The Reset

When Korra opened her eyes, she found herself in a strange room. It seemed like it was in some sort of cave, there were chairs, a bed and a blue fire in the middle with a incense near it. It had a peculiar warm smell, something pleasant. She would have liked it here if her brain didn’t remind her of how she got here. A sudden fear crept up as she stood to look around, only to fall back paining where the chi blocker had hit her.

“You’re up. That was quite earlier than how long it takes normally.” A voice came from behind, she looked around to see Kei sitting in a meditative stance. Somehow his voice was calming. The rational part of her brain argued if he wanted her dead, he would have already killed her. But it would still be good to be defensive and alert of whatever was to come.

“Where are we?” She asked with a force, with an eyebrow arched.

“We are in the mountains north of Republic City.” She was surprised at the honest answer given to her by a man who she thought had all the plans to kill her. He offered her a cup of some liquid, probably tea or some soup, “This should help with the pain.”

She was hesitant but she took it, and it did help pain subsided a bit with the first sip. “Thanks.” Silence followed as she took another sip. “Why are you giving me medicine, I thought you wanted to kill me.”

Kei laughed at her, he did not imagine the young avatar to be so confrontational. “Today is not the day.” He stared at her with a serious face. “I want some answers and I think you want some as well.”  He was quite observant of the situations, Korra had already noticed.

“What do you know about what’s happening to me? How come your voice was in my head? What did you do to Korra and why am I here?” She said it all in one breath, patience was never Avatar’s virtue, especially when she was younger.

 “For starters, I hate Avatar. Not you particularly, just the Avatars. And you are right it was my doing that ended up with you somehow being here. But I did not expect it to go wrong, but here we are.” He answered calmly.

“Why do you hate Avatars?” Korra was confused.

“Well because Avatar took people important to me away from me, where I can never reach them again.” He looked sad, genuinely sad. “Your previous incarnation Avatar Aang, in the days before his death, took my parents away from me. He did not end them but he was responsible for creating conditions where they could no longer live.” Korra looked at him, she had no idea what words she could say so she chose to stay silent and just listen.

“My parents worked for the Earth Kingdom, a small town near the shores surrounded by mountains as town chiefs. The town was growing, it attracted jealousy of the neighbourhood district. Whose governor created a false report and accused us of cheating and hoarding grains and criminals. Avatar intertwined but was misguided by the governor, he was well connected so all other neighbours attested with whatever story he cooked. Avatar commanded my father to part with grains and let a search through the town. It was humiliating but in our town we respected Avatar, and they found some criminals hidden there, and my father got the title of liar and traitor. After Avatar went back, the governor hired some waterbending criminals and one night they sent these huge waves to the shore, it destroyed our town. Governor blocked out all the communication to outside, and there was a famine situation, the criminals took over the city and killed my parents in front of the village. Before they died though, they managed to send me  away on a makeshift boat hidden from everyone.” He was looking up on the ceiling trying to fight the anger or sadness. “My disappointment in you grew as I observed you, watching you closely. But all in vain as you did not stand for any real change, all you did was create one blunder after another and I took it upon myself to end this imbalance that Avatar creates. I buried myself trying to find ways to change that. Quite the sob story isn’t it.” He laughed filling the room with a bittersweet scent.

“I don’t know what to say. I am sorry that it happened to you, I wish I could change the past but I can’t.” It hurt her that she had to carry these mistakes with her. The White Lotus and her parents have only told her about the great things Avatars did, so this was something new. The consequences of their actions that she had to live and correct.

“I know it’s not your fault but you have to bear the brunt of it because you are a part of them.” His face became serious. Silence followed as they finished their tea.

“What did you do to her? You’re not even a bender.” It took some time but she finally asked.

“Aren’t you the curious one?” His face lit up as if he was waiting for the moment where he could tell the tale to someone. “Yes I am not a bender. I dedicated all the time I had to study about the Avatar and try to find their weaknesses. I found one that was to kill you in your avatar state, but it would not be possible for me as I am at a huge disadvantage.“ He got up from his chair and mocked some bending stances before walking around the room. “But I was stupid, I did not need to search so much when your previous incarnation had already given me what i needed. I just need to stop you, not kill you but just stop you, freeze you in such a state that you are neither living nor dead.”

Korra’s eyes widened as she heard these horrible words. “So I searched and searched how to do that. In my research I came upon a spirit who had no name but it could tap into the unconscious minds of people. That was my signal and lucky for me you opened the Republic city Portal, as if handing me the keys to your doom youself. So I sneaked into the portal, searched for days and days until I could find it, defeated it and it lent me the power. Hence the red eye. So I snuck into your mind, found that you are suffering from the trauma. I felt bad for you so decided to put you out of your misery.” Korra was scared, really scared of this man blabbering his mouth and saying all these things so easily and being happy about it.

‘That’s horrible. World needs an avatar, to keep balance. To keep everything in check. It’s selfish but i want to live.’ Words were forming in her thoughts but dying on her throat.

He looked at her, with anger in his eyes that he could no longer hide. “Just when I thought i succeeded, somehow you came and ruined it all.” He threw his cup on the ground that the shards flew in the air, one came her way and left a cut on her cheeks. “And I can't find it again, all I can do is remind you of the pain you felt that time but I can't do what I did back then.”

Suddenly she understood what was happening. He could not do it again as she had no memory of the trauma that her future self was subjected to, She had met the perpetrators but they could not instill the same fear in her. Because those things had not happened to her. For her, they were just the people she had a conversation with.

The incense was near it's end now. “That was fast. I am sorry Avatar but we have to cut this meeting short for now. It was one sided talk but I promise next time it won’t be and I will definitely put an end to this performance.” He was still speaking but her eyes became heavy again, and she slipped in a deep sleep, the cup dropped from her hands at the final moment where she completely lost control over her body, all she could remember was the scent in the air.

Kei smiled as he found the missing puzzle of what to do next. As he picked her up and made his way out of the room. Got to you finally Avatar.

--

Back at the air temple island, an environment of alert and uncertainty filled the air. Zaheer, Bolin, Kuvira were unconscious and Kya was with them. Mako and Asami had briefed everyone about the events of the day and what was to happen in the evening. They were prepared to deal with the enemy if they encountered them again.

It had already been a few hours, Asami was getting anxious. Korra was nowhere in sight. All efforts  proved to be futile, all searches leading to a dead end. She had no idea how to deal with this. The always prepared Asami was shivering like a little child. All horrors coming to her mind - what if Korra was hurt, or worse she had lost again. She stared at the sea, paying no attention to Mako who stood besides her now.

“She will be back, Asami. Go to Kya, get your wounds healed.” Mako was searching for the right words and when he couldn’t find them he just said these.

It was as if the balloon of emotions within Asami needed the tiniest of prick to burst. She turned to him and tears paced down her cheeks uncontrollably. “I was there, Mako. Someone took her right in front of me. I felt so useless. How could I let that happen?”

Mako looked at her before saying, “Asami, we all were there. We were unprepared and we won’t be if something like this happens again. I hate myself for what happened today as well.”

Silence followed as he hugged her while she cried like a child, letting out all the emotions that she had hidden from the last few days. She was pulled back to reality when she heard Mako ask about something he saw in the sea. She turned her eyes to see a small boat wash up near the island with someone in it. It wasn’t long before she realised who it was.

They rushed toward it, Tenzin joining them on Oogi. They flew out to the sea, found an unconscious Korra on it. Other than the cut on her face she was unharmed and soundly sleeping. They took her to her room, Kya joined them. Asami and Jinora stayed with her. The air of the temple was a bit calmer. The storm has passed for now as the moon lit up the skies.