impossibility. And yet here she is, doing exactly that. 

As the light intensifies a sphere grows and envelops the two of you, breaking up the ground as it grows in diameter, keeping you as its centre. Underneath your fingertips, the ground crumbles and you pull your hand in close as you feel a sense of weightlessness come over you despite the pressure that weighs down on you from every direction. It feels as if there is a hurricane trying to blow through you and you gasp for breath as you clutch at your ribs. All around you there is pure white, save for the vague shape of the avatar. Unlike you, tense and pulled into yourself under this downright frightening amount of force surging through your veins, the avatar appears unfazed by the whole ordeal. Her back is straight, shoulders square, hands still raised. It is the last thing you see before you succumb to the blissful nothing of unconsciousness. 

It's warm and soft. The air smells sweet and for the first time in a long time you feel secure. Through your glove you can feel … plants, flowers. As you open your eyes, a field of bright pinks, purples and greens come into focus. All around you are flowers you have never before seen in your life, otherworldly and strange, but beautiful nonetheless. You blink once, lazily, not quite believing what you are seeing and as you do so, you become aware of another person. Another person holding you. The avatar holding you.

Your eyes widen and you panic, pushing the girl away in hurried motions and stumbling away. You're not sure why you do it. The only motivation you can find within yourself had been that initial moment of panic. It hadn't felt right. The tired gentleness on the girl's face had been out of place. You are the Great Uniter, she is the avatar, not a minute ago you had been fighting. This girl has no business showing you kindness. You don't understand it, you don't want it, you don't need it. You need to not need it.

As you shamble to a halt amidst the flowers a beam of light catches your attention, sparking the memory of the cannon, the blast, the all enveloping pressure and a frightening thought hits you. Unsure of yourself, you turn around to face the avatar, who is still pushed back in the flowerbed. 

"What happened," you rasp, "Are we-" you hesitate before finishing the question you're afraid to have answered, "Dead?"

The avatar slowly rises to her feet and straightens up, levelling you with a stern gaze. It's a sobering sight and as you lock eyes your hand moves to your ribs in acknowledgement of the pain that has by now returned. At least this a reaction you had been expecting. You know how to deal with sternness. 

"No," she says, "We're okay. But we're in the spirit world. All the energy from your weapon tore open a new portal and blasted us in here." This answers many of the questions that had been swirling through your mind, but as you look at her they all become trivial compared to the one that has been at the front of your mind ever since the avatar jumped in between you that cannon. The memory almost physically hurts. Pained and ashamed you lower your gaze.

"Why would you save my life," the question comes out stressing almost every word and you look at her from the corner of your eye, "After everything I did to you?" It is still ridiculous to you, you simply cannot wrap your head around it. This time it is her turn to look away, though it is clearly not out of shame.

"I guess," she ponders, "I see a lot of myself in you." This may well be the very last answer you had been expected and after a moment of stunned silence emotion flares in your chest. "We are nothing alike," you say bitterly. How dare she speak as if she knows the first thing about you. She has no idea what you have been through. You voice none of this however, and the avatar is not fazed by you.

"Yes we are. We're both fierce and determined to succeed." A slight hesitation. "Sometimes without thinking things through." It's a blatant stab at your methods, but she forgets that it was her interference that required you to take such drastic measures. Indignantly, you wrap your arms around yourself. "This wasn't how I wanted things to end." You drop down onto your knees, arms still hugging your painful ribs in a show of discontent. You look like a child being stubborn simply for the sake of it but right now you couldn't care less what you look like. "If you had all just surrendered, none of this would have happened." It is part an accusation and a plea for understanding. You do not dwell on why it is also the latter.

Your words and actions appear to agitate the avatar, because she frowns and steps toward you. "Well, what did you expect? Messing with the spirit vines, acting like dictator over your people, you had to know that what you were doing wasn't right." 

The nerve of this girl. So arrogant. "I was trying to help my people!" You are no longer afraid to look at her. The attitude she has toward you without knowing the facts sets you off and you glare at her, disbelieving, accusatory. "Su turned her back on the Earth Kingdom, you were gone, I had to do something!" 

