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They say you feel it when your soulmate dies. They say it tears you apart. The world believed Asami Sato had died three years ago. But Korra was still whole.
Which meant Asami wasn’t dead. Even if everyone else had given up on her.
Three years ago
“Korra...”
“Leave me alone, Mako, I’m trying to focus right now.”
“Korra...”
He was crying. Why was he crying? What was that look...? Pity and grief and fear.
“Korra, I’m sorry, but you need to see this.”
She took the paper from him.
BA SING SE CRASH LEAVES NO SURVIVORS.
“What...?”
Korra skimmed the article, her eyes catching on the phrases which mattered.
Future Industries CEO Asami Sato... a business trip to the Earth Kingdom... airship went down just outside Ba Sing Se... no survivors.
“This...”
“I’m so sorry, Korra.”
Korra couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t hear his words. They made no sense. This wasn’t real, wasn’t happening, wasn’t happening...
Wait.
Korra searched inside herself, in her heart. Asami Sato was her soulmate. Soulmates could sense each other’s pain, their feelings, and most of all their deaths. People described it as being torn apart.
But even though Korra’s world had just exploded, her heart was still whole. But... she couldn’t feel anything from Asami at all. No sense of her. Only the fact that her heart was intact.
Which meant... she didn’t know what it meant.
But it meant Asami was alive.
“She’s not dead, Mako.”
“Korra... they said no survivors.”
“She’s my soulmate, I would know!”
“Are you sure you don’t...?”
“She’s alive. Asami is alive. I know it.”
Korra pushed her hair out of her eyes, forcing the memory of that day out of her mind. She was in the Tree of Time, where she’d gone every single day since the search for Asami ended.
Everyone else’s search. But not Korra’s.
Two years ago
“Avatar Korra... I’m sorry, but we’ve searched everywhere. No-one has seen her. We’ve been across the world, and Asami is well-known, she’s recognisable. No-one has seen a glimpse of her. And I know the Spirit World has been searched too. The bodies in the crash weren’t identifiable, but we have to accept that she was one of them.”
“I would have felt it.”
“Not necessarily. I’ve heard of rare cases where a soulmate doesn’t sense their partner’s death. Perhaps if it were very quick, or painless, or occurred in a spirit attack.”
“She’s alive.”
“Korra...”
“NO. I’m going to find her.”
No other option. There was no other option.
She was never letting go of Asami. Not when she knew she had to be out there somewhere.
“Korra, as the Avatar, you have responsibilities...”
“To restore balance. I can’t do that without her. I...” Korra was sobbing now, because a year without her was too hard, way too hard, even when she knew she was alive. “She... is my balance. I’ll keep being the Avatar. But I’m not giving up on her.”
Two years of coming here and searching for Asami. In the Spirit World, in the connections this place had to the wider universe, inside her own heart.
And nothing. Never anything.
Korra put her head on her knees and cried. Whether Asami was alive or... somehow wasn’t, three years without her hurt more than anything ever had.
Three years of not knowing.
Korra clenched her fists.
“Asami, come back to me, please,” she whispered.
Three years ago
“What’s happening?” Asami yelled.
No response. The pilot, the staff, no one spoke a word. It was too late to do anything. Too late to stop the airship careering into the ground.
There was a sickening impact that rocked Asami’s head back so hard she almost broke her neck. Then the world exploded.
Where am I? the girl asked without words. What is this?
She had asked the same question every day. Suspended in the dark somewhere.
Who am I?
A whisper.
Asami, come back to me, please.
What was that?
Who... are... you?
Again.
Come back to me. I need you. I can’t do this anymore.
She tried to reach out.
The whispers had come every day. She could never hold them in her mind for long. But she knew they had happened every day. Day? What did that mean anymore? Who was Asami? Who was the speaker? Who whispered to her?
They think I should give up. They think you’re dead.
Dead?
But I never will. Not on you.
Korra whispered the last words to a memory. Asami’s face, laughing with her in the Spirit World. It hurt so much, being around all the memories here.
Another one floated by her. The blue spirit she had become seven years ago, when she fought UnaVaatu. She had bent her own spirit then, her own energy.
Something tickled at the edge of her mind. A memory of an idea that had bothered her for ages.
What if she could do the same to their soulmate bond?
She’d never tried before because she’d been too afraid to try and mess with the bond, terrified that her tenuous connection to Asami would be cut off.
But right now, even Korra had to admit this wasn’t working. She hadn’t come even close to finding Asami.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, searching inside herself for the bond in her heart.
She focused all her attention on it, bending the energy that it held, the spark within it.
And she thought of Asami.
Asami’s green eyes which always held more warmth than Korra would have thought possible, with everything she’d gone through.
Asami flipping her hair back over her shoulder, that signature move that made Korra’s heart speed up, every time.
Asami fighting, always so graceful, so co-ordinated, never letting her enemies underestimate her.
Asami kissing her for the first time, making Korra’s heart feel like it was about to beat right out of her chest. The silent affirmation as something inside her heart clicked. This is how it’s meant to be.
Who am I? Where am I? What is this? she asked wordlessly.
Asami...
Something was flickering in the dark. There was something there, something she could see.
An image. It expanded before her.
Two girls, sitting in a car, laughing. The one with black hair and green eyes was familiar in a way that felt strange, a way that felt so familiar it was like looking at... herself...
