take a tiny step into another world

[anatural]

WHO: Korra & Hei
WHAT: Months after leaving Republic City, Hei tracks down Korra.

[A lot can happen in ten months, Korra had thought as Hei left. And she had been right. Just a few weeks after he left, she'd gotten word that her father had been injured in an uprising in the South Pole. That her uncle's troops weren't there to protect the South Pole, but were there to control their sister tribe. She'd kicked herself for not realizing it sooner — hadn't Jinora warned her?

So against Tenzin's wishes, she had gone home to help her tribe. He'd told her that it was important for the Avatar to be impartial, that she was a representative of the world and not just her tribe. Bullshit. Home is home is home, and her home had needed her.

It had been a brutal slap in the face. Her attempts to resolve the situation peacefully had ended in failure. The Northern Water Tribe soldiers didn't acknowledge her as having any authority. Some people didn't even believe she was still the Avatar. The southern soldiers she fought alongside didn't say anything to her face, but she heard the whispers and knew that they thought she was holding them back, because she went out of her way not to kill any of the northern soldiers, because her uncle is the leader of the Northern Water Tribe.

She'd tried to prove her loyalty by kidnapping her uncle, and that plan had backfired. That's how she ended up his prisoner, brought up to the North Pole to open the northern spirit portal.

And that's how she ended up trapped in the spirit world.]

Comments

I think this is the longest tag I've written :|

[mortemscintilla]

[ War's a dirty enough trade. But Hei draws the line at politics. ]

[ News of the Northern and Southern Water Tribes' conflict has spread fast. Even in transit, he's caught wind of it. Hearing of the internecine squabbles, the fierce rivalries, he doesn't quite understand Unalaq's motivations. It seems at first to be a simple invasion, rooted in that classic contention between Cain and Abel: about who has more troops, a superior culture, warriors who can hit harder or run faster. But that turns out to be the tip of the iceberg. He hears that Korra is at the heart of the debacle, at a crossroads between loyalty and diplomacy. It chills him. Not because she's so clearly out of her depth. But because the way Unalaq is operating, working the levers of his position, gives Hei the sense that this invasion, far from being a vehicle he is steering toward the goal of territorial expansion, is more a fragment of an overarching plan that is gradually unspooling into madness with the heights of his ambitions. It's tempting to watch the faraway machinations unfold, with a sensation of being as remote from the danger as an extraterrestrial in space. But Hei has never fallen into that trap of civilian complacence. ]

[ Trouble is brewing. And he has the uncomfortable sense that Korra is being guided along in her failed efforts to stay neutral by exceptionally deft hands. All the better to intensify the chaos in the air, to weaken the Avatar's status, while not changing the essential reality of the war itself. The broadcasts from Republic City don't help matters. President Raiko and his troops maintain a neutral stance, but there's an undertone of: Hey, it's just backwater natives, right? That's how it always is at the Poles. Fast, cheap and out of control. We'll just wring our hands and make UN-style speeches while the armies of genocide go on with their bad selves. Typical tactfully-recreant tosh. ]

[ Then he hears the Avatar has gone missing. ]

[ In wake of the disturbing news, Hei travels to the North Pole at the zero moment. With Korra gone, the civil war has reached the manic pitch of a disaster-zone. Southern natives have started breaking into factions, forming alliances, recruiting and arming civilian fighters, determined to fill the Avatar's power vacuum by destroying the Northern invaders on their own. It is too late to stop it. All it takes is a few skirmishes, some well-timed murders, before vast swathes of the populace are embroiled in all-out warfare, and terror stalks the countryside. ]

[ It's like being back in Heaven's War. The knowledge carries no bittersweetness, but a sourness of inevitability. Because, regardless of the efforts of an exceptional few, the selfishness and violence inherent in human DNA dictates their every action. ]

[ None of that is Hei's problem. His priority is to retrieve Korra. For once, his 'outsider' status is an advantage. He's a cipher where her enemies are concerned; they're largely focused on her close friends and family. So much the better. He can slip between the cracks. ]