Something in the avatar's eyes shifts and you see her take in a breath. Suddenly, she looks exhausted. "I think I get it now," she says and her voice is gentle. The sound of it tugs at your heart and your face contorts as you look away from her once more, but this time it is in anger and you speak with a defeated finality. "You don't understand anything about me." 

"I do," the avatar says and you almost scoff at her words, "Su told me how she took you in when you were younger. It must have been so hard being an orphan." 

The mention of Su's name ticks a crack into your collected facade and when she implies to know your hardship, you snap. "Don't pretend you know what it felt like!" You whip back to face her, your arm swinging to wave off her preposterous assumption. She doesn't even flinch and the pain causes you to hunch over and clutch your hand to your chest protectively. "The avatar is adored by millions, I was cast aside by my own parents like I meant nothing to them." 

Your voice, intended to be harsh, fails you. Instead of yelling, it pleads and the sight of her just standing there with that same tired kindness in her eyes as when you woke up combined with the painful memory makes you want to curl into yourself and cry. "How could I just stand by and watch the same thing happen to my nation when it needed someone to guide it?" Never had you intended to share this much with the avatar and you blame it on the exhaustion when your voice cracks and you actually do cry. You wallow in self-pity for just a moment. The battle has been lost, the war over. You feel like you could fade away. Then, the avatar speaks and she is clear and warm and you are caught off guard by her words.

"You wanted to create a place where you and your people would never be vulnerable again." Slowly, you look up to meet her gaze and it is like she's hardly the same person anymore. There is an understanding that you have never seen before, not in her nor in anyone else. Lines under her eyes show exactly how spent she must be, her eyes are strained and sad and for the first time she becomes another human being. For once, she's not a peacemaker, a super soldier, world representative or anything of a sort. This is a girl. This is Korra. 

"I may not have been an orphan, but believe me, I understand what it's like to be afraid." And when she lowers herself carefully into the flowerbed and begins to tell you of her poisoning, elbows on her thighs, hands in the flowers, her head cocked slightly to the side you find yourself believing her. For now your ribs do not hurt as much as they did. Emotions that had been swirling through you just moments ago die down and finally you accept. You accept defeat, you accept Korra. She proved you wrong and that more than anything does you in. 

Korra tells her story, the short version of it, you're sure, and you listen to her in silence, eyes never leaving her. Just like that, she has become important.

She tells you how she had lost control of her body, how it had been the grossest betrayal she had ever experienced in her life. The helplessness of being unable to command her own limbs had done more than cripple her only physically. It is familiar, you understand her. For a few minutes after she finishes talking the two of you remain virtually motionless. As you regard her the tension in your shoulders seeps away, your muscles relaxing throughout your body, relieving stress and pain. You can almost forget the fate that awaits you at your return. 

And so you close your eyes and breathe in deeply, committing the feel to memory as you know it will be a very long time until you my experience anything of a sort again. You focus on the pleasant temperature, the slightly humidity of the air and the contrast of the coolness of the night sky against the slight warmth radiating from the spirit portal behind you. Hand splayed out in the flowers, you memorise their shapes and textures, the firm flexibility of their stems and gentle brushes of their petals. In the back of your mind you register a rustling. The avatar rises. 

"We should head back." You say nothing.

In a few steps she is by your side and you open your eyes, breathing out. "Come on." A palm is opened up to you. With a hand on your thigh you rise to your feet and move to walk past her toward the portal. "I can walk." And the avatar sighs before catching you by the arm right as you put your weight down wrongly and stumble from the pain. She lifts your arm and drapes it over her shoulder.

"I'm not blind, you know." Korra straightens you up when she gives your arm a small tug to hold you more securely, a hand on the left side of your waist. She checks how well you can stand and then warps a hand around your upper arm from around your back. Only now that she's standing right next to you do you notice how poor your posture is. You have to crane your neck to look at her face, hunched over from your injured rib and legs straining to support your weight. There is no malice in her eyes. When she begins to move toward the portal you let her lead you, but stop before you reach it. Korra is pulled back by your arm over her shoulders and she looks at you questioningly. 

