Chapter Text
“I’m proud of you.”
Her father, at the docks before she boarded the ship. He cannot leave the temple, but he had given her a map with the location of where to find Hyunjin. There is a letter too, that she must give to Hyunjin.
She keeps them in her small pouch, reaching with her hand to check on them. She sits in her spot just under the protection of the sunroof. It’s been three days since this ship had sailed, and ever since, her stomach had wanted to empty its contains, but she keeps strong for now. It will weaken her if she indulges in it.
When she thinks that she’d finally surrendered to sleep, Yerim is yet shook by the sudden unsettling waves. She tells herself that she should’ve stayed inside, but there is only darkness that keeps her awake. She had found the balance with Heejin’s guidance, she found how to bring herself back to where the dark stood to her left and the light stood to her right. She keeps that image in her head to find her own balance.
“We’re here.” The caption of the ship speaks. Yerim opens her eyes and finds lands, she springs up and lets her eyes soak in the glory of the expanse of.... buildings, steam, darkness. There is so much darkness here.
She turns to look at him, “This is the United Republic?” she asks him with a frown that highlights her confusion.
“What did you think you’ll see in the most populated city of the earth kingdom?”
The tall buildings, surrounded by spirit vines, the tangled lines made of copper and metal to surge electricity through, the masses of people -and she sees through her now open eyes how darkness surrounds them all- populating the city. This place that represents unity, is a pit of darkness.
“We cannot stay here for long, the police will find our unmarked ship.” The caption walks her to the front of the deck, where the crew had laid a foundation to unload the cargo. “Avoid any main road, they are filled with cops,” he warns her, but she doesn’t understand why she must stay away from the police. “if you see the police, just hide or get out of their way.” He points to the small alleyway where three men are standing, “Those are loyal to your father, they can help you from here onwards.”
“Thank you,” she hugs him and he laughs.
“Be careful young avatar, we only have one of you around.”
Yerim leaves the ship, she heads straight to the three dressed in fire nation suitable attire. One of them recognizes her and brings her out of the street view and into the small alley. They introduce themselves as part of the Dai Li agents but undercover. They bring her to a small noodles shop taken care off by an old woman. Inside, in the backside of the shop, the man named Sunbin, their leader and an earth bender explains the situation they have.
“It’s like a nightmare out there,” he sits on a small chair, “The chief of police had gone missing and there is someone there bending spirits to their will.” His hands shake on his knees.
The second in command, Cheng, shows her a small map of city, “They have there areas we might think they’re keeping the chief of police inside of, but we don’t have the manpower to break inside of them.” Yerim nods.
“How many are with you?”
“Little, and we’re only getting smaller.” Sunbin answers. “They captures whom they see fit, and kill the rest of us.” See fit? She doesn’t understand.
“See fit for what?” the three of them share confused looks with one another.
“Your father didn’t tell you?”
She shakes her head, “Tell me what?” she doesn’t know what’s happening. He hasn’t spoken of the darkness in the city, he hasn’t told her of the corrupted police that are terrorising the citizens. He only spoke of the danger she’d face. Is this what he’d meant?
“The city is overrun by dark cultists. They capture everyone that’s suitable for a transaction and kill whomever that feels worthless to them.” Again, she doesn’t get it when he says transaction, but her blood boils enough and anger burns ugly in her body when she hears of their crimes.
“What do they do to them?” she asks him, shutting her eyes tight, readying herself for the worst. A part of her knows what he’ll say, she had read something about this transaction in the diaries of the missing avatar. Something close to possession.
“They summon dark spirits and transfer their souls in human bodies.” She hears the worst. “They’re still alive when the transaction happens, the dark spirit kills the soul, and all we could see is the torture and hear all of their screams.” His eyes are glazed over, Yerim drags one of the small chairs and sits right in front of him. She sees the emptiness within, the pain from the lack of sleep, he is haunted by nightmares. When Yerim inspects the other two with him, they are as drained as he is. “The soul dies and inside, it leaves these husks around with a body that belonged to a bender, now ten times stronger than master a bender.”
