Chapter 39

!Disclaimer time!
1- there are some more graphic/ heavyish themes in this chapters and the ones to come, so just be warned
2- I’m making this all up for fun, and do not know very much about the medical world or if any of this stuff is legitimate or even makes sense, so just bear with me

Anyways on with the story, hope you enjoy!!!

This was the morning. This was the day. Kyoshi would put an end to Narulok, to the portal. They would be able to put this behind them.

As they traveled Kyoshi thought over the plan again and again. Running through it repeatedly.

They would all approach the portal as a whole, making a b-line for the center. Kyoshi had been firm on the fact that she was to fight Narulok alone. The others had agreed to make it as much of a one on one battle as possible. As they would try and keep any members either trying to aid Narulok or get to the portal.

The sound of footsteps suddenly becomes apparent in the silence. “Do you think it’s him?” Wong asked as she proceeded forward. But Kyoshi shook her head. “Just pawns” she muttered as some of the members came into view.

And right in the center of the little group was one of the men who had fled the night before, exactly how she predicted. Kyoshi couldn’t help but grin. I was right, so Narulok will definitely be expecting me.

They start to talk, just like last time. Kyoshi thought, all bark and no bite. When he suddenly shifted the conversation to something different.

“You could ditch her you know, I know a lot of you are Daofei so you shouldn’t care about the rules like little miss diplomat over here.”

“Watch your mouth, I may be forced to play the diplomat but I will remind you, you are like an ant to me, tiny man.” Kyoshi shot back.

He shrugged but his mouth kept running looking past her. “Join us and you can gain bending powers you could only dream of. Only in exchange for your help and loyalty.”

Kyoshi saw a strange emotion wash over Kenna, was she considering joining them for the chance to gain the ability to heal? She had said that even though she never possessed the abilities to heal herself, she had never stopped wishing she could obtain the skill.

When none of her team members replied, another grin crossed Kyoshi’s face. “I guess you don’t have any takers this time around.” Kirma laughed.

As Kyoshi began to step forward they seemed to disappear at the sight of fog, for a second Kyoshi thought it was probably gasses like before. After informing her group and instructed them to cover their mouths and noses with their sleeves as they walked forward all to try and not breathe it in as they looked for them.

Even though Kyoshi didn’t love the idea of risking them walking through gasses that could possibly leave them all vulnerable  she figured it wouldn’t be strong enough to take them out quickly as the members they were following weren’t wearing masks either.

They had seemed to disappear, but that’s when she remembered the tunnels. She walked to where the tracts had vanished then split the earth with a loud rumble.

The group landed in the tunnels, they seemed to ring with weird erry energy, probably angry spirits. Kyoshi thought to herself.

Down the long hallway they spot the group form before, and Kirima and Wong go off like wild banshees taking out the people in their path. In Kirma words as the two took off they could do whatever they liked to them as they were criminals and they technically were too so it would canceled out.

They passed by many other hallways and the place started to feel like a labrithm, but Kyoshi seemed set on a specific route, Rangi following diligently behind her when Kenna suddenly tugs on her sleeve. As she turned Kenna pointed to an open shorter tunnel that looked like a holding cell. The blood, dark and dried all over the floor and even more noticeable on the handle and a shattered lock.

Rangi thought back to what the men had said not too long ago. “You really thought she wouldn’t live, I heard she used her own blood to break out of the room. I doubt she would have dropped that quickly.”

Suddenly Rangi felt like she had to vomit as she connected the dots. That was Kyoshi’s blood, how in the hell did she not die? But that’s not important now, she’s still here. That’s all that matters. She tried to push those thoughts through instead of the worst.

She is here now, we are here now, and we will fix this. I will make them pay for everything that they did to her. She looked back at the blood once more. I will win for Kyoshi, so they will never harm her again.

They push through the tunnel, they run into a couple more members. Most are still retreating. Which didn’t seem to bother Kyoshi since she knew exactly where they were all going.

When they emerged from the tunnel at first Kyoshi thought that she had been led astray. For it looks hardly like anything from before. There was a similar mist like before but she didn’t think this was a gas trap. It didn’t smell poisonous like before, more odd, angry.

She looked around once more, the trees had all turned nearly white, the grass below them practically dead. The forest was now a ghost forest of sorts, the trees white with the wild nature of the portal and with the portal eating away at the real world.