"Bataar-" you begin, but you choke on the rest of your question. You can feel Korra breathe in deeply and you immediately regret even asking. "He's okay." Your eyes snap up to meet hers, but you cannot read them. She appears to be observing your reaction as much as you are hers and after a few moments of silence she gives a one-shouldered shrug. "I mean, as well as can be expected." She glances at you from the corner of her eye and you're sure she can see the hurt that the reminder brings with it, but she doesn't comment, instead tightening her hand around your wrist briefly. You let her guide you through the portal. 

Exiting is a lot more pleasant than entering. There is a slight distortion in gravity when you step into the portal, like reaching the highest point of your arc on a swing, but other than that there is no indication that you are walking through dimensions whatsoever. For the second time today you are surrounded by nothing but pure white light and you take solace in it. You dread what awaits you outside of it, deserved or not. The arm around your back flexes slightly.

When you exit the beam, you are greeted by the sight of members from both parties. Emotions on their faces vary from unadulterated joy to cool satisfaction upon recognising the two of you. You look at none of their faces, the sight of them nothing but a reminder of the horrendous manner in which you had lost control of your ambitions. It is only when you hear the mechasuits close in that you look up and when they threaten violence if you are not released and you lift yourself from the avatar's supporting shoulders, her hand guiding the arm until you are solidly standing by yourself. For one last time you adopt your role as Great Uniter.

"Stand down," you say firmly, "This battle is over. I owe the avatar my life." You glance back at her from over your shoulder. "Her power is beyond anything I could ever hope to achieve. I'll accept whatever punishment the world sees fit." You are painfully aware of Su's harsh gaze and droop your head in defeat, closing your eyes as Lin cuffs you. Once the platinum is securely fastened around your wrists you look up at the metal clan leader. "And Su, I'm sorry for all the anguish I've caused you and your family." 

The words are soft but honest. You do not seek redemption of forgiveness, knowing full well that that is not something you will be getting, and so it comes as no surprise when she replies in a tone as if you haven't even spoken at all. "You're going to answer for everything you've done." 

The fact that you expected it does not make the comment hurt any less, but you say nothing as you are escorted out of the vine-covered crater by the Beifong sisters. Behind you, you can hear Bolin laughing heartily as the group rejoices over the avatar's return. They must've all thought the worst. The crater ís impressive and you don't doubt her bending the cannon's blast caused quite the light show. 

The three of you walk in silence for what feels like miles, the debris preventing any vehicles from reaching you. From down here, the destruction is far greater than you had thought when high up in the Colossus' control room. But then again, you may not have given any thought to everything you were crashing into at the time. It is as if every street they guide you through has been chosen to actively remind you of the wreckage that you caused. By the time a sky bison drops down from the sky to transport you to wherever it is they are taking you, you feel properly deflated. Though you're not sure, you believe the sky bison is a precaution against you metal bending your way to freedom again, which is a thought you almost smile at. Even when you surrender properly they still do not trust you. This is the life that awaits you.

They transport you, ironically, to a cell very similar to the one you held the Beifongs in: a wooden cage suspended in the air with a rather serious pit underneath it. Guards walk along narrow paths carved out of the stone trench, always making sure there's someone covering one of the four sides of your cage from different heights. You think it's excessive. 

For meals you get grub, you don't even know what it consists of, three times a day out of a wooden bowl with a wooden spoon and some water out of a wooden mug. Guards are curt with you, often making snarky remarks about how far you've fallen, but at least they agree to give you a glass of water when you ask for it. It could be worse. This is an intermediary location, the leaders in Republic City contain you here while they decide what to do with you. You avoid thinking about what they may do to you once you get out of this cage.

You have been here for about a week now. It's hard to tell the time when there is no sunlight to determine it by, so you count the days from the amount of meals received. No-one has come to visit you. Since there's nothing to take your mind of your situation you spend your days working out. Endless rows of careful push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups, past the point where your muscles scream at you and you can feel the sweat run dow your skin, until you can barely move. Your ribs limit the amount of strain your body can handle, but in a way you enjoy the pain. Anything to not let your thoughts linger on the things you did and what may await you as a result.