“We’ll do something to stop them.” she puts her hands on both sides of his face, the trembling of his muscles lacking the control his brain supplies. “I’m here now, I’ll do everything I can to help you.” she finds his darkness, overwhelming, tainted with hate, anger and bitterness. She gives him light to balance it out, to give it company to surround, and she feels how he straighten up his posture as the light surges through his being.
“What...what did you do?” the bags under his eyes were just the darkness without light. The glazing in his eyes was the lack of balance in his soul. Yerim has brought balance to him as Heejin had brought balance to her.
“It’s not your fault.”
Yerim whips her head around, searching for the abnormal voice echoing from behind. Alerted by her sudden fixation, the two with the leader of the Dai Li head to the door. “Wait!” she stops them. Something is behind it, twisted and rotten, dark and evil. So frightening that she cannot control her shaking limbs from subsiding. “Wait for it to leave.” she whispers, the light emitting from the candles is sucked away, the fire is burning but they are dark grey.
“What the hell is out there?” Sunbin whispers back, getting in front of her, using himself as a shield to protect her.
“Wait for it to leave.” she had never felt the dark spirits so close to her before. She had only saw them in dreams. It was never this cold. Not the cold of the north or the south poles where the temperature drops and body heat lowers. She's alone and helpless, she’s alone and surrounded.
This fear now surrounding her, it’s dry making her sweat. The shortage of her breath races her heartrates to the max. Her head is empty with thought but the fear to move. Then all of the sudden, the fire burns bright, the comfort of company fills her heart, the stability of her own thoughts finds reason to not fear for what’s beyond the door.
It’s gone. Whatever it was that had terrorized their peace and quite. “You think it was a dark spirit?” the second in command speaks, his words are still whispered, afraid the spirit might have heard them. “If it’s a husk then it might still be around.” He moves, and slowly, to the window, uses fire-bending to dim down the candles and peers through the rag they made a curtain out of.
From her position, Yerim cannot see what he sees or even look for, but she does hear him curse, “What?” Sunbin hurries to him, takes his place and scans the outside. “They must have known you’ve been here, we have to move.” The candles are extinguished, and he leads her to another exits blocked by a dresser.
“Because of what I just did?” she asks him, keeping her pace behind him, the other two are behind her, one of them, Minju, uses his earth bending to wall up their exit.
“You’re the avatar, spirits know that, and no doubt dark spirits can track you just because.” They follow an underground city sewers, the smell of rot is sickening. The tightness in her chest closes on her heart when she sees bodies, mutilated, desecrated, and hard to look at. It catches her breath and she stops.
Yerim turns around, Minju and Cheng eye her carefully. She closes in on Cheng first, he is a fire-bender, and she places both of her hands on the sides of his face to balance his light with his darkness. Once finished, she does the same to Minju. When she backs away, they both bow to her.
“I haven’t felt this alive in years. Thank you, avatar.” Minju speaks and Cheng agrees with a nod. She thought to start small first with those loyal to the cause. Those who fight to protect the people and stave off evil. They are strong, their pure souls had protected them from corruption. She only fortifies their faith to use it to fend for themselves and others.
“let’s move, we don’t know if that husk has our trail.” Sunbin says. He has a shine in his eyes, a smile on his lips and his steps are less heavy than from when she had met him an hour ago.
“Let’s find the chief of police, they are not expecting us so let’s surprise them.” Yerim now takes the lead, walks next to Sunbin as he leads them away from the main streets.
They stop when she does.
“It’s here,” How? How on the moon can the husk be this fast? If it can track them this long, and by just recognising where she was for a minute.
But her surprise was lived short. She instinct take over for a second, but it was just late.
Something from the dark had charged at them with an incredible speed. It catches Minju first by his face and drags him on the ground. It shrieks and the three of them cover their ears.
“One,” it says. His voice pure evil. It vibrates in her chest and she drops to her knees. The husk lifts Minju by his neck and before anything was done, it snaps his neck.
“Yerim! Get up!” Sunbin screams, he bends the earth from underneath the husk and locks its feet to the ground. Cheng charges with a cry and sends a fire bolt to its face. The husk air bends it away with one hand. He drops Minju’s lifeless body, focuses of Cheng and begins a movement with his arms. She knows what’s about to happen. Cheng suddenly stops, air sucked way from his lungs with a small air bubble covers his face. “Yerim,” Sunbin calls her again. “You have to stop it.”