They venture closer, still nobody to be seen. But she knew they were watching from the mist.

“they’re here,” she said quietly, but not meekly.

They pressed forward, “is he here?” Rangi asks. “I’m not sure” Kyoshi admitted once more, a thought suddenly flashing through her head. What if he isn’t here?

The closer they got, the stronger the spiritual pull got, it was almost like gravity got heavier. “Is that the feeling of the portal?”

“Probably” Kyoshi thought back to when it opened. She was so weak then she wasn’t sure if she would be able to tell the difference. And she was knocked unconscious pretty shortly after so it was safe to assume.

As she approached, all could see the portal swirled madly. It had gotten bigger. Of course it had gotten bigger. She had torn a hole, and just fabric the hole had gotten bigger.

Then the portal seemed to spit sparks until it became so intense they almost had to look away, and there he stood, Narulok.

“I was wondering when you finally come back, Avatar”

They stood in a stalemate with the man, he no longer wore the mask. For whatever the reason was, Kysohi could barely remember at this point it was hardly relevant.

“I will ask you once and I will do it nicely. Surrender and everyone else can leave. There is no need for bloodshed, I’d hate for it to come to that” He stated as he took a large step forward. But Kyoshi refused to cower to the man.

“If it’s my capture you wish you will have to take me down yourself. Leave the others out of it. If you insist on dragging them into this we could flee at a moment’s notice.” Kyoshi stated firmly.

“and then?”

“Me personally? I would leap off a cliff, with my last dying wish for you to be taken down, and the portal along with it. They wouldn’t hesitate, and neither would I” She dead panned.

“You wouldn’t”

Kyoshi took pleasure at the unease in his expression; he must know that if they were both gone the portal could fall and quiet easily.”I was fully prepared to die before the portal was created, nothing has changed.”

He looked skeptical, then looked to Rangi, “oh the fire bender, the key to my success” He nearly cooed. Rangi frown deepened, but she said nothing.

“Tell me why should I trust a word she says” He asks her.

“Her words have honor, I wouldn’t test them.” Rangi tried with all her will to make her words clear, and to keep her mind out of that dark realm of possibilities for she knew that Kyoshi truly wouldn’t hesitate.

But the Rangi’s response seemed to anger him as Narulok tried to lunge at the fire bender. Maybe he was mad that he could tell the fire bender’s words held some truth, or maybe he didn’t like that he suddenly felt like he was losing. But Kyoshi quickly intercepted before anyone had a chance to make contact, producing a massive flame between them.

“Like I said if it’s my capture you wish you will have to deal with me yourself. But you will leave the rest of them alone. This is you and me, you attack them again and I will gladly jump off the cliff with you too”

Narulok grinned, “fine if it’s a battle you want then a battle is what you will get.” He rolled his shoulders before whistling of sorts and they all witnessed more members emerge from the fog.

“I’ll give them someone to play with too,” he said. “But if they get through your little group I can’t guarantee that they won’t come to my aid.”

“Bold talk for a man about to be 6 feet under.” She said as she drew her fans. Kyoshi looked over to Rangi one last time, before the fire bender turned to face the army of members behind her.

They got this, I just have to keep my end of the deal up.

“You kick his ass, you hear me kyoshi?” Rangi yelled as her back was towards her.

“Yeah you listen to topknot we got the rest.” Kirma yelled from the other side.

And with that Narulok made the first move barreling towards Kyoshi, using a water whip he had wrapped around her forearm to force the two to collide.

Before he could get any closer she pulled a piece of earth up separating them, she was hoping if she was fast enough he would run into it.

Though there was a thud she couldn’t tell if it was the rock or Narulok. As she looked around the second her back was turned she felt a chunk of ice hit her square in the back. Knocking her forward.

In response she sent a flame blindly as she fell, trying to spin quickly as possible to see where Narulok now stood.

At the sound of a breath she pulled rock from the pillar that she raised from the earth and sent it towards the noise. Letting the piller shatter and crumble to the floor.

There was a lot of dust settling as she looked for him. She pulled some of the sediment to dust step high above the clouds in hopes of spotting him. But he had seemed to know her location the whole time as he used water as an extension of his hands to grab her ankle and slam her back down to earth. For a second she wore she tasted metal, her head buzzing, her ribs felt scrambled, but that didn’t matter now.

“Give up.” he yelled from above.

