The Demon Avatar, Korra

She rolled her shoulders back while lifting her hands. Bones on either side of her shoulders started to emerge from her skin and each hand gripped them with vigor pulling them out with swiftness. She rolled her neck and sent a crooked grin their way.

Asami and Lin were going to have to fight Korra whether they wanted to or not. They both looked at one another almost as if they knew what the other was thinking.

Don’t fall into her lap.

They nodded at one another and Lin let out a grunt.

Korra headed straight towards them, holding sharp bones with the strength of steel in each hand. Each step she took was the opposite of how she usually fought. Instead of the ground beneath her wrapped feet being crushed with each step, they were quiet and swift. She had to be calm in the inside, even when they outside portrayed someone else entirely.

It’s as if they didn’t see her coming. Korra moved so fast that she was already in front of them, the sharp tips of the bones already at their throats.

Korra grinned and stepped back. “That was a little too easy huh? You two can be a bit faster right?” She taunted them, trying to goad them into attacking her the way she wanted. By the look on Lin’s face, she was going to fall right into it.

Lin gritted her teeth, if Korra wanted to fight then she would give it to her. Since there was no earth besides the pillars inside this room, she refrained from using the pillars and relied on her metal bending instead. She bent her wrist blade out and swung straight for Korra’s neck knowing that Korra would dodge it but to Lin and Asami’s shock that wasn’t what happened.

Korra saw Lin aiming for her neck and knew what she was expecting her to do. But things weren’t going to go their way. The both of them were going to fall into her tune.

As the blade came swinging, Korra moved her neck towards the blade and lodged it a couple inches into her skin. Blood squirting a bit onto the blade as Lin looked horrified and froze as she noticed that what she expected Korra to do did not happen. Asami did the same.

A pout found its way onto Korra’s face. “Ouch?” She then sliced the blade in half with her bone and pulled it out with her other hand, tossing it off to the side.

Asami was trying to remain calm this entire situation but they had already messed up. They were already in Korra’s lap, maybe even from the moment when they stepped inside. She was smart though; she would try to play Korra at her own game then. Just like back then on the island that night when they sparred but a little differently now.

As Lin was about to send a roundhouse kick to Korra’s upper body, Asami stepped forward, glove in hand, and threw a well calculated punch which Korra had dodged. Asami sent a look to Lin that basically said to follow along. An affirmed nod was received.

They had all gotten into the fortress at 1 in the morning and they had spent 30 minutes attacking Korra without a break. Asami sent punches in succession which got blocked every time. Lin bent metal towards Korra which she let willingly hit her. A 2 v 1 fight would seem unfair but not this case. Korra goaded them with each of their attacks. Time was going by just like she needed it to, but it was getting soon to wrap it up. She pulled water from thin air and turned them into ice shards and aimed at the two. After that onslaught of ice, Asami was left with some tears in her clothes and Lin’s armor had taken the brunt of the ice. She had lured them near a couple of the pillars and rounded one while sending a burst of fire from the soles of her feet as they came into sight, but she wasn’t met with two faces, just Lin’s.

Lin had ducked but she noticed that Korra’s attack was a little weak, as if she wasn’t trying to hurt them. She had even realized that the onslaught of ice shards was easily avoidable, but she still took on some ice.

Korra expected to see both faces so when she came face to face with only Lin, she wondered what Asami was up to because she didn’t see her move anywhere but the pillar had blocked her view as she rounded it. Instead of worrying about that, she sent punches of fire at Lin and then some normal strong punches. Lin was taking a lot of them on and each was a force to be reckoned with. Korra then pulled back her arm getting ready to aim another punch to Lin, her bones came out of her forearm and as she went to land her attack, she felt a sharp pang of electricity coursing throughout her body. Asami?

She wasn’t paralyzed nor did the actual shock actually hurt her but Asami bested her. She was actually impressed but she never doubted the woman’s skills. That was one of the reasons why she fell for her. She was strong and that brain of hers was fascinating.

Asami was more than glad that she actually landed a hit on Korra that she wasn’t goaded into. She had finally got her. Her gloved hand still on the woman’s shoulder, Korra was still, her arm was still in the air but then it was brought down with the bones retracting back into her skin.

She laughed. She laughed this hearty laugh that Asami recognized. It was her favorite laugh and reminded her when Korra would drag Asami out of the office late or when they would all hang out together and Bolin would make some silly joke.

Disregarding Lin, she turned her head to the side where her gloved hand was and met eyes with Asami. Marked cerulean eyes met emeralds. She whispered enough for only Asami to hear, “Beautiful.”