When the heavy doors in the wall open you stop in the middle of stretching your hamstrings. It is not yet time for a changing of the guard. Slowly (and a little painfully) you stand up straight and turn toward the noise as the wooden bridge is lowered to your cage. It was built inside the wall, blocking the visitor's entrance until it is lowered, a rather ingenious way to limit the options for escape to the single guards' entrance. Your ribs still aching you make your way over to your sorry excuse for a bed, limping slightly, and sit down. There, you wait for the bridge to fully lower and reveal your first visitor.

The avatar steps onto the wood, her fur boots hardly making a sound as she closes the distance to your cage. She looks well, much better than she did last time you saw her. Her eyes are clear and bright and there's half of a smile on her lips as she comes to a halt in front of your door. You incline your head in a minuscule nod as greeting. "Avatar."

"Hey." She rests a hand on the wood and takes a good look at you, frowning slightly when she notes the hand on your ribs. "How've you been?"

"As well as can be expected." The fact that this is the last thing she said to you before your incarceration is not lost on either of you and her lips quirk, but she quickly pulls the beginnings of her smile back down again. This is not a casual visit. You narrow your eyes. "Why are you here?"

She shifts against the wood. "They're moving you," she says, "There's going to be one more meeting in which they're going to make a definitive decision. They want you to attend." 

The notion sounds ridiculous to you and you scoff. "Why? It's not like they're going to take my opinion into consideration." Korra frowns and you can see her hand tightening around the wood of your cage as she looks down the pit. She looks bitter.

"I know," she murmurs, "It feels like they just want you to be there so they can make you sweat through hearing all your different possible futures."

"Speaking of which," you say, voice straining when you get up off of the bed, "What are my possible futures?" The avatar lifts her gaze to meet yours, holding it for a moment before glancing at the sheen of partially dried sweat on the skin of your shoulders. Behind her, solid feet tread upon the wooden bridge.

"You'll find out in a bit," she says, moving aside when two guards reach for the door. Your stomach drops.

"Turn around against the wall," one of them barks, "Hands on the wood." You frown briefly at the command, but do as you're told, facing the wall away from the entrance and placing your palms flat against the wood next to your head. The door is opened and closed again a few seconds later. Then, one before the other, your hands are pulled down and behind your back, cold platinum enclosing your wrists. With a hand on your upper arm the avatar turns you around, her eyes flitting down to your injured ribs briefly.

"Get yourself cleaned up," she says quietly, "I'm here to escort you out."

Chapter Text

During your trip to the court (if that term is even accurate considering the fact that there is no real trial being held) the cuffs only come off once. When you're let into a completely wooden bunker, or at least so it feels, one of the guards takes them off before stepping out again. Through a small gap in the door he says, "You have five minutes," and then shuts it. You rub your hands over your wrists and take in your surroundings. Everything is made of wood. It's extremely uninspired. At the far side of the room stands a small chair with fresh clothes and a bucket filled with water. It's slightly warm to the touch: a small kindness. Sighing lightly, you undress, listening closely for the shutter on the door.

You don't waste much time. With swift and sure movements you clean the sweat off your skin and dress yourself. Whereas you were given a simple tank top and knee-length trousers before, you now receive a long sleeved shirt with a relatively wide neckline and pants with laces in the waist and at the ankles. It is an upgrade, through not a particularly fanciful one. Not long after you finish braiding your hair the gap slides open again.

"Turn around against the wall, hands on the wood." You've already complied before the guard finishes talking. Apparently they're not very creative when it comes to barking commands. When you hear no footsteps after the door has opened and closed again you know they sent in the avatar again. You resist the urge to shake your head. The avatar is careful when she cuffs you, probably worried about your ribs. They do ache as your hands are pulled behind your back and fastened, but you've had far worse.

"Why do they keep sending you in," you ask her when she turns you around again and walks you to the door, "Why don't they just come in themselves?" She looks at you with her brows raised and the corners of her mouth pulled down. "Some kind of precaution, I think." She has no idea. You almost smile at that.

