Korra is the Avatar, you just gotta deal (korra) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-03-11 12:10:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, asami sato, astrid hofferson, avatar korra |
Who: Korra, Astrid, Asami
What: Korra's dreams turn deadly.
When: Early this morning.
Where: Astrid's place.
Rating/Warnings: R for dream violence, injury, dark themes.
Status: Complete!
This was it. This was the end, Korra was almost certain of it. Her father was dead, her trade with Zaheer had been a trap. For all she was aware, the air benders were still in custody, or worse; He might have killed them. She’d never failed the world more as an Avatar than she had, today.
And there she was, bound in chains made of metal too pure to bend her way out of them. Suspended in midair, with his goons sitting there waiting to kill her. Korra used to be an optimist, but some part of her had always known that this was how it was going to end. Her greatest fear was dying in a way that meant the Avatar cycle couldn’t continue.
Zaheer had plans to sever that cycle. If she died while she was in the Avatar state, everyone knew that her link to Raava - the Light spirit that made the Avatar who they were - would be severed. He brought forth a poison so fatal that her body would force her into that State just to handle it, and Korra had never known fear in her life so terrifying as the fear she felt when it sank into her skin.
The pain was agonizing, just as he’d promised. But she tried not to focus on that. It felt like her insides were being burned, but all she could concentrate on was fighting back against her own body’s instinct to protect itself. Raava… raava, no…
In the end, it was a fight she would lose. Her eyes flickered white and stayed that way, and what transpired afterwards, Korra couldn’t even really say. It was a blur, a haze of pain and rage. Boulders flying and jets of flame, entire pillars of rock broken apart and flung around, and the entire time The Avatar was screaming.
In real life, outside of the dreams, it was probably a good thing that this was the one time Korra hadn’t managed to bend in her sleep. Astrid’s place would have been wrecked for certain, crumbled into dust or burnt down. Instead, she tossed and turned on the couch, screamed and writhed. Her pulse was racing, she’d broken into a sweat, and it seemed like she had a fever.
Astrid woke up to the sound of someone getting axe murdered under her roof. There wasn’t much of a distance between her bedroom and living heard; she heard everything as clear as day, and she quickly scrambled off her bed to grip the handle of her weapon.
It was instinct now, and she always had it at her bedside should something happen, but lately she was less worried over her well-being when she had someone who could manipulate the elements sharing the place. But when she realized Korra was still sleeping, that she was just having a night terror, the axe was dropped and she quickly went to her side.
“Hey! Wake up! It’s okay!” Astrid tried to be soothing, but loud enough for her words to register, and she grabbed Korra by her legendary biceps to keep her from thrashing. “It’s a dream! A bad one! But it’s a dream!”
It was probably the worst dream Korra had ever had, that much was true. Zaheer was a master airbender, hard to pin down, and Korra was so enraged that in the dream, all she could see was red. Her legs had broken at some point, her entire body was in agony, and some part of her was sure she was still going to die when this was all over.
And it was over quickly. Zaheer was captured in a wave of air and she fell to the ground. In the real world, she stopped fighting against Astrid's grip and slumped back to the couch like a ragdoll. The last thing she saw clearly before she opened her eyes again was the sight of her father.
What passed in the dream world after that, Korra didn't witness. But luckily for her, when she woke up the metal poison that had been in her body was still mostly removed. Her vision swam a little bit, but Astrid's face was obvious and it was also obvious she'd woken her up.
"Sorry... Did I... break anything?" she groaned. Aside from herself, anyway. Everything still hurt.
“My eardrums,” Astrid replied, her tone playful but mostly nervous, and now she felt that it was actually okay to release the grip on Korra. She let out a heavy sigh. “Are you okay? What was that about?”
Hell, even she was surprised Korra didn’t obliterate anything after having a violent dream like that. And Astrid only assumed it was violent because it sure as hell didn’t seem like her friend was dreaming about cuddling baby lions and galloping into the sunset with a unicorn on a rainbow.
"Poison..." Korra muttered in response. Was it still inside of her? God, she hoped not. Probably she could have used her earthbending to sense for it, but she could barely move as it was.
She closed her eyes and tried to use her words, since that wasn't a good enough description. It was hard to do. Her brain felt like it was in a fog and it was hard to get enough air, "Zaheer captured me... tried to kill me. Might have been successful."
It wasn't clear. She'd fallen into blackness right before she'd woken up. She'd sure felt like she was dying.
Water. Yeah, water was a good idea. So Astrid bounced off the couch, hurried into the kitchen (only a couple feet away; it was narrow with a kitchen nook overlooking the living room) and grabbed a water bottle from the fridge. “You’re alive, though,” the blonde reminded and opened the drink up for her friend, kneeling on the floor next to her. “C’mon. Drink up. Wouldn’t be surprised if you made your throat bleed from all that screaming. What’s the bit about poison?”
"My arms feel like jello," Korra complained. That was kind of strange, all things considered. Before the dream she probably could have picked Astrid up and carried her roommate over her shoulder. She tried to get in a few sips of water. Lifting the bottle was exhausting.
"He had metalbenders push this... poisoned metal into me. Never seen anything like that before. Kind of... liquidy?"