[ By the time he arrives at the North Pole, part of him is so tired it can barely form thoughts. With all his experience of these things, he's still amazed at how one world-devouring calamity can follow another. Except these days it is the personal ones that seem far more devastating. The struggle he'd won in Tokyo, to preserve that damn city for soba and sunshine, already seemstrivial, even unreal, except that his memory throbs to after-echoes of it, and from the stress of whisking himself halfway around the world. He's tried to keep his mind moored on immediate concerns -- the reconnaissance gathered by Tonraq and Varrick about the North's military outposts, its security framework. Details from Jinora about the Spirit portal, and what it contains. How to get Korra out once he does find her, with the help of Southern loyalists on the inside. Beyond that, his mind is crammed with things like supplies, plans, weapons, contingencies, whether he's had a bath or brought his toothbrush or eaten a meal. He refuses to think of Korra beyond the goal of finding her. Refuses to wonder if he's too late. Time is different where she'll be, anyway. He can only hope she's staying afloat. ]

[ After miles on a route winding through the frigid tundra, he pulls off his snowmobile near an outcrop of rocks. The military encampment isn't far. He can see the portal shimmering like a spotlight, slicing a brilliant arc across the multicolored smear of the aurora borealis. So cold out here, and the stars seem as diffused as the fake ones in his homeworld. Infiltrating the base is tricky, but not impossible once he's 'borrowed' a uniform from one of the guards. A corpse won't need it. The portal is remote from the base itself, surrounded by a latticework of gnarled trees. The entrance is glowing and ephemeral. Stepping toward it, Hei remembers when he entered Hell's Gate. He knows -- from Jinora -- that what he'll encounter within is similar. Around him, the air vibrates, a pure cosmic radiation. ]

[ Exhaling, Hei squares his shoulders and steps in. Only when the portal envelops him in a wave of hot-cold does it occur to him: What if I don't find Korra at all? ]

such beauty

[sleepingstar]

[The spirit world is a funny place. It is no mere reflection of your mind, but it is shaped by your thoughts and feelings. Wishing for something won't guarantee it happens, but wishes still have power here, if they are strong enough.

Hei steps through to a bright & cheerful meadow. Colorful rabbits with dragonfly wings for ears flutter, romping and playing. Groups of merecats gossip cheerfully.

Everyone stops when they see Hei.

Or, perhaps more accurately, when they see who's behind him.]

u///u

[mortemscintilla]

[ It's like walking straight into an LSD trip. The brightness behind Hei's closed eyelids changes shades, and when he opens them, he's in a place so picturesque it would inspire the most jaundiced traveler to poetry. The emerald grass sways in the soft breeze, and the scent of flowers is ascendant, the colors so vivid they are almost hypnotic, brilliant in the pure light. Animals -- like something out of Alice In Wonderland -- too many to count, are dotted among the soft fringes of grass, chattering and twittering, or else flying, swooping across waves of air. Water, plaiting through the ground in sleek curves, slaps across rocks, fish, swish, the unique liquidity of stream beds, so perfect that the whole panorama travels him back to distant memories of Disney movies -- if only for a moment. ]

[ Forcibly, Hei shakes his head clear. The world is phantasmagorical; a perfect hallucination. He doesn't trust it. ]

[ Especially doesn't trust it when all the creatures stop. Stare at him. Or ... stare at what's behind him. ]

[ Senses edging into red, Hei glances over his shoulder. Blinks, and stares, a flutter of shock leaping in his belly. Is this -- is this what he'd expected --? ]

Pai?

[sleepingstar]

[You know better, Hei. She smiles and holds out her open arms to him.]

Brother.

