Chapter Text
Korra woke up with the worst hangover in her life. True, it was only just the third hangover she’s had, but it was far, far worse than anything before.
And then, as memories came back, flooding and overwhelming her, her nausea and headache only became so, so, sooo much worse.
Her walking the streets of Ulgoth’s Beard, looking for a cheap inn.
Something appearing, floating in the sky, a huge, tentacled monstrosity, the like of which Korra has never seen before.
The thing descending onto the village, its tentacles swiping at the terrified people… and whoever they touched… that person disappeared in grey smoke.
Korra’s instincts and training kicking in, jumping back, evading the slashing tentacles, sending a flame blast at the nearest tendril.
Her seeing a way out…
Her hearing a man curse as he stumbled and fell, a tentacle shooting at him…
Jumping forward, grabbing the man, helping him onto his feet.
The tentacle coming down, too fast. Her pushing the man back… but being too late to escape the attack. The tendril hitting her and…
She clenched her fists.
Obviously, she was alive, unless it was the shittiest afterlife ever, so no matter what it looked like, the tentacles weren’t disintegrating people on touch.
Sadly, clenching her fists and moving her head were the only things she was capable of doing, as she was thoroughly held in place by the thing she had been put in. It was like a sarcophagus or coffin, except placed vertically and with her head being exposed.
That allowed her to look around the place. It was dark, dank and, worst of all, it seemed… alive.
Stone walls adorned by strange reliefs were mixed with walls made of some breathing, quasi-bonelike, quasi-tissue… thing. In the middle of the room there was a big, bulbous… thing. Around it stood the… sarcophagi… like the one Korra was in.
Yes, if it was the afterlife, it was beyond shitty. So, fine, maybe Korra hasn’t always been the best behaved of people, but she still felt she deserved better than this!
She wasn’t the only one here. To her left she saw a strange creature, a woman with almost reptilian looking features, flat nose and skin with the colour somewhere between orange, olive and green.
While she looked fierce and tough and was struggling even harder than Korra to free herself, there was also something else that Korra saw in her snake-like eyes… panic. And that sent a shiver of fear down Korra’s spine.
She turned to her right and saw another woman… and damn… while the strange one on the left was definitely striking and strangely attractive, this one… was beyond gorgeous. Her pale skin contrasted in a lovely way with her black hair, emerald eyes and red lips. Her features however… were just perfect. Aristocratic, symmetric, delicate and yet hinting at hidden strength.
“Get a hold of yourself, Korra! Now is not the time to be admiring ladies!” she thought to herself.
Raava would often say that a pretty face would be Korra’s doom.
Speaking of the devil…
“Raava?” Korra tried asking in her mind.
She received no response.
Either the conditions she was in didn’t help her in achieving the type of mental peace needed to contact her guardian spirit – a plausible theory – or something seriously wrong was happening – also a possibility.
She took a deep breath. She needed to act. Sure, it might burn her a bit, but fire was the only element she could work with right now. She clenched and unclenched her fists a couple of times, tried to focus herself and summon flames…
Nothing happened.
She tried again.
Nothing.
“Raava?” Korra asked again, with the same result.
Ok, so something was seriously wrong.
As if in response to that, a door, hidden among the reliefs, opened… and a figure from nightmares floated down. It was tall and wore a robe that even the most pretentious magi – not that Korra knew that many – would find tacky and old-fashioned. Its face, however… its face resembled a squid or cuttlefish than anything else. And by that, Korra didn’t mean that it resembled the face of a squid or cuttlefish. It resembled the whole thing, together with four tentacles.
“Hey, you!” Korra shouted at the thing. “You better let us go or the moment I’ll free myself, I’m going to kick your ass so hard that…”
The thing just looked at her with its glowing orange eyes but Korra suddenly lost control of her tongue, unable to form words.
“Ghaik!” the reptilian woman to Korra’s left hissed.
The thing ignored them, opening its hand… and the bulbous thing in the middle of the chamber responded, opening as well, revealing a pool of sickly yellow liquid. The monster looked at it for a moment… and reached in… taking out something small and writhing, like a worm or tadpole.
Slowly the monster floated towards the raven-haired woman to Korra’s right. The disgust and fear in her green eyes were clear as day as the thing placed the worm on the woman’s smooth cheek… and it began crawling up, towards one of those emerald eyes. The woman shook her head and struggled, but couldn’t do anything and the worm reached with its tentacles to keep one of the eyelids open and…
Korra turned her face to the side, but she couldn’t cover her ears and she could clearly hear the screams that the raven-haired woman was making.
Then… something, some unseen force, grabbed Korra’s face and made it look forward… at the floating monster approaching her, another tadpole held between its finger.