Just like that night when they sparred.

Korra’s eyes were shining right at her and it was as if she was speaking unspoken words with them. Before she could try to figure out what she was trying to say, Korra had moved out of Asami’s grasp and headed towards the middle of the room paying them no mind like as if their fight was child’s play.

Korra wasn’t expecting their fight to go that way but nonetheless it worked in her favor. It helped create the opening to finally leave and help the others. She really did have fun though even if that would be their last moments together. When their eyes had locked, love had shown through her eyes towards the woman of her affections.

As she stood in the middle of the room, she reached into her pocket for the bag of marechi she saved. Bringing it up towards her mouth, she ripped it open with her sharp fang and drained the pouch in one go. She knew how marechi made demons feel and in just a few moments she was going to start to feel it.

She licked her lips and savored the drops of blood left on there. Tantalizing as ever.

She rolled her neck back and started looking around the room trying to figure out which direction Muzan was. Her eyes were glassy now and her mouth was slightly parted, revealing her sharp fangs.

She started running towards the wall in the back, passing by Asami and Lin who were startled by the sudden change in mood from Korra. She then jumped and punched right through the wall causing it to open up a huge hole that was meant for them to follow through. On the other side of the wall was a walkway so they wouldn’t fall once they stepped through. Hopefully they understood, hopefully Asami still trusted Korra up till this point. However, Korra was going to make sure that they made it up to the surface before they made it to Muzan.

She then started walking in the direction where she knew Akaza would be while pointing to the hole she created for them.

Asami and Lin’s eyes followed Korra’s finger to the hole in the wall and wondered why she was leaving them and why she was telling them to practically follow through this hole she made. They didn’t have time to question it either because as they saw her raised arm go down, they watched her bring her leg up and with one swing downwards Korra broke the floor right beneath her.

Korra was already starting to drool from the mouth. Her entire body was feeling limber and she was itching to kill. She felt like she was hyperaware of everything at this moment. She was going to kill them. Akaza first, Doma second and then Muzan with herself last.

She really had no idea what was going to even happen once Yushiro defeated Nakime but that was a problem for a little later.

She glanced back at the two, blood lust evident in her eyes, the drool practically dripping from her mouth. Bones were peaking right out of her skin and the sclera in her eyes had turned into a faint red instead of the white they usually were. Asami didn’t feel afraid while looking at Korra. She put her trust in the woman she loved. Sure, she was confused on where she was going but if she wanted her and Lin to follow the path outside the hole she created for them then she would.

Korra had that lopsided smirk on her face before she dashed down into the hole. How Asami missed that smirk so much. It was so cocky yet handsome and strong at the same time.

Asami then turned to Lin. “Let’s go and follow where that path takes us.”

“Let’s hope it takes us to Muzan.” She huffed.

Korra dashed around and broke through different rooms while she made her way to Akaza. She was getting closer, that she knew. A couple more walls to break through and she’d be there, finally tearing Akaza apart.

Her bones were slashing through the walls and then she finally stopped. She stared down and could sense Akaza was right below her. She crushed the floor beneath her and came down right behind him with insane speed. Before anyone knew it, even before Akaza knew it, Korra had blood bent Akaza. Puppeteer hands rigid and sharp willed his body to split in half.

Blood came spurting out of his body and right behind to Korra covering her a bit. A maniacal laugh was heard from her as she tore him right in half in front of her father and Mako.

Tonraq and Mako were both clutching onto their sides, no doubt that they were trying to stand their own the whole time against a beast like Akaza. They looked at Korra with wide eyes while also trying to catch their breaths.

Korra’s hand movements began to move again. She then willed Akaza’s body to slam back into each other.

“Akaaaaaaaaaazaaaaaaaaaa I’m ready!!!!” She stopped her blood bending and willed the bones in her forearms to come out.

To say that Akaza was excited was an understatement. He was more than that. He was intoxicated by the power Korra was showing out already that he had never had the honor of seeing before.

He quickly spun around trying to aim a kick at her but Korra grabbed his leg that almost landed on her and ripped it off. He quickly regenerated his leg and started to deploy one of his techniques.

“This is a blood battle!!”

Technique deployment: Destructive kill compass needle.

A snowflake appeared on the ground right below him.

Korra knew all of his techniques and knew that he always had this activated whenever he fought. His blows would be like magnets to someone’s vital spots.

Korra came head on and activated her technique.

Blood demon art: Blood burst.