[Come hug her. Come tell her how much you missed her. Ignore how every other animal in the meadow is suddenly gone.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ She spreads her arms open, and something like a discordant music unfurls down Hei's spine. His eyes stay pinned on her. How strange, that he can recall Pai's face with exactitude. They say when a person vanishes you often lose the image of them; your memories degrade at the pace of that body interred. Except Pai isn’t dead -- not that way. Hei can still frame her face. Her profile made of jade, refusing to be erased by a steady wind gusting through his head. It doesn't match up with the face of the girl here; she seems too pale, too perfect. A clone of his sister, her beloved quirks erased as flaws, smoothed into something too chillingly sweet. ]

[ He wants to grab her the way he always used to, to examine her closely, to hope against hope that he's being paranoid, because it's really Pai. Because she's found some way to come back to him. He'll sweep her up in a hug, kiss her over and over on both cheeks, on her nose, listen to her giggling out in high clear joy. ]

[ He doesn't touch her. When he speaks it's in a voice honed to slit throats. ]

Where is Korra?

[ He doesn't know if she's a figment of his psyche. He doesn't know if she's a shapeshifting monster. But he knows it's impossible for Pai to be here. ]

[sleepingstar]

I don't know. [She continues to hold her arms out pleadingly.] It's easy to get lost in here.

I've missed you so much.

[mortemscintilla]

[ She reaches out to him, arms uplifted, her hands two rosy, quinquefoliate flowers. That familiar, natural pick-me-up pose, which makes Hei yearn in every cell to do that, to hold and cradle her and go back to the beginning, so it could all be different. Except it can't be different, because they've both made their choices. This isn't real, as much as he wishes it could be, and this isn't what he's here for. He has a job to do. Korra. Need to find Korra. ]

[ Determination encrypts his face. But his voice is quiet. Honest. ]

I miss you too. Every single day. But if you can't help me, you're no use to me here.

[sleepingstar]

[Her arms fall, as does her expression.]

Brother... why don't you love me anymore?

[mortemscintilla]

[ Something like agony corkscrews deep into his chest. He can't help it; he snatches her close, breathing in the clean smell of her, something cool and powdery and ghostly that lies parallel to Home and Loss in his mind, and presses a soft kiss to the baby-fine hair near her temple. Knowing this isn't real, but also that this is the last time, the last. His precious sister. Memory flashes on him, of that goodbye, that cloudburst of whiteness as she'd stepped through the City's gate. How glad he would've been then, to take the pain, the sacrifice, onto himself. ]

[ But this is different. This isn't Pai -- but a phantom of her. Because the real Pai would never ask why he doesn't love her. The real Pai knows that his feelings for her are as absolute as gravity, time, the cosmos itself. She doesn't have to charm or trick him into loving her, because Hei already adores her with his whole being. ]

[ He puts Not-Pai firmly back. Drops his hands away, and steps past her. ]

[sleepingstar]

[Except he doesn't get the chance to. Those arms, which had seemed so human while he was holding her, morph into tentacles that wind around him.]

You can't go.

[mortemscintilla]

[ He should've seen that coming. Should've been inoculated long ago against this type of mind-fuckery. But sentiment has always been Hei's failing. Everything he believes is either invincibly logical or so intensely felt it is dangerous -- or both. He goes rigid as her arms morph, trying to squirm free of those long simian limbs, out of her smooth rubbery grip -- tentacles without the suction cups -- as a cold rill of disgust rides up his spine. ]

That's not -- for you to choose.

[ The voice is sharp as a bite, presaging a jolt of electricity that alights the space like a Fourth of July sparkler. ]

[sleepingstar]

[It cries out in surprise and pain, the facade of Pai shattering into dust. The creature is dark, tentacled, obscene.]

What are you?

