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Unalaq hits the light spirit with a torrent of water. She diminishes, & the connection to Aang is severed.
He strikes again, disconnecting Roku.
Again.
_╲\│/╱_
Kyoshi's spirit manifests. For once, she doesn't know what the current Avatar's question will be. It leaves her curious.
"Avatar Korra." she says in greeting, opening her eyes.
No one is there.
There's no Korra.
Kyoshi looks around, quickly realizing she's in the Spirit World.
Odd.
She's in a cave. Or spirit-cave, maybe? It's dark. It feels lonely. & it seems to be growing.
There isn't any noise whatsoever. Not even the sounds of her pulse or her breath, seeing as she's dead. It's maddening.
As the cavern grows & the light diminishes, Kyoshi takes stock of herself.
She feels alone. Stranded. A fragment of herself.
She can't feel Korra. Or Roku. Or Kuruk, or Aang, or even the Avatar spirit itself.
For the first time ever, Kyoshi is truly & utterly alone.
It's terrifying.
She needs someone here. No; she needs to be somewhere else. She needs a person who can help. Who can make her feel whole.
She needs another part of her soul.
Kyoshi curls into herself.
"Kyoshi?" A gravelly voice says in the darkness.
She looks up, cautiously optimistic.
A face slowly emerges from shadow. Soft lines juxtaposed with sharp, bronze eyes. The spirit's brow is furrowed in confusion. It's lip in a slight pout.
"Rangi?" Kyoshi says in a voice she hadn't heard in several hundred years. The voice of an orphan girl, dehydrated, hungry. & alone.
"Yes." The woman replies in a soft voice. She smiles that way she did when they first found Koko, back in that dirty alleyway. The way she had let the child know she was safe & wanted to help.
Kyoshi misses Koko like nothing else, but that's nothing new.
"How are you here?" The Avatar asks.
"I should ask the same of you."
Kyoshi shrugs. She chews on the loose skin flaking off her lips. "I don't know." She starts to cry. "I'm supposed to be with Korra, but I can't feel her. Can't feel anyone."
"Ok." Rangi says, clearly confused by the implication. She sits down & pulls child-Kyoshi onto her lap.
The girl immediately buries her face in Rangi's chest, tightly gripping the fabric of her robes.
She misses Kelsang too. Maybe Jinora can visit her now, if Rangi can.
_╲\│/╱_
"What do you think it means?" Rangi asks when Kyoshi finally seems to have calmed down.
A long pause. "That there's not an Avatar anymore."
Rangi tenses up, pulling the girl closer. "So, what do we do about that?"
Kyoshi leaned back to look her in the eye. She's surprised to find that she's now looking downward, having taken on the form she had used when communicating with subsequent Avatars. Her outfit is different, however. No chain mail, no makeup. No scars.
"I don't know. I don't think there's anything we can do. It's up to Korra now, if it's not already too late."
Rangi, surprisingly, smiles at that. "You finally learned how to delegate. How many lifetimes did it take after I passed?"
Kyoshi chuckles. "It took until Roku was in his thirties."
"Who's Roku?"
"The Avatar who succeeded me."
Rangi laughs properly at that. "I think you're long overdue for a break."
Kyoshi just grunts, still not quite able to agree, but willing enough to comply. She has always been the Avatar. She was always going to be the Avatar. Just a tool for the next four, then barely remembered.
She doesn't know how to stop.
"Hey." Rangi says, pulling her out of her thoughts.
"Hm?"
Rangi kisses her. It's odd as a spirit, not really having a body. But the connection feels stronger, somehow. It feels like their souls merge.
It begins to fill up the emptiness left by Unalaq & Vaatu.
When they pull away, Kyoshi notices that the cave has changed. Light filters in on rays of sunshine. The brackish pool she was barely able to make out has been replaced by a crystal clear pond. Small, glowing mushrooms of varying colors have sprouted all over.
The isolation is no longer overbearing. It's intimate.
"So," Rangi says. "Do you want to see Koko?"