Her blue flames covered her entire body instead of flinging some of her blood onto Akaza and activating her technique that way.

What nobody knew but her was that her technique against humans and herself was harmless. It was only lethal to demons and to demon techniques. She had even learned that she could heal with her technique of manipulating her demonic flames that came from her blood. To put in short words, she had quite the interesting technique. Fitting for a demon Avatar.

She also looked pretty killer right now.

She charged into Akaza and landed a blow right through his face. He was too slow or more like Korra was much faster now. She retracted her arm and started landing blow after blow onto Akaza.

Akaza actually felt pain coming from each blow. Korra’s flames were literally hurting him and he needed to distance himself away or bring the two humans into this blood battle. The second option was more appealing to him. As soon as he was able to find an opening which was hard because Korra was a force, he made his way towards Korra’s dad and Mako.

Korra wasn’t going to let him use them as objects to be used in their fight and it went against the rules. Or at least her rules. Before Akaza could land his hands on them, Korra was there in a flash and gripped their faces sending them through a wall.

Tonraq and Mako were in susrpise and horror when Korra grabbed them and she was covered in flames which surprisingly didn’t hurt them. But the crashing in the wall kind of hurt.

“What is Korra doing?” Mako asked. Confused on the entire situation while Tonraq was getting up from the ground and back onto his feet.

“I don’t know but if she’s busy fighting him let’s keep moving and find Muzan.”

Mako nodded his head in agreement and had Tonraq help him up. Tonraq glanced back before they made their way to Muzan wherever that was, and his eyes locked onto his daughters for a brief moment. And in that small moment her eyes betrayed her feelings subconsciously. Tonraq noted sadness in his daughter’s eyes before Korra’s eyes changed back and focused onto Akaza. He had this gut feeling that Korra was sad inside, that whatever was going on in her mind she must’ve felt sad and alone but Tonraq wanted to scream out to his daughter that she was never alone but maybe she was he thought. But she never had to be ever again after they get out of this mess and bring her back.

Tonraq and Mako started their way back into the weird fortress on the hunt for Muzan Kibutsuji.

The fight between her and Akaza spanned on for 30 minutes. Each dealing deadly blows to one another. At a point Akaza had punched right through her stomach and her right hand through his eye. Korra had coughed up some blood when she had received that blow in particular but damn did Akaza have undaunting will and spirit. Her demonic flames were hurting him, but he refused to go down quickly. To him this was a blood battle, to her it was his death. She wanted to tell him that it was time to finally go. To finally be free of Muzan.

He sent even more powerful shockwaves at her and she took them head on. She then stopped the flames covering her body. She kicked off from one of the walls in the spacious area and launched herself into Akaza. Her rib bones wrapped around him which trapped him into a piercing embrace with her. She wrapped her arms around him to complete the embrace and once again enveloped him and herself in her flames.

Akaza tried to use all of his strength to get out of this absolute death grip. The flames were burning him at an alarming rate, and it was taking a lot in him to regenerate.

“What are you doing?!”

She squeezed him harder, the bones piercing him now going in deeper, the flames now burning even more.

She spoke calmly despite the blood lust and her actions proving different.

“Aren’t you tired? Don’t you want to be free of Muzan?”

Akaza had stopped struggling then, finally sinking into the flames. He suddenly appeared in the dark and heard,

“You’ve done enough Hakuji, it’s time to come home.” A hand reached out to him and as he turned, he felt tears start to fall from his eyes. It was the woman he was in love with until she died. He couldn’t save her nor his master. She cupped his face and soothingly traced her thumb on his cheek.

He crashed into her and embraced her while yelling, “Forgive me!”

He then heard Muzan’s voice saying, “Don’t you want to be strong Akaza?”

But he ignored it because his memories had finally come back to him. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t protect you!”

His lover cradled his head in her arms as he buried himself into her body more, crying.

“I’m glad you remembered us. I’m glad you’ve returned to your original self,” She then cradled his face in her arms once again, making eye contact while tears both streamed down their faces.

“Welcome home, my love.”

His body was disintegrating right in front of Korra’s eyes. He had finally succumbed. Her bones retracted back into her body but only leaving the sharp tips out. Her flames had finally stopped as well.

“I hope you were met with a warm welcome Akaza.”

And with that done, she was glad for him. She then started making her way towards Doma.

She had crashed right through wall into Doma’s room, cackling. As she crashed through, her feet met Doma’s head knocking it off clean.