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hei jerks out of the slippery grasp, rocked by a sharp surge of adrenaline mingled with reflex. He rolls into a crouch a good distance off, one arm raised to deliver a second blow, his stance wide and low. The thing that once wore the face of Pai unfolds itself from a pale chalice of her form. Crawling out like a spider, folding each of its long, dark limbs out, unpacking itself from its hiding space with the showy grace of a contortionist. Hei's mind reels -- a split-second ago this thing was person-shaped, not much different from him. He ignores a little voice in the back of his head that gives the predictable 11-year-old response: Oh, gross -- I can't believe you kissed that.. ]

[ Shaking it off, he fixes a cold and measuring gaze on the -- the thing. ]

I'd ask you the same question.

[ Except he doesn't care. Dark spirit, demon, monster, shapeshifter -- it all funnels down the sniper-scope of his brain into one thing: Threat: Intercept & Neutralize. ]

switching accounts just to avoid double notifs

[anatural]

I belong here. You don't.

<3

[mortemscintilla]

[ As far as danger-zones go, the situation has edged into red in Hei's mind long ago. But this isn't the relatively straightforward terrain of a combat-zone. While he can hurt these creatures, he's aware that killing them the way you kill humans would be difficult under the circumstances. So he stays on the defensive, but not quite playing for keeps. Not yet. Better to test the water first. (Opportunism is a deeply-seated thing, and there's a part of him that wonders if this creature could reveal any useful information.) ]

I'm looking for the Avatar. Once I find her, I'll be on my way.

[ He knows it's a fifty-fifty risk. The portal is a gaping maw; spirits and people can pass in and out with ease. There's a chance these creatures might inform Unalaq about his presence. But it's just as likely they'd prefer to deal with intruders on their own. A rock and a hard place, either way -- but Hei's used to his choices being less than ideal. ]

[anatural]

[The spirit calms, its colors dark but solid once it realizes that Hei's not going to attack again just yet.]

Avatar? There's no Avatar here.

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hei stays completely still, the way a clock stops ticking. Or the way a grenade is still -- solid and innocuous-looking -- before you pull the pin. This creature has done everything to impede his path; that renders it automatically untrustworthy in Hei's book. (Then again, who doesn't have their name jotted in its pages? A dismal few, that's for sure.) ]

I'll determine that on my own.

[ His voice is quiet, but the warning -- Stay out of my way -- is implicit. ]

[anatural]

No, you won't. [The spirit grows larger, darker.] You don't belong here. [Too fast to see, its tentacles reach out to grab Hei again and toss him over the edge of a cliff.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ At least he's not getting eaten alive. Or hurled out the portal like yesterday's trash. ]

[ The tentacles whip toward him, like gnarled roots on a possessed tree. But Hei is ready. He darts sideways, evading, and by the third heartbeat the blade tucked away in his left boot is unsheathed. He strikes out, a diagonal slash and a brilliant flare of electricity, aiming to chop through the closest appendage. But he refuses to waste his time or energy in a battle. Korra. Need to find Korra. In the distance, a jagged shape of treeline stripes the horizon. Whirling, Hei unleashes a bright fireball of sparks -- brilliant enough to imprint everything in negatives -- before he hurtles at full-pelt toward the forest. ]

[ Bursting through the fringe of dense trees, Hei feels like he's been plunged into a twilit nightmare. It's dark, almost as dark as it was in the swampy jungles of Heaven's War -- no, exactly like it. Chilling noises emanate from the lacework of tall trees: hoots and scufflings and a frenzied cackle that rises up and up until it drops to an ongoing buzz like an enormous dragonfly trapped in a rain barrel. Whatever is making those sounds might possibly be worse than the Pai-thing back outside. ]

[ But Hei doesn't care. He's in motion, he's heading forward, and while he doesn't have a map or a compass, it's better than immobility. ]

[anatural]

[The creature screams its rage, but Hei moves too fast for it to catch. All around him, spirits flee, all manner of shapes and colors, dizzying in their light and their dark.