“Fucking make me” Kyoshi spat back. As she went to throw her fist it became tangled in the grass. It seemed to have a mind of its own.

This fucker could contol the plants with his water bendering?

“I’ll ask you again to give up,” he asked as he approached her. “And I’ll let the rest of them live. With your cooperation of course. “

“You wouldn’t dare” Kyoshi said as she stood slowly breaking out of the plant’s grasp. She took shaky deep breaths. It seemed harder to fight this close to the portal, all her limbs felt heavy, and now her ribs throbbed like they had a heartbeat of their own.

He approached her grabbing her tunic as if it could actually keep her in place.”If not, once you’re put away where no one can find you, I’ll kill the firebender firs-”

Kyosh didn’t give him the chance to finish as she felt the rush of fire explode from her throat. A wild flame spitting right at him, setting his face a blaze.

Kyoshi watched with satisfaction as he spun violently trying to stop the blaze. When he faced her once more he wore the look of murder. In any other case Kyoshi might have felt more afraid if the man still had any eyebrows.

She approached him once more. “If you speak of Rangi again, you will pay with your life.”

“Ha like you mean that” he said as he turned to where Rangi was fighting off some of his men. Unaware of what was going on behind her. “Let’s test that, shall we” as he reached out his arm, kyoshi grabbed it quickly.

Just quickly the man was trying his best to pull it back toward him as if he was burned. “All the blood in your arm is frozen, want to try again? I can freeze the other” she now wore the glare of death. 

“You crazy bitch” With his other arm he pulled an ice spike from behind him launching it at her, his other frozen limb dead at his side. He watched as it hit the flesh above her collar bone sticking there, and how she didn’t even flinch.

“Last straw” she said as her eyes were overcome with that eerie glow that every man seemed to fear so greatly as she took Narulok by the front of his shirt.

As she held him in the air over the ground she felt the spirit rattling inside of him. There was no other way to deal with him, not at this point.

“You have disrupted the spirits and their world, trying to conquer them for yourself, and with that your life is forfeit.” Kyoshi said her words echoing with a hundred voices as she held a fan accusing under her throat like a knife.

“you will never win, the balance nation will rein, and you will be among the first to fall, following your friends, your comrades, your lover, everyone will fall-“

Falling, that was the last thing Narulok’s body did, as Kyoshi hit it forward, ice at her fingertips. She watched as the body flew skidding across the dirt lying motionlessly beside the portal. The sight of frost over his heart.

She suddenly felt an energy shift. The portal was shuttering at the loss of energy. It was sure to crumble soon, Kyoshi would be sure of it.

She looked over Narulok’s body once more to ensure he was gone, dealt with before she looked at her surroundings. The members kept on flooding in closer, more and more every passing minute.

She stumbled for a second before setting eyes on the portal. Kyoshi tried to pull at the portal like yanking fabric together with stitches, trying to remember how she tore it so she could maybe undo it. Her core throbbed at the weight of her heaving breaths. She couldn’t do it, she slowly began to realize.

The ground started to rumble, like it had before. Rangi picked up this instantly, like the ground would collapse. The fire bender quickly pushed the man to the side that she was fighting and rushed to gather the others. Pulling them to where Kyoshi stood. As they reached within meters of her the ground shook more violently as they watched Kyoshi trying so desperately to close the portal. As she fell to her knees her  scream of frustration could have been heard probably from miles away. But just like that the earth around her began to crumble. Her team rushed closer to the avatar and the portal. A deep reven now surrounding nearly the entirety of the portal, leaving them on an island of sorts.

This kept any of the members from advancing further for a few seconds. Letting Rangi finally rush to Kyoshi’s side.

“Kyoshi what’s going on, how can we help?” She asked semi frantically as her eyes kept darting from Kyoshi to the newly formed cliff that she expected members to be scaling any second now.

“Kenna I need Kenna, we need to close it now” Kyoshi practically yelled.

The waterbender rushed forward as soon as she was summoned knowing her job at this moment. For many minutes they tried, but it wouldn’t close. Kyoshi was on the verge of breaking again, tears of frustration steaming down her face, as the earth began to shake once more.

“Hey calm the fuck down if you cause us all to fall into that revenge nobody will be able to close it” Rangi instructed firmly grabbing a hold of one of Kyoshi’s shoulders, noticing the blood that quickly coated her hand.

“When the fuck did this happen” Rangi yelled. But Kyoshi hardly processed it.

