Chapter Text
"And now my bitter hands
Cradle broken glass
Of what was everything
All the pictures have
All been washed in black
Tattooed everything"
-Pearl Jam "Black"
Republic City is on fire.
To be exact, various towering buildings burn, the flames reaching up high, all a common occurrence, this of all nights. It's the constant fires spread apart from each other giving the night sky it's orange smokey glow. And those are some that aren't already abandoned or in less than standard living conditions.
It's also common for the radio on police scanners to go into overdrive with various crimes being reported, committed by some, with anyone able to be victims.
Tonight was the 30th night of the tenth month, the night before Spiritween.
Nicknamed 'Dark Spirit Night'.
But there's an old tale spoken and believed by few around these parts, one believer just the age of ten…
"People once believed that when someone dies… A foxcrow carries their soul to the spirit world."
Perhaps no one noticed, but the light flaps of one foxcrow was heard in the sky, not letting itself be drowned out.
"But sometimes, something so bad happens… That a terrible sadness is carried with it… And the soul can't rest."
Our tale truly begins at a crime scene in one building, towering up high like those around it and their water towers and smoke stacks.
One with it's beautifully made window having been broken and shattered.
"Then sometimes- just sometimes- the foxcrow can bring that soul back to put the wrong things right."
A woman stands looking out the broken window, thirty five years of being on the force on her face, the three scars on the lower right of her chin being proof of that as she just smoked a lit cigarette.
Behind her is a bad scene, the apartment she stands in having been ransacked and destroyed as other officers check it out, taking photos with their massive cameras and trying to collect evidence.
Each flash of the bulb lighting up the already red tinted room only serves a reminder to the pale green eyed woman that bad things can happen to good people.
Such as the woman laying dead on the street below, broken glass surrounding her bloodied and broken boned body as morgue attendants all work to cover her, more cops nearby keeping civilians at bay.
Dragging in one last inhale of the smoke, the female officer, a Sergeant to be exact, put it out in a nearby ashtray, knowing none of her fellow officers or forensics wouldn't give a rat-elephant's ass if she did that.
Not when they had other things to worry about, like putting on gloves and checking out parts of the scene, dusting for prints…
… along with the medics trying to keep another bloodied woman in stable condition, trying to pump some oxygen through a mask for her to breathe.
The Sergeant took notice of a picture frame unharmed and what it held. It was of the woman currently being tended to with her girlfriend, the one also currently outside, having been forced to take the six story shortcut to the first floor.
They looked so happy together, so in love, as they sat on a bench at a pier.
Casting a glance back at the badly injured girl, the scarred woman could see as easily as anyone else that her clothes were torn, most especially her pants and underwear, revealing her bruised and cut thighs, an exposed breast showing her bra was ripped apart as well.
These kinds of crime scenes will always be the hardest for the Sergeant to work around, especially knowing that her own wife was one of the medics tending to the wounded woman, who had to be at least thirty years younger than the both of them.
A poster and a taped photo got the green eyed woman's attention. The black and white poster looked to have some weird half-cog sticking out of a skeleton's back with a name on it.
'The Krew'
The photo taped to it was clear to those on the scene, having five members of the band, two male, three female.
There were names as well.
Bolin, Mako, Kuvira, and Opal. The officer thought it weird to not see any last names.
But the fifth name seemed to be scratched out, belonging to the one woman in the middle, for sure. She was the lead guitarist and singer, and now the dead one that was thrown out the window. So many images of her from publicity photos were hung up.
But the thing that got the Sergeant's attention the most was among the scattered pieces of paper on the wooden floor. What looked to be a neatly written card that she grabbed before silently reading it.
"Ms. Korra Nanouk and Ms. Asami Sato cordially invite you to participate in the sunset celebration of their marriage on the thirty-first day of the Tenth Month, Spiritween Night…"
As if everything around the green-eyed woman couldn't get any worse, the victims were going to get married the next day.
"Hey, Lin…"
Hearing the voice of one of her own calling out, Sergeant Lin Beifong turned around.
"Yeah?" she asked, turning to see the officer who called out to her standing next to two headless mannequins.
Both had on beautiful wedding dresses, one a white lacy looking affair with red highlights and the other looking more blue with white and brown furred trim, certainly Water Tribe influenced.
"Korra Nanouk and Asami Sato." the scarred cop spoke, getting a closer look at the dresses, seeing these weren't your typical Prom Night dresses, these two cost some serious yuan. "Wedding was tomorrow night."
"Who the fuck gets married on Spiritween, anyhow?" the other officer asked ignorantly, to which Lin had to give a quick breath through her teeth to hold in her anger at the buffoonery, knowing the wedding wasn't gonna happen now.
"Nobody..."
Seeing the current state the slowly passing out woman was in as they tried to shine a light in one of her eyes, one of the medics, a female around Lin's age with long flowing silver hair and tanned skin, stood up to look at her.
"Lin, we gotta move her." she insisted, which Lin wasn't arguing against.
"Do it, Kya."
"All right, guys, let's do it!" Kya called out to her fellow medics as she and the two other medics prepared to lift the wounded girl on a stretcher.
"Dark Spirit's-fuckin'-night! What's the count so far?" one cop asked out loud as Lin shook her head, knowing the answer.
"Hundred and forty three fires."
"They're slacking off from last year."
Preparing to follow Kya and the others out, all keeping their eyes on the barely-awake woman, who wanted to say something, Lin just wasn't in the mood for any humor.