When he finally slows down, he'll hear crying.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ Heart thudding, Hei doesn't stop running until there's a good distance between him and the tentacled creature. When he finally allows himself a breather, he looks back down the tracks for signs of pursuit. He's heard no slither of movement, he sees no sign of threats. He bends over, hands on his knees, breath sawing at his chest, then takes himself off the muddy tracks to a sidelong tree and rests his forehead against the bark. Blood beats in his ears, and unseen shapes call in a metallic rhree-rhree-rhree: a sound like a rusty axe drawn across a cinder block. ]

[ Beneath that, though, is something else. Familiar. The soft, melting, almost musical flow of a child's crying. ]

[ It hits Hei's system, nerve endings a-tingle. Jerking his head up, he glances around. He can't be sure, but the scenery seems to have shifted, the way the sky darkens with the sinking of the sun. Eerie shades of black and red and green, replicating the South American wilderness. Bulbs of fetid plants hanging in long garlands from high tree boughs; scabby shoots and jagged knifelike edges of rustling weeds. The smell is dank, noxious -- a stench tattooed in his brainstem. Things rotting, festering, with a high sharp reek of fear that intensifies in the gathering humidity. ]

[ Hei swallows, shaking it off, his larynx feeling raw as if with last ropes. ]

Korra? [ A breath, then, louder. ] Korra.

[anatural]

[The crying stops for a moment, then there's a choked cough, like the effort to keep the tears in was just too much.

And then, through the coughing tears, a weak -] Hei?

[mortemscintilla]

[ As the Hei reaches his ears, a bolt of pure, unmistakable relief zigzags down his spine. But nothing here is what it seems. He won't risk hurtling toward a fresh threat -- Korra-shaped but harboring another destructive monster. Silently, he moves in the direction of the voice. In darkness there is only that infallible inner-compass to guide him, his boots crushing what feels like rotting fruit underfoot, filling the air with their sickly sweetness. An early twilight hangs suspended over the dense marshy land, patches of dull red burning between the trees. Everywhere, there is an eerie chittering, an endless susurration: shapes dancing through the foliage. It is their eyes that give them away: specks of slitted red glowing like well-stoked embers. Their brightness is such that they leave lingering contrails wherever they move, the way sparklers held by happy children do on the New Year. ]

[ Dry-throated, pulse a steady thub, Hei's hand hovers reflexively at his belt -- ready to grab the dagger. He can feel himself slipping, inexorably, back to the memories of Heaven's War. Fear and survival fighting against each other: survival winning the moment. Never had he felt so alive and so perversely calm as during those jungle nights. That is, until now, with these nightmare creatures flanking him left and right -- and Korra's voice like a small fragile chime luring him forward. ]

[ Now and then, he feels the same: energized and perfectly at home. ]

Korra? [ He's dimly confused by the grating quality of his voice. Almost adolescent, at once rasping and reedy. ] Where are you?

[ Please let it be her. He's so sick of shapeshifters. ]

[anatural]

[She emerges from the bushes, wiping her eyes and suddenly, strangely calm.]

How did you get here?

[Confusion, it seems, has temporarily displaced grief.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ He blinks when he sees her. Not the teenaged Korra he'd expected -- fizzy energy and sleek curves of muscle running beneath smooth skin, realizing an essential, youthful symmetry. Instead it's the little girl, barely a baby, brown as a nut, radiant as a sunflower with her bright eyes and dark mess of hair clustered around her face. Deja vu jangles through him; it's like his first glimpse of Amber in Hell's Gate -- an apple-cheeked toddler with eyes of unnerving steadiness. Wary, Hei regards her for a moment. Not stepping closer, but staying alert as if for nearby threats. How is she a baby? It makes no sense. ]

[ (Except this is the Spirit World. No better than the City. He's not helping himself by refusing understanding. Look around. Nothing is normal. Why answer with his mind, which is conditioned to reject these realities? Better to rely on what his senses show him. ]

[ Not edging closer, he says, ]

Doesn't matter. I'm here to get you out. [ A beat, before he extends a hand. ] Come here.

[ Ostensibly a reassuring gesture. But it's really an excuse to examine her at close range. ]