She regarded the other two in the room, Lin and Tenzin. Once she was on her feet, she took notice that they were a bit bloody and a little hurt. Surprised that they were able to stand their own with Doma, upper moon two.

Doma’s head had grew back and looked puzzled at Korra. “I had sensed that our dear Akaza had died. Doesn’t mean you have to take it out on dear ol me!” He had a smirk on his lips and brought one of his fans to his chest.

Any minute now Yushiro would have taken over Nakime and crushed her head killing her. Thus, destroying the fortress and throwing them all up onto the surface which happened to be in the middle of the city.

She tilted her head at Doma and decided that this fight wouldn’t need to take anymore time. The time now had to be around 2:30ish in the morning and she wanted and needed to be up on the surface now. The sun rose around 5 in Republic City and she needed to give the second dose of poison into Muzan soon.

“Doma, have you ever realized why you were never made upper rank 1 even before I was brought in?”

Doma hummed in interest. Bringing his fans up into an attack stance.

Korra took a step which then crushed the ground beneath her.

“Because you lack in power, unlike me,” and when Korra said she was going to end this fast, she meant it. She appeared right behind him in an instant and stuck her hands through his head, igniting his entire body with her demonic flames.

Doma had noted that Korra had become faster and stronger than him. He had no time to even react. The flames had begun taking over his body and they burned with an extreme intensity.

“Now die Doma!!!!”

Tenzin and Kya had witnessed the odd behavior from Korra. Confused on why she was doing this. Like she was helping them, but they were stilled by the stare Korra was giving them. Filled with blood lust and rage but it wasn’t towards them. Her emotions were on full on display even if they were confused by her actions.

They watched as the burning flames started to disintegrate Doma’s body. Glad that they could catch their breaths and Kya could heal some of their wounds.

However, the fortress started to rumble.

Muzan was currently in a different form as he was trying to disintegrate the poison in his body. A large red mass had covered the bottom half of his body with mouths over his body. He cursed Tamayo in his head. This damn woman, what the hell is in this.

As Korra noticed the rumbling of the fortress, Doma’s body had finally come to vanish. Her flames halted.

Yushiro had full control over Nakime’s body now and started to destroy the fortress. He looked at Bolin and yelled, “I’ll try to land everybody safely outside now go!!” Bolin started up the direction of some stairs and just kept going until Yushiro had pushed them all to the surface.

Yushiro had then crushed Nakime’s head.

Everyone who was in the fortress now was brought up into the surface. It had created somewhat of an explosion and they were now all on ground. They had all landed on their backs or their sides on some of the rubble from the fortress.

Muzan had then emerged from beneath whatever rubble he was under and he stood tall with Spinal whips emerging from his back. Rage evident on his features. They all noticed how different he looked, scarier even.

“WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!” Muzan shouted towards them.

It was then that Korra emerged from behind him screaming, “MASTER MUZAN!”

He turned his head and was delighted to see Korra. Taken notice that the rest of the upper moons had died now, he was depending on Korra.

She came to a stop right behind him kneeling.

“Help me take care of this mess.”

“Of course, Master.” She bowed her head.

Her friends and family were now worried. But that feeling quickly went away as Korra did the opposite of what Muzan asked her.

She pulled the poison out from her pocket and lunged towards her so called master and inserted the second dose into his body. As fast as she was, he caught her as the poison went inside him and his spinal whip sent her flying into the wall of a building. As she hit the wall and fell to the ground, she got up into a crouch and lifted her head towards him.

Muzan was even angrier than before now. His creation was now refusing and attacking him. He deduced that this all tied back to Tamayo who at this current moment was travelling on Naga towards their location now.

Korra fully stood up and faced Muzan.

“Do you get it now, Muzan?” She tilted her head back and started to laugh maniacally. Her arms in a spread-out position.

Everyone, including Asami, paid close attention to Korra’s next words.

“We’re going to die together by the sun!!”

Asami’s brain that was wracking for answers had finally landed on one. Korra this whole time was planning to kill Muzan by sacrificing herself along with him. It all made sense now. Her asking Asami if she trusted her, asking Asami what she would do if she were in her shoes.

Asami wasn’t going to let Korra die, none of them were going to let that happen. Korra didn’t have to do this alone.

Muzan’s spinal whips were being controlled in a crazy fashion to which Korra proceeded to approach in a careful manner before starting to attack.

“I should really thank Tamayo for her help, huh Muzan?”

That was the last straw for him.

“So, you plan to keep me up here till the sun rises? I’ll defeat you before you get the chance!”

Thus, the final battle for Korra began.