The ride there is spent in silence. You're pressed between two broad guards, each of them holding you by the arm despite your cuffs. You would have rolled your eyes at it, but it's quite astonishing how quickly you've grown used to the excessively careful treatment. The avatar is seated across from you and every once in a while you lock eyes. The first time you do, her eyes shoot to the hands on your arms and when she looks back up she's smirking slightly, ridiculing. Somehow it's comforting to know that she finds it as ridiculous as you. It makes you feel less like a dangerous animal and more like a person.

It's ironic that your final 'trial' is to be held inside the building on the steps of which you received your medal months earlier. At the time the stage and streets had been filled with your supporters, people shouting your name, proud and trusting. Now there are only guards.

Inside, the world leaders are seated at a long table at the front, representatives from every kingdom, one for each of the water tribes. Raiko sits in the middle. You're escorted to a seat at the front of the room, one that puts you facing down the length of the table, where they un-cuff and re-cuff you to a ring on the small table you sit behind. With the leaders on your right hand, the chairs to your left are occupied by only a few people. The avatar sits down there, next to the Sato girl. You recognise Varrick and Zhu Li, Bolin and his brother and a few rows behind them sit the Beifongs. Both sisters and Suyin's family. It hurts to see them, so you look away immediately, shame and guilt still very prominently present.

"So," Raiko speaks up once you have all sat down, "Let's finish this up, shall we?" What little chatter there was dies down as everyone shifts their attention to the Republic City president. "Now, as you all know we have several options before us. Some of you have expressed your preference for the method prescribed to the Red Lotus," your stomach drops at the mention, "Others feel that exile to the Spirit World would be more favourable. We only have today left, so let's make up our minds over this." 

A man in water tribe getup shifts in his seat. "As I've said before, I remain confident that the Red Lotus prisons are best suited. The fact that Zaheer learned air bending thanks to the avatar opening the spirit portals was the only reason the Red Lotus managed to escape." All attention turns to him and you clench your hands to fists. Good lord no, not a dangling cage again. "We can use the combustion bender P'Li's cell to contain her. that way we only need to replace the cell itself, everything else is already accounted for. It is by far the most easily accessible option."

"Except for the fact that those cells were made to meet the very specific demands of four extremely high profile criminals," opposes Firelord Izumi, "Their conditions are far too harsh for the case at hand." They speak of you as if you're not even there and it infuriates you. However, you do appreciate the Firelord's attempts at saving you from a fate surrounded by ice. 

President Raiko speaks up again. "You seem to forget that we have a proper war criminal at our hands, Firelord. Kuvira is by all accounts an, as you so eloquently put it, extremely high profile war criminal."

Firelord Izumi inclines her head at this. "I have not forgotten, Mister President. However, the members of the Red Lotus were captured under far different circumstances. Kuvira surrendered and I believe that this is something that should be taken into account."

"I feel that I should remind you all," speaks a voice from your left and you turn to see the avatar standing, "That I have already spoken to the spirits about this problem. They have agreed to guard Kuvira in the Spirit World and supply her with food. If we're talking about the option that takes the least effort, the Spirit World should rank high on your list of options."

It is now Tenzin's turn to speak up. "I agree with avatar Korra and Firelord Izumi on this, President. The Red Lotus' prisons are far too cruel a punishment for these circumstances." He gestures at you. "Send her to the Spirit World, she cannot pose a danger to the world from there."

"We can't trust the spirits though, can we," interrupts Prince Wu (King Wu? You don't know), "We all know what Kuvira did to the swamp and how the spirits refused to help when you called for their aid. You could even say they have a grudge against her. What makes you think they're up for the task?"

"And what about her bending?" The other water tribe representative chips in. "She can't be allowed to roam about while still being able to cause such havoc. If the avatar could just-"

"I will not take away her bending!" Korra says fiercely. "I know what that feels like and I refuse to do that to anyone else."

"Then we come back to the Red Lotus prison cells."

The bickering continues for a good long while, hours probably, arguments being thrown back and forth while nobody seems to be making any progress whatsoever. You roll your eyes at it. And these are supposed to be the world leaders. How are they supposed to get anything done if they can't even decide on what to do with you?