“Raava, now would be a great moment to save my ass!” Korra called in her mind, to no avail.
The thing approached Korra and put the writhing worm on her cheek as well. Korra tried her best to close her eyes, but her body didn’t respond to her commands and she could only watch as the tadpole grabs her eyelid with its tiny tentacles, she saw the worm’s toothy maw… and then there was only pain as the thing began pushing itself behind her eye, deeper and deeper, wiggling in and…
…Korra mercifully lost consciousness.
* * *
It returned to her along with another headache, even worse this time. At first her vision was blurry but after she blinked a couple of times, she realized that the problem wasn’t with her eyes but with the smoke getting into the chamber she was in. A weird, nauseating smell filled her nose along with something… sulphuric? She coughed, which, to her sore throat felt as if someone ran sandpaper against the inside of her neck.
When the ringing in her ears disappeared, she realized that somewhere in the distance she heard… screaming? Explosions? Fight?
A groan brought her attention to the here and now.
The olive-skinned woman was on the floor, slowly getting up. She looked at Korra for a moment.
“Help,” Korra whispered, somewhat surprised she can speak again.
The woman hesitated… and then turned around and left.
“Hey!” Korra screamed. “Don't leave me here! Get back here!”
But the woman was gone.
Korra groaned in frustration and pushed hard against her confinement… with no luck. Her elemental powers also weren’t working, an empty void where she always found them in her soul. Raava wasn’t responding either.
Great, just great.
Suddenly there was a loud, hissing sound, as if a white-hot piece of metal was lowered into cold water. Korra turned to her right and saw the sarcophagus or pod or whatever it was holding the black-haired woman open and her stumbling out of it. Slowly she rose to her feet and looked at Korra, as well.
“Are you going to leave me too?” Korra asked.
The woman appraised her with those keen, beautiful green eyes… before taking a step forward and placing her hands against the device holding Korra. Just when she was going to ask, what in the Nine Hells was the woman doing, there was another hissing sound and the thing started opening.
Korra jumped out and landed on wobbly legs.
“Thanks,” she turned to the woman.
And then… everything swirled in front of her eyes.
* * *
Suddenly she was running out of her room, running towards the stairs… and then into a lavishly furnished room. She froze when she saw a man with salt-and-pepper hair and beard, sitting on an armchair, head yanked back, throat slit, his clothes splattered with blood.
Suddenly a tall, beautiful woman with black hair and green eyes was holding her arm and pulling her away.
“Guards!” she yelled. “Someone get Asami out of here!”
* * *
She knew she was supposed to have remained in her room but the curiosity got the better of her. She snuck out of her room, heading towards the office. The door was closed, but she could hear a deep male voice coming from the room.
“It is as Guru Laghima once said,” the voice said. “True freedom requires true wisdom and wisdom needs to come from within.”
She looked inside through the keyhole and saw the same woman as before, this time with some grey in her hair, sitting behind the desk. Apart from her, there were some other people in the room, but most of them were sitting or standing with their backs towards the door.
A tall, bald, broad-shouldered man was speaking.
“The so-called gods and their priesthoods…” he was saying, when another person lifted his hand, silencing him.
Then, this other man, one dressed in a black, hooded robe, suddenly got up and turned towards the door and on his face there was a white mask…
* * *
The woman who in the previous vision was sitting behind the desk, looking a bit older this time, walked into the dojo, as she was training herself by fighting off two sparring partners at once, trading blows and kicks.
“Asami,” she said. “We need to talk.”
* * *
Later they were sitting in the room that looked like an office and sipping wine. In her hands there were some papers, drawings of an icosahedron, along with some maps.
“Will you do it, Asami?” the woman asked. “You know, I can’t trust anyone else but you! It will be dangerous, but…”
“I will, mum,” she answered.
* * *
Korra gasped and pulled back. Asami’s green eyes were similarly open wide in shock. Did she see scenes from Asami’s life? And did Asami see something from Korra’s life? And if so… what?
“Well… it seems the worms we had implanted do wonders when it comes to breaking the ice,” she chuckled anxiously.
Asami responded by a faint smile.
“Great for making new acquaintances, at least before we start bleeding from all orifices and start sprouting face tentacles.”
“I prefer my orifices unbloodied,” Korra said. “Maybe let’s try to do something about it?”
Asami responded with a curt nod.
“First, we need to get out of here,” she said. “I hope you can fight?”
This time it was Korra’s turn to smile.
“Lady, I was born to kick ass,” she said and flexed her muscles, which made the black-haired beauty roll her eyes.
“Be that as it may, you’re currently unarmed,” she noted.
“I don’t need weapons,” Korra shrugged. “I am the weapon.”
“You're a wizard or something?”