Kirima then looked over at the scene to see a mad Rangi, a frantic looking Kenna and dazed Kyoshi. She couldn’t quite tell what was going on but she had stopped moving now entirely.

“Are you sleeping over there or what? Just close the damn thing so we can get out of here” Kirima yelled as she knocked back a line of members climbing the cliff side to reach the portal.

Sleeping, would that be enough? Kyoshi thought to herself. Perhaps not, what would be the next step between sleep and death? To make myself vulnerable enough that the portal could be collapsed?

Kyoshi now knew that even at her current state it wouldn’t be enough. But what if she only kinda died? Could have the same effect.

“I’ll freeze myself,” Kyoshi declared with complete confidence.

“You’re going to what?” Rangi rattled back, suddenly becoming the shaken one.

“I’ll partially freeze my organs, it should have the same effect as if I died” 

“That’s how Yun died wasn’t it, and Narulok. Kyoshi that’s insane” Rangi argued

“But I think it will work, I’m the only thing giving that portal life now, so by doing this it can finally be destroyed.” Kyoshi said as she stood.

“Kyoshi please, there has to be another way.” Rangi begged. “If there was Rangi we would be doing that instead. I’ll freeze my internal organs just enough so that you can bring me back. I’ll be out while you all take the rest of them down, and Kenna can close the portal. Then you can heat me back up, and I’ll be fine”

“That’s literally insane, do you hear yourself?”

“I promise I’ll be fine, you probably won’t have a lot of time though, so be quick if you can. Best to minimize damage” Kyoshi said with a lightness to her tone, as she looked over to Kenna who wore an expression of pure shock, and fear.

“Kyoshi stop, you are not kinda killing yourself on the hope that I can unfreeze your body” the fire bender argued stepping closer to Kyoshi.

“There almost back!” Kirima yelled, the members scaling the walls of the cliff that Kyoshi had created were only gaining in numbers.

“Deal that on your own Kyoshi is trying to die on me here” Rangi yelled.

“I’m gonna be okay, promise. Either way the problem will be dealt with, if anything it will make the portal easier to close” Kyoshi said as she began to reach for her chest, but the firebender had tackled her to the ground, pinning her hands above her head.

“How can you promise something like that Kyoshi, how?!” Rangi yelled as tears fell from her eyes.

“Because I have you, I know I’ll be safe” there was suddenly a calmness to her tone. One she hadn’t heard since the night before or perhaps even longer. It was with complete certainty. No, the last time she had heard Kyoshi be so certain on something was when she had asked Rangi to marry her.

“Kyoshi please, I’m begging you don’t do this. I swear there’s another way.” She cried.

“Then what is it?” Kyoshi asked calmly as her eyes glossed over. “I just need a little more time, we need more time.” Rangi cried. If this didn’t work the rest of life together would just be… gone?

“There is no more time, but I’m gonna be fine, remember? You can deal with the men, Kenna can handle the portal. It will all be okay”

Rangi had no more words, as they laid there. Kyoshi pulled one of her hands free and rested it on Rangi’s cheek. “Kyoshi…” She croaked, as she allowed Kysohi to push herself a bit more upright.

“You better be okay or I’ll kill you” Rangi cried as she clutched onto the Avatar burying herself in her shoulder, not caring about the blood smeared across her check.

“I promise,” She said softly as she reached up with one hand to stroke Rangi’s hair. Before the firebender could notice, Kysohi had pulled her other hand to her chest slowly freezing herself.

Please to the spirits above and below, if I don’t make it out let me meet her in the spirit world. I will wait as many eternities as it takes to see her again.

She groaned in pain as she stayed under Rangi’s protection. Afraid she would cause Kyoshi to mess up Rangi remained silent as the sounds of agony pulled her apart from the inside. Then the Avatar went limp. “You better be okay, I still have to marry you” She whispered.

She felt her pulse, there was next to nothing the Avatar was ice cold.

Okay so truth time I write this last little bit like forever ago and liked it so here it is, I didn’t pay very much attention in anatomy so I don’t care if the idea of someone basically forcing their body to hibernate is unrealistic. But I still hope you enjoyed and I actually promise that the next chapter will be coming out pretty quickly I have two more drafted so I could have made like a 7k work chapter but decided against it becasue it was too overwhelming but they will be out very soon.

Also thank you for over 21k reads that’s actually incredible<3