Then, Lin rises. "What about the pods?" All eyes turn to her and she gestures at the avatar. You frown. Pods? What pods? It sounds ominous. "Korra said that the spirits are willing to guard her, and it's a clean and simple way to solve all the problems you just mentioned."

"She's right," says the avatar, turning back around to face the world leaders again, "If anything, any grudges the spirits may hold against Kuvira will only motivate them to do their job properly. She won't be able to return to the physical world. It's the best idea so far."

A beat passes. President Raiko starts nodding slowly. "Allright," he says, sitting up straighter, "All in favour?" Tenzin and Firelord Izumi are very quick to raise their hands, but the avatar's is the first one in the air. One of the water tribe representatives then raises his hand as well and shortly afterward, so does Wu. President Raiko takes a look around the table, seemingly taking no notice of the avatar's extended arm. It's completely quiet for a few moments. Then, Raiko nods. You breathe in deeply. And with that, the vote is concluded. It frightens you a little that even though you were right here through the entire meeting and you still have no idea what exactly they are going to do to you. Spirit World. That's about it. And you're not very excited about the Spirit World at all.

Considering all that you've done to the spirits, you doubt that if they are to be your guards, your hosts, they aren't likely to be very friendly ones. Or is that even part of a spirit's nature? You have no idea what to think of this development. The only time you visited the Spirit World was during the accidental portal creation and you didn't encounter a single spirit. The fact that you know so little makes you fearful. 

Before you have time you voice your concerns however, two guards have disconnected you from the table and are hoisting you up. That was it? They shipped you all the way over here just for that? You have become none the wiser. But they are escorting you back between the rows of empty chairs and at the entrance stands the avatar.  She is waiting for you. Your personal bodyguard.

She switches positions with one of the guards, placing her hand on your upper arm in a similar but gentler manner to guide you outside again. You look down to the ground, the sudden sunlight somewhat blinding after the dimmed courtroom. It is so quiet, nobody speaks. The guards lining up to form a pathway stand motionless, there is nobody there. It strikes you as odd. An important trial such as this should have been news, breaking news even. Where is the press, where are the protestors, the people to come and throw eggs at you? You noticed it upon arriving, but only now do you really appreciate how strange the situation is. 

The next thing that catches your eye is the absence of the car that transported you here. You frown, straighten up in surprise and slow down a bit. From your right you see the avatar turn to look at you. With a quick and minute shake of your head you convey your confusion.

"You're not going back to the cell," says the avatar, "We're going to take you to your new…" She stops, clearly unsure how to continue that sentence. "I'm here to take you to the Spirit World."

Realisation dawns on you. "We're going to the portal."

"No," she says and applies a little pressure on the back of your arm to get you moving in the right direction, "Not exactly." You do not understand. She's taking you to the overgrown part of Republic City, which is where the portal is. What does she mean 'not exactly'? How else are you going to get into the Spirit World?

You figure you're not going to get much of a clear answer out of the avatar, so you let her lead you in silence. You do not remember ever visiting this part of the city before, but it brings back bad memories anyway. The overgrown buildings, some cracked under the weight, remind you of when you ran away from the colossus' wreckage and the avatar. After a minute or ten, you come to stand in front of a wall of vines, the plants draping down over the street like a curtain, sprouting makeshift trees wherever they find the space. Yet the avatar gives no indication that she plans on stopping; she intends to enter. 

"You have got to be kidding me."

The avatar shakes her head. "No I'm not." You stare at her in disbelief.

"This is suicide! You know what happened the last time I went into a forest like this." And to your astonishment, the avatar actually smiles at you.

"Don't worry, this is just a gateway. You won't have to spend your thirty years of incarceration surrounded by spirit vines." She stops and looks away briefly, thoughtfully. "Well, kind of. But not in the way you're thinking." You look at her with a deadpan gaze. That wasn't helpful at all. But when she urges you to keep moving, you have no choice but to comply. 