“Like...mercury liquidy?” Astrid was trying to get a mental image of what Korra was explaining, and that’s the best she could come up with. She looked awfully weak - the dreams must have taken a toll, and she couldn’t help but give her hair a playful little ruffle. “What’s the poison do? Aside from, you know...poison you? Is it deadly?”
Did it give her bad constipation? What? She didn’t know. But it looked like she was making breakfast today to cheer her up. Korra didn’t look like she’d get out of the couch for awhile, and Astrid could at least make pancakes out of a box.
Mercury was something Korra had only seen in a chemistry lab once, but she thought that it fit the description pretty well. "I think it might be. Both. I don't know if dream me is even alive. The poison should have killed her."
Korra didn't like that thought one bit. She also didn't like that it felt like she seriously couldn't move at all. It wasn't like she was paralyzed. She could FEEL her limbs, but she just couldn't... move them. Getting off the couch was definitely not happening. "I better not be. But heeeeyy at least I didn't die on your couch?"
Astrid rolled her eyes and fought a smile, grabbed one of the couch accent pillows and whacked Korra in the face with it. “Yeah, sure, thanks for not stinking up my furniture with your decaying corpse,” she said, a laugh laced with her words. Light heartedness aside, she let loose a sigh that made her shoulders slump. “Seriously...I’m...glad you’re okay. You sounded like you were getting murdered, you know? Which...I guess is almost true for your dream-self, so I guess it fits.”
Awkward head scratch, before standing up and nudging Korra. “Pancakes?”
"Pancakes, yeah... that's always a good thing to follow up being murdered with." Korra wanted to keep the tone lighthearted, too. After all, she was still living and breathing. But she wasn't really that hungry, truth be told. Still, trying to get up and on top of this was better than laying there moping all day.
She tried to pull herself up off the couch, only to fall back onto it. "... but it looks like you'll... have to make them yourself? I guess?"
And possibly feed them to her at this rate. This was growing increasingly more worrisome. "I really don't think I can move."
“You have to get up to brush your teeth, stinkmouth,” Astrid jested lightly, arms crossed as she stared with some befuddlement at Korra’s predicament. The dream got her a little weak, sure, but she still need to at least get up.
She took her hands to pull her off the couch. “C’moooon! I’ll make pancakes, but you need to get your lazy ass off my couch!”
The hands grabbing Astrid's in return barely had any grip to them at all. Not even The Biceps seemed all that strong, and Korra let out a grunt as Astrid tugged her straight off the couch and onto the floor.
Her legs never engaged at all. Korra let out a sound that Astrid had never really heard anymore. A kind of wail of panic. "I can't. I CAN'T! They just won't move."
She wanted to hit something or scream really loudly, but she didn't have the energy in her for that, either. A tear rolled out of her eye, "I don't think I can even airbend myself up off of this floor. What did he DO to me?"
Pale blue eyes went wide, and Astrid tried not to panic. Okay. Okay. This was bad. Did--”Okay, chill out, breathe for a second.” Maybe that advice was suited better for her instead, but anyway she lowered herself to make sure Korra was able to sit up properly at least.
There was a knot in her throat she swallowed. “Okay, maybe...maybe the dreams just...wore you out? Maybe you need to rest?” Or hell, Astrid figured calling 911 might be a better route to figure out what was exactly wrong.
"Maybe... maybe..." Korra tried to take Astrid's advice and chill out. The couch felt nice and solid behind her and she tried to focus on its steadying power. Or how cool the floor felt underneath her. "I can still feel them. In the dreams it felt like I broke them but they aren't broken here, they just ache, but--"
If her legs weren't going to work, that was bad. That was a reason to panic. Korra could feel the urge to hyperventilate, but she tried to keep herself calm, "... that's got to be it. It has to be."
Astrid was trying not to hyperventilate for Korra’s sake. She had enough cause to panic, and one of them had to keep it remotely together. “Uhh…” Okay, um. After running fingers through the mess of morning bedhead, she went to her bedroom quickly to retrieve her phone.
“I can...call Asami,” she suggested when she re-entered the living room, because maybe Asami had an idea of what was going on. “Or--the smart thing to do would be to call 911. Or a doctor. We can take you to a doctor and get you checked?” 911 was more reason to panic, just taking her to a doctor wasn’t…as stressful, maybe.
Calling Asami sounded like a good bet, though Korra didn't want to panic her girlfriend, either. If Asami had dreamed about this, she hadn't mentioned it. Korra figured this was something she definitely would have warned her about. "Ughh... This whole thing is so stupid. Stupid legs. Stupid dreams. I guess we should probably call Asami but..."
Her head flopped back against the couch and she stared up at the ceiling for a few seconds, "She's going to panic. If any of us start to panic we'll all panic. We should... doctor."
Days like this she wished they could have Dragons and Polarbear Dogs in the apartment. Getting her up and out the door would be a lot easier with help.
“Asami’s going to panic either way,” Astrid pointed out, holding her phone to her chin and chewing her bottom lip out of nerves. “You know she’s going to want to be there, Korra. Remember how ticked off you were when she didn’t include us on her dad’s illegal crap? You can’t just keep her in the dark until you know what things are for sure. She’s going to want to be there for you, before and after.”