It jerks her up to her feet and does the exact opposite to the husk movements, the air bubble vanishes when she stops him from stealing all the air from his lungs.
Sunbin charges again, but the husk pushes him to the side with strong winds, he’s knocked to the wall. It frees its feet from the earth holding him, and jumps again, grabs Sunbin by his face, but before Yerim fires a bolt of fire its way, the husk starts running away.
“We have to go after them,” Cheng limbs next to her. His breathing is erratic, a hand clutching at his neck. “It didn’t kill him, they want him alive.”
She nods, they want him for a transaction. She’s not going to let that happen. Yerim shakes herself, shakes the fear from her body and remembers Heejin’s teachings. She balances her light with the dark inside and runs after the husk.
When she made a turn, Yerim saw the husk and Sunbin with it. There were three other dark spirits surrounding him, she can see three, but hear the deformed voices of many, circling, jeering, clutching. When faces apeared, they looked like those of demented infints and screeming woman. Each one with long claws that pulled him back and forth as if he were a toy they were fighting over. His arms and face had bled from dozens of small cuts already and Yerim knew in that moment, if she did not save him, soon... they will butcher him, once they finished arguing with the privilage.
They knock him to his knees and she knew that the dark spirits had decided to end the game. She doesn’t wait for them to hurt him any further. She had already saw one of them die, Cheng is still with her, and she cannot endanger him too.
Yerim leaps from her spot with the help of earth bending, launching herself their direction, and in the air, she launches two bolts of fire. The spirits holding Sunbin scatter, his body falls on the ground, “Get him out of here.” She shouts and points for Cheng to move. He hears her and runs to Sunbin. The husk has her attention, it readies itself and uses air-bending to knock her off her feet the moment she lands on the ground. Yerim pulls the ground to her in the form of a wall that redirects the air bended towards her.
With quick thinking, and before the husk changed their position, she bends the ground beneath him to liquefy, latches the mud to his ankles. It releases a shriek that terrifies her and for a moment of clarity, she sees Cheng looking back, stopping from where he was running away with Sunbin next to him. He is fending for both of them with his fire, screaming when a spirts yanks him off his feet.
Yerim slowly brings the husk to be half buried with all of his limbs shackled underground. She leaves him and runs to the spirits. She channels her energy once more, leaps with two steps, spinning in the air and sends a water blade to the dark spirit dragging on Cheng’s feet. It releases him and they all stop their assault on the Dai Li agents.
“The meat bites.” One of them shrilled in a voice like rushes, rustling in the wind. “It bites, we need more power.” Not quite sure she understands, but it might be the reason the husk had ignored all of them and had captured Sunbin. He might be strong enough to be another candidate for a spirit. They might need him alive and they were probably trying to perform a transaction with their soul in place of his.
They give chase when she runs away. The husk hadn’t followed them yet, they might be able to escape the spirits following them. Her ears catching on the sounds of leaves rustling, the flow of water breaking through a dam, and she stops for a second to keep them away.
Yerim follows with barrages of fire, switching to drown them in water, but this is all making a lot of noise and soon, more of them will show. She ponders then, looks behind her to find Cheng still struggling to keep himself and Sunbin straight of the path with just one good leg.
She closes her eyes and calls upon her avatar spirit, when she opens them, the experience of her past lives courses through her memories. She swings herself and her arms around, creating a tornado that swipes all of the dark spirits into it. She breathes in and then pushes the fire out of her fists to add the fire to the tornado.
Her eyes return to normal, watching how not just the dark spirts that had attacked them had got caught in it, but many more in the area.
She returns to Cheng, holds Sunbin from the other side and flees with them to their hideout.
“We must find the chief of police, she knows what to do.” He speaks through gritted teeth. Yerim sets him down when they enter the apartment. She sees a jug of water and hurries to use it to heal him. She runs the water through all of his injuries.
“I’m leaving to the first hideout then.” She tells him. She places a hand on his forehead, his temperature is high. It might be a fever of some sort. “Take care of him, I’ll be back before dawn.” She grabs the cloak on the couch, covers her head and leaves the apartment complex.
