Chapter 11 – The Face Stealer

Korra gasped, standing and turning around to face the voice. Koh crawled on the ceiling through a rocky doorway into the room. Asami cowered, letting out a small squeak of fear through the binding around her neck. She squirmed back away from the monster, attempting desperately to breathe through the binding, her suffering greater and greater with each breath and each movement. Korra looked down on her love, seeing her torture. Every inch of her being fought against the urge to break down, to let out her anger at this monster. Koh laughed, crawling closer and closer to Asami,

"STAY AWAY FROM HER!" Korra yelled as the spirit inched slowly toward Asami, "DON'T TOUCH HER!" Korra quickly stepped over and rooted herself to the ground between the spirit and her girlfriend. Koh extended one of his thin legs and swung it towards Korra, swatting her across the room and smashing her into the wall, Korra groaned as she fell to the floor.

"You have no bending when you're out of your body Avatar, you're powerless, and while I may not be able to take your face while you're like this I can still hurt you." he smirked wickedly as he continued toward Asami. She gasped desperately for breath, fear painted in her eyes as she pushed frantically against the wall. She looked around the room, her head sharply moving in all directions, trying to find some means of escape. Koh slowly peered his face in front of Asami, a wicked grin spreading across his eerie white face. The pincers in front of his face uncurled and pointed toward Asami before he lunged forward, stabbing each though her shirt and pinning her to the wall.

"Aaaaaaaaah" Asami attempted to scream in pain, her neck binding not allowing the noise to become more than a whisper. Red trickled down her white shirt from her shoulder as Koh appeared to have missed his target, stabbing straight through Asami's right shoulder. She reached out towards Korra, her arm shaking violently.

"K..K..K...Ko...Korrahhhh" Asami whispered through her torture, the life fading from her eyes as they slowly closed, "pleahh...hel...me" Korra reached her arm out, stretching as far as she could, before it fell to the floor weakly. Korra looked on agonizingly as Koh placed his one remaining pincer on Asami's forehead, lifting up her head and placing it against the wall. He blinked but no new face arrived, he was left instead with nothing but a small indent where his faces usually form. Asami opened her eyes, her body growing limper by the second and looked at Koh, her eyes started to blur outward, then her nose, mouth, the rest of her face following shortly, blurring towards Koh. She rolled her head slowly to the side slightly on the wall to face Korra, she used all her strength to keep her eyes open and take in the image of her love as best she could, one last time. She mouthed four words, they cut her throat to say as she knew she would never be able to say them again,

"I love you Korra"

"No please! DON'T DO IT!" Korra sobbed, "PLEASE!" she begged "Please..." her voice faded as Asami brought in a slow shallow breath, the blur retreated into Koh's socket as Asami's body fell, empty, to the floor. Korra's eyed widened in horror, her jaw dropped and her breathing became more erratic as her heart shattered like glass. "No..." Her stomach twisted and turned in knots as her eyes reddened filling with tears. Korra clenched her fists tightly, every muscle in her body tensing up as tears streamed down her face. "NOOOO!" her eyebrows twitched as they forced themselves further and further down, her mouth following on. Her blood boiled and her bones burned with rage, with anger, with hatred. Korra jerked forward, throwing her head down and clutched her hair with her hands. She swallowed a lump in her throat and moved her hands down her face to over her eyes, beginning to sob uncontrollably.

"Ooohh, I like this one, it's even nicer than I thought, wouldn't you agree Avatar?" Korra slid her hands slowly down her face, scratching the tears from her eyes. She began to attempt to regain her breath as she slowly moved her head upward. Korra's eyes widened as she saw him, her throat seized up as she frantically gasped for air,

"no, no, no, no, no, oh no, no, no, no, no..." Korra stammered, staring at Koh as she shook nervously. Raven hair, emerald eyes surrounded by purple, luscious red lips. "no, no, no, this isn't real, this isn't real, this isn't real" Korra denied, rubbing her hands anxiously through her hair, as she tried to figure out what to do. Although Korra recognised the face presented in front of her it wasn't the same, it didn't have her charm, it didn't have her smile, her laugh, it wasn't her. Korra shook in place with grief, tears streaming down her face as the looked into those green eyes, then over to Asami's body. She reached her arm out towards Koh to touch the face,