Oh, yeah. Korra let out a groan of frustration, but Astrid was right. She’d been furious with Asami for running off and getting hurt without them, even though there was probably nothing the two of them could have done to help. At least she could count on Astrid to keep her head on straight in a crisis.
“... I hate it when you’re right.” She finally admitted. “But you’re definitely right.”
That was Astrid - someone to levelheads when needed. Sometimes. Well, to be honest, she learned it mostly from Hiccup. That’s who calmed her down, though he was usually the one with the craziest ideas that somehow included the most bizarre level of pacifism. Astrid punches things, Hiccup ‘talks his way through.’ It was about time she took a lesson from his book.
“I know,” she said softly, a hint of a smirk, then unlocked her phone to call Asami. “Just...breathe. Sit. No panicking until we know what’s up, got it?”
Even if their ship (sand sled in this case) had literally sailed, in her dreams Asami hadn't really let herself think too much about the state of her relationship to Korra. It was a thread she didn't want to pull until she knew for sure how she felt. And how Korra felt.
But then Korra had turned herself over, and Asami had never fought with more rage in her life than when she went in to help rescue the Air Benders while Korra did her thing to distract Zaheer.
And then Zaheer had poisoned Korra, and the Avatar lay in her father's arms dying, and Asami's feelings were thrown into the light.
She'd woken, sweating, with her heart pounding through her ribcage. She hadn't left Korra's side after that ordeal, until the Avatar had needed to go home and wouldn't let her come. Asami had said what she’d needed to, and had to trust in Korra to get better.
Asami got a sudden sinking sensation in her stomach, and reached for her phone to call Korra. It started ringing in her hand almost as soon as she'd picked it up. "... Hello?"
“Morning,” Astrid greeted because - hey, it was polite. But soon after, she also said: “Problem.”
Ohhhh, yeah, Asami was going to flip shit.
“So Korra had some really messed up dream; a lot of screaming and thrashing and…” A wince. “She’s having a hard time using her legs to stand up. I’m thinking we’ve got to take her to a doctor. I thought about 911, but that usually invokes feelings of...panic.”
Asami didn't respond right away. In fact, she was quiet for an alarmingly long period of time. At least five seconds.
Once she'd had her silent freak out, she forced herself to snap into action, jumping out of bed to dress. Her body protested, still healing in parts from Ganon, but she didn't make a sound. "She's awake though? Awake and alert?" She tried to remember if Astrid had a car or not. "If this is about what I dreamed last night too, she definitely needs to go to a doctor, we have to find out if there's that metal poison in her system."
And they didn't have a metal bender to remove it. Asami didn't know what they were going to do.
Asami's alarmed voice could be heard even from down on the floor-ish, and Korra squashed down her own doubts about calling her. Astrid was still right, and Korra was almost certain they'd need Asami in order to get anywhere, anyway.
While she waited for them to talk it out, she decided to just kind of rest her eyes. She was terrified of falling asleep completely, but a mini-nap sounded like a great idea. "Just gonna...lay here being useless."
Metal poison, just like Korra had mentioned. Damn. They must have had the same dreams together - she’d think this would be the kinda thing Asami would warn her girlfriend against, anyway. “Awake, alert. Looks tired. And…” A sigh, shaking her head at Korra. “Feeling useless. I live on the second floor - I’m gonna need some help getting her down the stairs, so you wanna come over and give me a hand?”
Astrid wasn’t a weakling, not by a long shot, but she wasn’t going to gamble and think she could take Korra down the stairs…
And then accidentally drop her on her head.
That would suck.
“I’m on my way,” Asami said. Then she hung up, and broke about fifteen traffic laws on the way to Astrid’s. By the time she got there and ran up the stairs, she was winded, but at least her hair and make-up was perfect. It was, in a way, like body-armor to her. And she really, really needed that self-confidence boost right now. And she thought that Korra might appreciate that, too.
She knocked on the door and tried to calm herself down.
By then, Korra was even more groggy and was mainly fighting with herself to stay awake. She mumbled as she heard the knock on the door, "...'Sami?"
Her arms struggled to push herself a bit more upright, and she really hoped that she didn't look as awful as she felt. But she probably did, and hopefully Asami wouldn't panic.
And behind door number one…! Yep, Asami, and Astrid held the door wide open, closing it once she was in. “She woke up a little bit ago. I want to say maybe it’s just exhaustion from the dreams, but…”
That was hopeful thinking and something that felt like dread pooling in her stomach tried convincing her something was very, very wrong. And it probably was.
“It’s not. I dreamed she was out of it for a few days, and then it was a struggle for her to lift her arms and she was stuck in a wheelchair but could at least sit up,” Asami said, very quietly. “Lets get her to the hospital. Maybe it won’t be as bad as it was in the dreams.”
"Hey..." Korra mumbled, "I'm just happy I lived."
The rest of it - being stuck in a wheelchair and all of that, that sounded like a nightmare. Maybe she wouldn't be as happy she lived if that had transferred over, but for now, she was going to take what she could get.