The fire tornedo had disappeared, by either naturally and slowly fading, or some air benders had stopped it. She stays away from the main streets and away from the area where the husk was tracking them. She still has the map that will lead her to the chief of police, and she hopes that she’ll find her in either one of them
It’s quite, in the middle of the night, moonless and darkened. She can hardly see her own hands if she keeps it to the dark. There is no other choice to consider. Her path is dark and filled with the hatred she can feel from the spirits hiding around every corner. Yerim had wandered where all of this originated from, where it all started and made its form present. This unbalance is dividing her soul in two. She cannot feel the light from within her anymore. She can only see the dark and where it aimlessly lead her.
Her arrival at the first site had turned out fruitless. The place was emptied out. There were dark spirits around, but she did not want to alert them. She had only avoided them for as long as she could and when the time had called her to leave, she did not waste it dwelling.
Yerim decided to find her way to the second area. The map with her is really helpful. It does not just highlight the locations of where the chief might be, but it also highlights where the points of interests are. For example, a cluster of husks that patrol a certain area, or the police headquarters filled with dark spirits, even public monumental areas are filled with the presence of spirits.
How come the spirits had decided to occupy this area? How come they choose the United Republic to infest with this much darkness?
She leaves these question’s logged in her brain for now, but makes sure to ask them later when the chief is found.
The second area is heavily guarded, Yerim scans her surroundings, and from the roofs, she finds something interesting. A shadow of a person moving carefully around the steam outlets, hiding behind the small cuts of walls to avoid detection by either husks or spirits.
Yerim watches from her point across the street, decides to get closer to the shadow before they make a mistake. Nearing the building, but cautiously taking each step. She finds them crouched near a window.
The moment Yerim takes her next step, she hears a screech from the sky. Yerim stops and looks up, there is a raven eagle diving and its diving towards her. She quickly rolls out of its claws. The shadow she’s been following notices her and she concludes that the raven eagle does belong to them. It circles the sky above them, the figure sees her fully now.
“Wait!” Yerim calls the moment they bail. She runs after them, and for a moment, they jump from one roof top to the next, rolling and sending a firebolt towards her. Yerim doesn’t dodge it, she claps both palms together and cuts through the firebolt. It spreads to her sides, lighting up the darkness, but she stops to extinguish it with water from her bottle. She quickly collects the amount of water that had not evaporated and gives chase again.
“Who are you?” she stops. Yerim notices the voice, it sound feminine. Yerim removes her hood and reveals her face too as a form of peaceful approach. She doesn’t want to scare her away, especially now that she knows they are not a husk or a cult member.
“I’m not one of them, and you don’t look like one of them either.” She says, hands in the air. She slowly approached too. The raven eagle above them screeches again, but this time it’s short and lower in tone than before. Yerim cannot tell if they are friendly still, but she’s willing to test it. There aren’t many who still have their sanity intact in this city, since dark spirits are chasing away all of the light.
“You still haven’t told me who you are,” the raven eagle lands on her shoulder, her face is still hidden behind a mask. Yerim considers her few options when she looks around them. No one seems to have noticed their little exchange of blows. This stranger is not one of them, she can feel the light from within them in balance with the dark.
She smiles, “My name is Yerim, I’m the avatar.” She introduces herself.
“All I see is a water bender,” the girl switches stances, and Yerim thinks that it’s a fair statement coming from the girl, since she’s a water bender in originality. She had grown with her mother in the south pole, but when her father -a fire-bender- had returned, and revealed to her that she is the avatar, Yerim was taken to the air temple island to master the elements.
“You’re right,” but she does ignite a small flame in her palm to show that she’s the master of all four elements. “But I’m the only one that can use all four elements.” She jumps from her spot, the girl goes from her offense stance to stand straight and relaxed.
“They say the avatar is gone for good.” The girl removes her mask, dark hair, fair skin and eyes as dark as night.
“Where did you hear that?” she makes more steps and stands right in front of her, she’s slightly taller in height.
“They say the avatar’s soul was killed in the great battle almost twenty years ago.” Heejin had died in that battle, it was her previous life that had sacrificed herself to save her nation.