Inside the spirit forest (you settle on calling it that in your head) the air is ridiculously humid and the light that filters through the canopy is a bluish green. Buildings here are completely inhabitable, trees made out of vines growing everywhere you look. The road upon which you walk is unsteady, vines swallowing up the entire road after a while. The avatar seems to know where she's going, so you trust in her because quite frankly there is no other option. 

She guides you to a tall building that has almost entirely disappeared underneath all the vines, a faint light shining form inside it. The sight unsettles you. When you enter, you find pillars supporting a high ceiling in a spacious room. Once, this building had been a beautiful one. Now, there are ragged pieces of cloth which you suppose were once curtains, there is no furniture and in the far corner you see a rather thick growth growing up the wall and down the ceiling. Amidst the vines you can vaguely make out oval shaped… pods. These pods are the source of light that had been illuminating the entrance from within.

All of a sudden you think you may understand. "You're going to put me into one of those, aren't you?"

The avatar sighs deeply and looks at you with something reminiscent of guilt, or maybe it's pity, you're not sure. Then she nods. "After you started harvesting the spirit vines, the ones over here turned on the people of republic city. We found out that the people that had been taken were being kept right here, in these pods. Their spirits had been trapped in the spirit world, leaving them unconscious."

Your eyes widen in horror. "That's what you're going to do to me?" you rasp, your voice unsteady with panic. This cannot be your fate, there is no way. And here you had been thinking that the avatar had been trying to ease your sentence. "You're going to trap my spirit in the spirit world?"

The avatar turns toward you and sits you down on a thicker vine on the ground. "Kind of," she says while she moves to your right side, eyes on your ribs again and you feel the need to squirm under her prying eyes. You don't, though. "These pods are your way into the Spirit World. After finding the spirits of the people in the pods in the spirit world itself, I was able to bend their energy free so they could return to their bodies again." The last part is almost mumbled, the avatar preoccupied with something else. With one hand on your upper arm, she leans a bit to the side and extends a finger toward your painful side. You arch away from her as she moves closer, your eyebrows furrowing more and more as she draws closer.

"What are you doing?"

She looks at you only momentarily before focusing on your side again. "Trying to assess the damage he- can you stop moving for a second?" You look at her disbelievingly. She seems to get the hint and straightens up again. "You do know that I can heal you, right? It's a very useful part of being a water bender." 

You squint at her. "How about you tell me what exactly my sentence is?"

"Then will you let me fix you up?" You raise an eyebrow at her. She just kind of smirks in return. "Okay, fine. So these people's spirits were being kept unconscious in a bubble of spiritual energy while their bodies were trapped in these pods. I was able to bend this bubble of energy and that way managed to dissolve their prison. The plan for you, however, is to simply wake you up and extend that bubble of energy to enclose the portals. Theoretically, when I wake you up, it should be just as if you were meditating into the Spirit World, except that you won't be able to exit it, since your body will still be in the pod."

"Theoretically."

"Well, yes," she scratches the back of her neck, "I mean, it hasn't been done before, but I'm strongest in the spirit world, because I have access to literally all the spiritual energy in there. The only thing that could be a problem is your physical body over here," you are instantly alarmed and whip your head toward her and she raises her hands in a calming gesture, "But after the vines calmed down again, Varrick had some extensive research done on them and they said that the pod is filled with a nutrition rich solution. It's kind of like a womb, but… without the navel chord." She looks at you sheepishly. You shut your eyes and scrunch up your face slightly.

"I can't believe you're responsible for my incarceration."

Without missing a beat, she actually chuckles at this. "Hey, I'm still the avatar. Secretly I'm really amazing." You raise an eyebrow at her, but can't stop the beginnings of a smile from creeping up on your face. After a moment of comfortable silence, as comfortable as it can get in a situation such as this, the avatar gingerly points at your side. "Can I try and fix your ribs now?" And after a slight hesitation you sigh and wordlessly turn so she has better access. Carefully, she presses a couple of fingers to your ribs and when you wince she opens something that looks like a flask and bends the water out. 

When she places the liquid over your sore ribs it's cold at first, but then it starts glowing with a soft blue light and slowly, the water turns warm like a hot water bottle. It soaks away the pain and muscles you didn't know had been tense relax again. Goodness, you can breathe normally again. Neither of you says anything for a minute or so before you ask, "Why are you so kind to me?"