"Three hours to go. Maybe they're just slow starters." she snarked before hearing Kya tell anyone in the way they were coming through.
Outside the scene, on the wooden part of a power line pole, the flapping of a special kind of bird followed its landing.
It was a foxcrow, a unique hybrid animal.
Small in size, it had the head, ears, furred body and tail of a fox, colored black and silver, while it had the beak, wings and talons of a regular black crow. The animal was rare in cities like this, more common in the mountains of the Earth Kingdom, especially those in Omashu.
No one paid any attention to the foxcrow cawing, seemingly minding its own business.
As Lin, clad in her police sergeant's uniform, stepped outside of the apartment, leading Kya, the medics and the injured out, she overheard a familiar, smug tone speaking. It's owner looked down at the other female's body, not happy.
"I really empathize, but you guys just can't come in here and take her away like this." the detective in his spify blue and white suit complained, his long dark brown hair slicked back as his blue eyes looked at another officer. "There are procedures to stick by. You guys should have cleared this with me first."
Having to step away from the wounded woman, whose oxygen mask was adjusted, Lin stepped over next to the detective, who turned to her.
"Is this the victim?"
"No, it's Mother Yangchen." Lin replied, her tone flat and deadpan as it could be, just to stick it to the man she knew was a glory hound. "We found her, detective, and you missed it."
"I don't care what her name is. I didn't give the order to move her." The detective said back as he loomed over Lin, who very much wanted to sock the bastard right in the face, knock some teeth out. Her mother certainly would have done so when she was Chief of Police.
But she didn't, letting the pompous asshole keep yapping away, not noticing a young girl of ten years ride by on her wheelboard, stopping upon seeing the scene, her brown eyes taking sight of the unknown body having the sheet put back on.
"Sweet Agni, Beifong. I can see why they took away your gold shield."
"I wasn't a big enough bitch, Tarrlok. Come on. Let's go." Lin just said as quickly as possible, not caring if the asshole got mad for the remark, wanting to instead make sure the woman being brought to the ambulance was okay, possibly get a quick update from her wife as she left Tarrlok to stew over his own insecurities.
From above, the foxcrow watched the scene, it's brown eyes focused on the beaten woman pushed away while Kya told civilians to clear out of the way.
All as the young girl, her brown hair being in a top bun along with some bangs hanging off the side, rushed her way to them, concerned.
Getting a closer look, the young girl realized just who was on the stretcher, the friendly and kind lady she knew looking so vulnerable and scared as she walked alongside the group, holding onto the woman's fair skinned hand.
"Asami?"
"Stand back, kid." Lin tried to lightly push the girl away, but she knew it wouldn't work anyway.
"Where's Korra?" The woman named Asami finally spoke with an innocent question, her voice sounding so hurt and distressed as the Sergeant tried to sound as kind as possible to her as she leaned forth.
"Just don't worry about her."
Even trying to calm the poor woman down, Lin just knew Kya was giving her a small worried glance as she helped load the black haired girl in the vehicle, who as she was being lifted in, had one request for who she saw as a nice cop.
"Tell her to take care of Jinora."
Nodding without restraint, the scarred woman turned to the brown-haired young girl, already figuring out who was.
"Look, I will," Lin promised before turning back to the hurt Water Tribe woman. "You just lie back. Come on."
Before she could say more, Asami gasped out in pain, her eyes tightly closed, trying to hold back tears as Kya had to put the oxygen mask back on her, to which Lin and Jinora watched her finally be loaded in the ambulance, both seeing it drive away to the closest hospital.
Having to lead the kid away from the scene, the scarred woman took her by the shoulders and made her look at her face, if just to stop her from still seeing the ambulance or the wrapped up body.
"You Jinora?"
Hearing the obvious question, Jinora gave the obvious answer.
"Yeah."
"Now, look, your sister… She's gonna be okay." The older woman insisted, only to see the ten year old just look up at her, concern in her eyes.
"She's not my sister. Asami just takes care of me…. She's my friend." Jinora spoke, lowering her head as tears began to fall down her cheeks, which made Lin feel even more horrible. "Her and Korra…"
Before the green eyed woman could say anything, Jinora looked back up, a knowing look on her face.
"... you lied to her about Korra."
Shit, Lin thought, the kid clearly wasn't dumb, which was both a good and bad thing.
"I had to." she admitted, knowing it was the right, if hard, thing to do, to spare Asami of even more emotional pain at the moment.
"And you're lying to me about Korra."
That was the thing that just broke whatever plan Lin had to protect this child from the truth, hearing the hurt emotions in her voice. "She's gonna die, isn't she?"
There were always those times Lin hated her job so much. "Hey, uhh…" she tried to say, only to start seeing Jinora try wiping away her tears, but failing as she kept crying.
YEP, this was certainly one of those times.
"Now, come on. Come on." she said in a soft tone, holding her arms out to the crying child who let go of the wheelboard she had been holding onto and embraced the cop, crying into her chest as Lin kept trying to comfort her.
"Come on. It's okay…. She's gonna be fine."
Even though she was the only one there for the kid at the moment, Lin hated herself at the moment for still trying to convince Jinora otherwise.
Maybe because she thought if she kept saying Asami would be okay and not die from all she endured, she'd survive.
But she knew the truth.
About the two who were victims of this Dark Spirit Night...