“Not completely true,” she lowers her head, sadness follows soon when Heejin’s memories rush as freshly as ever in her head, just to remind her of the wrongdoings that ended her life. “I’m reincarnated again,” she says softly, but the girl with her notices her dejection and makes a step to her.
“I’m Hyeju,” she extends a hand, her face bright even with the sharp edges of her eyes. She throws a small smile and Yerim is motivated enough to shake her hand. “What are you doing here?” she leads them to a corner, they sits in the dark, with the raven eagle perched on the metal wires stretching from one building to the other. It’s blazing eyes darting from one spot to the next to keep watch. “That’s Mint, he’s my friend.” She points where Yerim was looking at the raven eagle.
“He’s cute,” she says, smiling at her and the girl looks unwavering, observing her. Oh, Yerim still hasn’t answered her question. “I’m looking for someone,” she reaches for her pocket, takes the small map of the city and opens it. “They’re supposed to be held in one of these areas.” She points to the highlighted areas on the map where the chief of police is supposed to be held in.
“This place is empty, I’ve been there already,” Hyeju points to the south of the city where a shipment cargo is usually stored. Yerim nods.
“This one is empty too,” she points to the spot she visited as well.
“Are you looking for Hyunjin?” Hyeju asks suddenly, but Yerim doesn’t have any reason to be secretive. She doesn’t seem to be a threat. Her guts tell her to trust. It shows when Hyeju confirms the red marked spots that they indeed have a bigger cluster of dark spirits, and points at more of them that were not on the map.
“Yes, she’s probably in the last one.” Hyeju nods and immediately stands up.
“The rebels had cleared the first spot, they might move her before we get to her, so we have to be fast.” Yerim follows. She clears her head, even if she feels the threads of darkness slipping through the light to take over, she takes a deep breath and follows. She ignores the voices that grow in her head, even the ones growing in the corners of her eyes, when she turns to confirm anything, nothing is there but the endless dark.
Even if she still hears the way Minju’s neck was broken.
The city darkens after midnight hours, the lights on the main streets are even off. Every sound is magnified in her ears in this complete stillness. Yerim figures the steps of tracker with her, keeps a steady pace behind her, until they have reached the last place where the chief of police might be.
“What are you doing in the United Republic?” Yerim asks her once they’d stopped. Hyeju had not used her raven eagle to spot spirits, and even for a this kind of bird with a natural and enhanced night vision, it will be hard to tell where all dark spirits are.
“My mission is to find the chief of police,” she answers, running her palm through the folded wings of Mint. She feeds it small chunks of meat from her satchel. It sounds its approval with a scratchy caw, but Hyeju gently shushes him. “Extract her to the fire nation.”
If Hyeju was successful, and if Yerim had stayed in the small apartment with Sunbin and Cheng, she’d missed her opportunity. “For what reason?”
“This place is doomed, we’re gathering all of our allies to attack the cult at their headquarters to end this slavery of benders.” Coldblooded killing and reaping of souls, the transactions and possession of bodies of benders to create these husks. Mindless killing machines that had taken over this city. There is nothing to forgive or to forget. They must find a way to stop them.
“I’m coming with you,” Yerim tells her. “I was lead here by my past life to find Hyunjin, she might know a way to stop this.” Hyeju nods to her.
The small commotion from inside the building catches their attention. They both look through the small window from the upper floor and see three husks, there are no signs of dark spirits. There haven’t been any of them near this area for awhile. There are police officers, metal benders that had been corrupted by the president of the city.
“They run all the way into the system of the earth kingdom.” Hyeju keeps on explaining the reason for the city’s corruption. “Until all we’ve got from the United Republic, is a distress message from the chief, warning us to withdraw all of our troops from the coast,” she urges Mint to perch from her arm on the reeling.
“But it was too late?” Yerim looks at her, her face is hardened not just by fire, but the hurt her eyes had probably witnessed in this city. “Were they killed?”
“Most of them, but our general is corrupted by darkness, I saw him leading a group of husks into our ships. They’re planning an attack and we need Hyunjin to help with the husks.”
“How is she going to help?”