She hums thoughtfully. "I just don't think you're as terrible as everybody is making you out to be." 

You don't know how to reply to that.

After a while, you don't know exactly how long because you just leaned back against the wall behind you and closed your eyes after a couple of minutes, the comfort that the avatar's healing brings you making you slightly drowsy, she bends the water away from you again, extracting as much of it as possible from your clothing. When you open your eyes again you find her grinning at you.

"Welcome back to the world of the living."

"Thank you. Shame I will be leaving again so soon."

She raises an eyebrow at that. "Don't be so dramatic, you're not dying." With a smooth motion she returns the water to its confinement and stoppers it closed again. Then she rises to her feet and extends a hand toward you to help you to your feet. It's only when you remain sitting motionless on the thick vine that she seems to remember that your hands are still cuffed behind your back. You watch her flush, satisfied with your small victory, and then rise to your feet. The treatment with the water has done wonders for your ribs and they only sting a little. 

It's a loaded moment when you turn toward the pods on the wall and it's comforting when the avatar moves to stand next to you. There is a slight jingling of keys and you are grateful when you feel her grab hold of your cuffs and undo them. Once your hands are free again you roll your shoulders and the two guards that have been accompanying you bristle, but the avatar waves a hand at them and they take a hesitant step backwards. Apparently they trust in her prowess enough to leave you free to move about. You look at her when she tosses the cuffs to one of them and she greets you with a smile, although it's somewhat rueful.

"I figured it'd be a bit unnecessary to keep you in handcuffs while you're in the pod.

A beat. "Thank you."

She nods once and places a hand on the vines surrounding the pods. After a second in which nothing seems to happen there is a sound like leather being rubbed together. The vines tremble and then they start to glow with a light, not as vibrant green as what the pods are emitting, more like an ocean green. Too dark to be turquoise, but too blue to call green. Under normal circumstances you would have liked the colour, found it calming, but these are extraordinary circumstances and the glowing of the vines only manages to make you nervous. 

Then, one of the pods, a large one, shifts against the others and extracts itself from the cluster, the vine holding it bending down toward the ground. As it moves, seams appear in the luminescent parts of the pod and slowly it folds open and rolls its transparent petals up toward the ceiling with uncanny symmetry. With a soft thud it hits the ground and you take a deep breath because this all just became very real. 

And Korra places a hand on your shoulder and when you look at her she squeezes it slightly and says, "Don't worry, you'll be okay." After a couple of seconds in which you are severely tempted to make a 180 degree turn and straight up leave, you stretch your neck and step onto the pod. You have to hunch over a little bit, but it stretches further back than you had imagined and you are able to fully enter the hollow before you turn around. You'd rather not that the last thing you see is the dark, fleshy back of the pod. 

When you do, you're met with the sight of the avatar standing right outside of your floral prison cell. Behind her, the two guards stand next to the pillars leading to the exit of the building. With a few sure-footed steps she closes she distance to the pod, placing both her hands on the sides of the hollow that you're standing in. With a deep breath of her own, the two of you lock eyes and you know she's trying her best to comfort you, but you are downright frightened. The avatar seems to notice this and she summons a smile.

"I'll see you in a bit." And for some strange and inexplicable reason you trust her. She nods to you once and then bends her head down as she closes her eyes. Your surroundings start to glow more fiercely and you gasp slightly as it whirs to life again. The pod moves away from the avatar and once you lift off the ground the top two petals unfurl, slowly coming into view from above. At the loss of contact, the avatar straightens up and opens her eyes again. The image blurs slightly when the pod folds closed again, but her eyes never leave you. There is determination in them and you pull as much bravery out of them as you can until your lids become heavy and instead of breathing it feels more like you are constantly sighing. The sensation reminds you of when you first entered the Spirit World. Slowly you are enveloped by weightlessness and even pressure, only this time it's far gentler. You blink more and more often and it becomes harder by the second to keep your eyes open until finally you succumb and darkness comes over you.

All that time, her eyes never leave you.