The other one, the one with brown hair and blue eyes, was familiar in a way that made her want to reach out to her, to hold her hand, to somehow cross this space between them.
Another image. Two hands reaching out to clasp one another. The same two young women walking into a pillar of light.
Kissing each other in a beautiful world, breaking apart to talk softly to each other.
Standing on a balcony, arms around each other, words seeming to hang in the air between them. I love you.
And more and more, of laughter and comfort and embraces and warmth and love, so much love in every single one.
Asami.
It was the voice. The one who whispered.
Asami, please, come back.
I love you.
A face. A voice. Blue eyes. Muscled arms. Warm hands. Soft lips. A crooked smile.
The girl trapped in the dark found her voice.
“Korra...”
“Korra...”
Her voice. It was her voice.
“Asami!?”
“Korra...”
“Asami, where are you?”
“You’re... Korra.”
“Yes, it’s me. I love you, Asami, I’m going to save you, or... or whatever you need.”
“You’re... my soulmate?”
“Yes.”
“Why haven’t you deserted me? Everything else has... even my own name.”
What did that mean?
“Asami, I would never desert you.”
She reached for the soulmate bond again, reaching to pull Asami towards her, across space or time or worlds. She let the memories take over her mind.
“I would never give up on you. I never will. I love you. And I will not let you go.”
“I love you. And I will not let you go.”
Suddenly, she knew.
Who am I? I am Asami Sato.
Who is she? She is Avatar Korra. My soulmate. The person I love most in the world.
Where am I? Somewhere in the Spirit World. I’m trapped. There was a crash... something dark... I woke up... here, in the dark...
What is this? Captivity.
But who am I? I’m Asami Sato, head of Future Industries, engineer, fighter, part of Team Avatar, and a really, really good driver.
I forgive people who’ve hurt me. I try my best to always be kind and compassionate and there for others.
I love Korra more than anything.
And I’m really good at getting myself out of tricky situations.
You can’t hold me.
The memories swirled around her, along with Korra’s voice and words and faith, and Asami’s own strength. The darkness parted, and a hand reached through. Distantly, Asami knew this was probably some kind of a metaphor. There was no way Korra’s hand was actually there.
But it was enough. She reached forward.
“Korra, I love you.”
Her hand closed around Korra’s, and she was free.
“Korra, I love you.”
“Asami...?”
Nothing. She couldn’t hear anything more.
But that spark, that bond in her heart, that place where Asami was, it felt alive. She could feel something, distantly. Relief. Love. Footsteps on the ground.
Asami didn’t know how Korra had freed her, but she had. Now Asami lay on the ground in the Spirit World, somewhere in a forest she didn’t recognise.
She had never been a spiritual person, but she’d grown to be trusted by many of the spirits here, because she and Korra came to the Spirit World often.
A dragonfly-bunny spirit flew past her, and Asami called out to it.
“Can you take me to Korra? Do you know where she is?”
The spirit chittered in response and started heading out of the forest, turning to look back at her and check that she was following.
In the clearing just beyond where they’d been standing, a huge spirit rose before her. She recognised it. The dragon-bird spirit that had become a good friend and seemed to always know where to find them.
She climbed awkwardly onto its back.
“Take me to Korra,” she said quietly. “Please.”
Korra opened her eyes, and sat there, waiting. If she moved, she might miss Asami, might lose this connection. She didn’t want to break it.
Three years.
Why was three years so symbolic to them? Korra had left Asami for three years. Now Asami had left Korra for the same.
Balance.
Then she heard the sound of wings, and the dragon-bird spirit that had always been her friend and ally landed in front of the tree, and nothing else mattered anymore, because all she could really see was the person on its back.
She got up, hardly realising that she was running before she was, sprinting across the ground towards her. Asami was running for her as well, and they met in the middle, running straight into each other’s arms.
She took Asami’s face between her hands and kissed her so hard it was almost bruising.
Korra was sobbing at the same time as she was laughing, her tears mingling with Asami’s.
“You’re... real, you’re real, right?” she asked breathlessly after a minute.
“Shouldn’t you have asked that before you kissed me?” Asami replied, laughing. “Yes, I’m real. You know that.”
Korra nodded, almost unable to speak, holding onto Asami so tightly that she was beginning to lose feeling in her hands.
“I love you,” she choked out.
“I love you, too. But... how long has it been?” Asami asked.
“Three years,” Korra sobbed. “You didn’t know?”
“I think it was some weird spirit stuff... I was trapped... I couldn’t remember anything... but I heard your voice, every day. You... you never gave up on me.”
“Of course I didn’t. I would never. I will never. I wouldn’t let go of you, and I would never, ever give up on you.”
Together again.
Korra felt the pieces of her heart fit back together. Her soul was complete once more. She had her balance back.
Red and black, white and blue.
The non-bender and the bender of all the elements.
Asami Sato and Avatar Korra.
The perfect balance.
“So, you’re never letting me go, huh?” Asami asked.
“You’d better get used to it,” Korra replied, voice muffled by Asami’s shoulder.
“Sounds great,” Asami said, half laughing and half crying.
They stood there for a long time, wrapped in each other’s arms, fitting together like puzzle pieces, like two halves of a heart.