“Hyunjin is a spirit cleanser,” Hyeju explains. “They cannot corrupt her, but for some reason, they’re not killing her either.” She cannot recall in her Heejin’s memories that Hyunjin is a spirit cleanser. Did she learn it after the attack on the air benders?
It’s more of many reasons now to save Hyunjin. “let’s not find out what they plan to do to her.” Yerim grabs Hyeju’s arm, the girl responds with a nod.
“Come on,” Hyeju stands up, Yerim keeps her hand around her wrist, it feels good to touch someone so balanced, so in charge of their light to stave off the dark. She only tightens her hold, just to feel the strength in her pull.
They stop and Hyeju turns to her. She is silent for unidentified reasons. The fire-bender wants to say something, and Yerim opens her mouth at the same time...inhaling, her heart skipped a beat, and another, as she stares into dark-bright fire lit eyes. A brown so deep it looked black, shadowed by thick lashes and set deep in a complexion of rich umber.
“Let’s not be reckless,” Hyeju’s voice is soft near her face. She looks through the window where they’re crouched, the three husks are separate from one another. She recognises the style of clothing they’re wearing. Water, fire and earth. There is no air bender between them. She should be thankful, air-benders are annoying to deal with alone, let it be with other elements thrown in the mix.
“I’ll distract the husks, you find the chief.” Yerim tells her after the metal benders had left. She brings herself closer once they were standing up. Then she takes Hyeju in a hug. She’s a stranger that Yerim had only met an hour ago on a rooftop in a city drowned in darkness. It feels so good that she wished that this stranger crushed her with her arms, instead of just placing her hands flat on her back.
She removes herself, receives a small smile and a little avoidance of eye contact. “If you see Mint near you, then it means I found Hyunjin and I’m out.” She just met this stranger, but her words speak truth. Her eyes are fire-lit and change with each reflection of the smallest of flickers of light when it passes by them.
Yerim starts the distraction with two fire bolts, where the first breaks the window and the second hits the first husk. Before she lands between the three of them, she dodges a rock, redirects it to the other one and whips the second with water. It splashes and she turns it to ice, his hands are caught and shackled.
Hyeju is already gone to look for Hyunjin. They both don’t know if she’s here, or has been transported somewhere else, but they can at least eliminate one more place off the map.
“The avatar,” one of them gurgles. The voice is dead and not that of a human. “This is not your fault,” it repeats what the first husk had said to her. “This is her fault.” What is this dark spirit talking about?
“I don’t care.” She bends the metal door and sends it flying to the fire-bending husk.
“Yes,” he hisses, “Yes, you do.” He slowly speaks. His voice terrifies her still. Her hands shake, she had never made any contact with any type of spirits during her training. She had only felt them through Heejin’s memories. There is just three of them, and now she remembers that Heejin was fighting at least dozens of them at the same time. “The dark is not in control,” she looks behind her, the other two husks are not in their stance, they stand with their arms at their sides. The one she had threw the metal door at, had freed itself and stood as straight as the other two.
“What do you mean?” she doesn’t let her guard down.
“You have to find the dark, it made us like this.” It points to itself. “I cannot escape this body, I cannot think outside of this body. I cannot live outside of this body.” None of what he just said makes sense to her.
“Who did this to you?” her fists clenched hard, trying her best to not just fry him in his spot.
“The darkness did this to us.” The one behind her speak and she turns carefully to her. The female husk, the earth bender. “The darkness needs the light, the light needs the darkness. Find the darkness.”
“Where are they?”
“Your spirit will lead you to them.” The three husks leave, one following the other.
Before she could call for them, Yerim hears a gurgling croak. She looks up and finds Mint calling, it flaps it wings and she runs after it. She runs away and feels her heart burning in her chest, she runs and her tears soak and blur her vision. She runs, trips and falls to the ground, her palms scrape on the pavement and they burn as they bleed. She stands up, but her legs are shaking. Fear collects her in her mind and it’s ugly.
“Yerim?” she hears her name, the voice is so familiar. “Why did you call me?” it’s Heejin.
“Yerim?” she turns around, Hyeju is there, and next to her is a tall woman in a metallic armour.
It’s Hyunjin.