"HAHAHA, the great and powerful Avatar reduced to a snivelling mess, what's the matter Avatar? Don't I look good" Asami's mouth moved but it was not her, her own voice traded for this malicious monster. Korra looked down, squeezing her eyes closed and tensing all the muscles in her body, pushing her grief further and further down, replacing it with her built up rage,

"Aaaaaaaahhhhh" Korra yelled savagely as she swung her right arm upward, hitting Koh underneath where his faces form. Korra stood up swinging both her fists at him ferociously, punching him on either side repeatedly. Koh shifted back slightly as Korra continued to hit him. Korra's punches became more slow and lethargic and she dropped to her knees, the tears returning "Asami" she cried "A..A..Asami-i-i" tears streamed down her face as her spirit flashed. Korra's spirit began to fade as she sobbed, Koh launched himself forward towards her. She faded out, Koh flew through where her spirit was, striking the wall on the other side.

Korra gasped sharply as she returned to her body. Black clouds swirled overhead as the rain fell. A crack of thunder came from the distance. Korra pulled her knees up to her chest and buried her head, trying desperately to cover her sobs. Korra allowed her body to fall to the floor as she cried, not quite sure whether it was from sadness or anger, maybe both. She felt a light embrace around her stomach,

"It's ok Avatar, what's wrong?" Korra pried her eyes open painfully and peered down, her small green friend looked up at her anxiously, even now a small smile on his face.

"She's gone Shiju, he took her and she's gone and he took her and I don't know what to do and I.. I.. I can't..." her mouth would allow no more words to form. She waved her arms around trying to show what she wanted to say as more tears streamed down her face, mixing with the raindrops as they slowly travelled down her cheeks. A small anguished noise released itself from her mouth as Korra brought her hands back up to her face, over her eyes. He squeezed her tighter,

"It's gonna be ok Avatar" Korra moved her hands around him and picked him up, hugging him against her chest, sobbing uncontrollably.

"I just... I don't know what to do" Korra said, her voice reflecting the torture of her soul. Shiju looked up at her empathetically as his small round eyes widened with realisation,

"Why not ask Raava?" Korra looked at him inquiringly, "she's the oldest spirit there is, I'm sure she'd be able to help you" he smiled

"Maybe you're right" Korra forced a smile at him. "R-Raava?"

"Yes Korra"

"I'm so confused, What do I do? How do I save her? Please... I need her... I can't.."

"Korra, do not fret, I know how to get her back, but to do so you must calm yourself and listen carefully" Korra took a deep breath, attempting to calm herself down. She brought up a hand to her eyes and wiped away the lingering tears,

"O-ok" she sniffed "what.. what do I do?"

"In order to reclaim Asami from Koh you must be able to sever the bond that ties his victims to him"

"And how do I do that?"

"You must bend the energy within him, sever his connection to the lives he has taken, but be warned should you do this incorrectly you will destroy both yourself and all who live within him"

"So you mean if I make a mistake... Asami... dies?" Korra looked down a her eyes begging for this to just be some nightmare, begging that she was curled up in bed with Asami and none of this was real.

"I am sorry. I feel your love for her, it is a beautiful thing. Do not give up hope Korra, it is not over, you can save her, you will save her. YOU are the Avatar." Korra's eyes narrowed determinedly as she got to her feet. She tilted her head each way, cracking her neck.

Korra reached into her bag and pulled out her fur jacket. She ripped the hood swiftly off and placed it on her face like a mask. She burned two small holes in the top of the hood. Korra tied the string protruding from the bottom of the hood in a knot around the back of her head then bringing the strings up and though the holes burned in the top of the hood and tying them again to keep it in place. Her hands came up towards her face as she extended her middle and index finger on each hand and placed them on the hood in front of her eyes. Flames burned orange around her fingers as she pressed them into the hood. She quickly swiped them to the side, burning two small holes she could see out of.

"Stay here" she turned to Shiju, her eyebrows almost all that was visible through the burned holes as they pressed down violently. He nodded subserviently as Korra turned and stomped toward the cave yet again. She came though the rocky archway and stared deeper into the tunnel. Her rage escaped in one word,

"KOH!"

Ok since I'm coming to the end of this fic (only a few chapters left now), firstly I just want to thank everyone for all the support so far. But secondly I just want to ask whether you feel as though I should continue after I finish this "storyline", I have ideas as to where I want to take this but obviously if no one would be interested in reading more after this there's really not much point writing it, anyway please leave a review with your thoughts if you can.

Thanks in advance.