“Or something, yes. Sooooo, any idea how do we get out of this situation?”
“No, not yet,” the woman said. “But we need to get to the helm of this ship.”
Korra frowned.
“Ship? We’re on a ship?” she asked, before a thought hit her. “Wait, the tentacled thing… it was an airship?”
“An illithid – mind flayer if you prefer a more descriptive term – nautiloid, yes,” the woman responded. “We need to get control of it.”
“And how do you know so much about… well… all of this?” Korra asked.
The other woman shrugged.
“I’ve learned about them a bit,” she just responded.
“Enough to take control of it?”
“If it rides, sails, flies, teleports or hops the planes, I can control it,” Asami said. “Let’s stop wasting time. Are you coming with me?”
“Sure. Name’s Korra, by the way. What’s yours? Wait… it’s Asami, right? I’ve seen it in… in this strange vision.”
Those emerald eyes looked at Korra for a moment.
“Yes, my name is Asami S… I’m Asami,” the woman responded.
“Nice to meet you, Asami,” Korra said. “I had this weird vision. Like a snippet of your memories? Did you have that as well?”
Instead of answering, the other woman turned around and pointed at the door hidden among the reliefs on the wall.
“That mind flayer came through here and that’s where it disappeared,” she said. “Let’s follow it there. I hope you can fight?”
Seeing no better course of action, Korra nodded her head… but when approaching the door, she saw something… a body. A mind flayer’s body to be precise.
“It’s dead,” Asami said. “It won’t hurt you.”
Korra snorted.
“Just happy to see these things can die,” she responded. “And if they can be hurt, I can put the fear of the gods into them. And even more importantly… the fear of me.”
And then, feeling her power again, she sent a blast of fire into the dead thing’s face.
“Korra… the thing in you… I’m trying to protect you from it…” Suddenly Raava’s calm voice filled her head. “But you need to be careful. You need to escape this place… and find a cure.”
”Working on it,” Korra responded in her mind.
“Korra!” Asami shouted loud.
“What?!”
“I’m talking to you!” Asami snapped. “Don’t phase out on me like that! We need to work together if we are to escape this place!”
“Umm… yes, sorry for that,” Korra muttered, feeling her face go hot. “It’s all been a bit overwhelming.”
Asami’s gaze softened a bit.
“Yeah, I can imagine,” she said. “Let’s just…”
Before she could finish, part of the wall exploded in and, along with more sulphuric smell, three small, reddish, winged humanoids flew in. Their glowing red eyes spotted the two women and they cackled wildly, showing their sharp teeth… and even sharper claws. With a loud screech they lunged forward, as fast as their tiny wings could carry them.
Korra’s instincts kicked in again.
“Stand behind me,” she yelled, jumping in front of Asami.
The first of the imps flew straight at Korra’s kick. As it connected, there was a sound of a bone being broken and the strength of the kick sent the small monster flying at a wall, which it hit with another cracking sound. Korra dodged the claws of another fiend and sent a flame at its face… and as it screamed in pain, covering its eyes with its hands, Korra hit it hard in the throat, making it fall to the ground gasping for breath, until it went still.
She turned around, looking for the third imp… and saw it lying on the floor, Asami pinning it down with her knee against its back, her hands on its neck. With a sudden twist, she snapped the thing's neck, killing it.
“Wow, not bad,” Korra said.
“You’re not so bad either,” Asami responded.
Korra smiled at her… then froze as her eyes fell on the hole in the wall through which the things got in. Or rather when she saw the view through this hole. In front of her she saw an endless black plain, full of basalt rocks, with obsidian pillars floating in the air. Scarlet lightning and meteors came down from the burning sky, hitting the ground with the sound of mountain crushing down. Everywhere she saw, she saw beings of nightmare – swarms of imps, legions of fiendish creatures – locked in combat.
“Where in the Nine Hells are we?” Korra whispered.
“Well… you guessed correctly,” Asami said. “I think we’re in the Nine Hells.”
Despite her flippant tone, Korra could see the woman’s face become even paler.
“I guess it’s true… nautiloids can travel between the planes,” she said. “Now we really need to get to the helm.”
“Yeah, we need to get out of here, before more demons get here,” Korra agreed.
“Devils.”
“What?”
“More devils. In the Nine Hells we have devils, otherwise known as Baatezu, not demons, also called Tanar’ri. These are from the Abyss,” Asami corrected her.
“Thanks for the info-dump, but is that really that important right now?” Korra asked exasperated. “I couldn’t care less who exactly tries to gut me.”
“I always feel it is important to be precise when…”
“Let’s be precise once we’re out of this place,” Korra said. “Follow me.”
“Or you can follow me,” Asami said.
“I insist.”
“Let’s just go together, ok?”