Chapter Text
And here we are, over a year after I started posting Legend of Korra: The Winter Soldier, and over 150K words later. And now it is done. But I am getting ahead of myself...
It was mid to late 2022, and I was starting to try my hand at writing fan fiction for the first time. I had attempted to write a bit of fiction when I was a teenager, but had not done anything since.
And trust me, I was a teenager a LONG time ago.
I had heard about fanfiction before, of course, but had never gone down the rabbit hole until 2021. And then I became addicted, at least for a while. I don’t read as much of it now. I’m too busy writing it.
So! Back to late 2022, and I was trying to write stories. And I was starting a bunch of different ones, and then abandoning them, because while they were fun ideas, they were not complete stories, and I just didn’t know what to do with them.
That’s when two different obsessions blended together in my head: Legend of Korra and the MCU. Korra easily took the place of Steve Rogers in my brain, and Asami took the place of Bucky Barnes. I started to write it, especially the opening (“On your left!”) and the freeway fight (“Who the hell is Bucky?”). It was the freeway fight that inspired me the most.
So I started it, but didn’t really have a plan to finish it. It was an amusing idea, but honestly I thought it would be my LoK/Arcane crossover, snippets of which are two previous chapters here, that I would manage to focus on to completion.
But then I saw some art on Tumblr that almost exactly matched my vision of what Korra as Captain America and Asami as the Winter Soldier would be like. This was in the very early winter of 2023 (January or February), so that got me writing some more of it.
I posted my first ever work (a very short LoK/She-Ra crossover) for International Fanworks Day 2023, just to force myself to do it. I knew that if I did not set a date and just do it, then I never would.
Then I got back to my longer stories, primarily the LoK/Arcane one, as I said, though Winter Soldier, as well. But then I saw something cool on Tumblr: Finish Your Sh*T (FYS) 2023. I wanted to actually complete a longer story, and this would be the impetus for me to do so. Plus, by this point, I actually had far more than half of the rough draft of what would become Book 1 completed already.
FYS was exactly what I needed to complete Book 1, and post it. It helped that the outline of the plot was basically done for me – I was reworking the movie, after all, so I chose Winter Soldier to be first long fic that I actually completed and posted.
In fact, with the extra impetus that FYS provided, and the fact that it was only just over 20K words, I got Book 1 finished long before my set posting date. That, of course, allowed my brain to keep working.
So, in the late spring 2023, a few months before I had even started posting Book 1, the basic ideas for Book 2 and Book 3 started to come together in my head.
Book 1 was pretty easy. I was just taking the basic plot of Captain America: Winter Soldier, and repurposing it. I stripped out some, because it was all from Korra’s POV. Made some changes, because I thought the magical computer hardware MacGuffins saving the day at the end was a bit silly (plus there was no way for Fury to realistically survive the street battle). Found a way for Korra to save Asami from the perverted spirit energy, as opposed to Kuvira.
Yay! The day was saved, and everything seemed to be heading in the right direction for our girls. Hell, even Korra and Opal hooked up at one point, though that was never meant to be more than a short-term thing (#korrasami4ever!).
And my story even had fans! Even though Book 1 was short, and had a lot of parts that were not filled out particularly well (a part of me wants to go back and rewrite Book 1, but I have so many other things to write first), it was pretty popular.
Things then got a little more difficult. I wanted to do for them what Captain America: Civil War and the later Avenger movies did not do for Steve and Bucky: keep them together until the End of the Line.
The first part of Book 2 came pretty easy to me, as it was a modification of my favourite part of Civil War: finding Bucky and the chase scene where they outrun the cars in the tunnel. I may have spread that out too much (my ability to write longer, more filled out scenes has increased drastically since I started this series), but over all, it worked pretty well.
But the thing about the second parts of trilogies is that is where shit gets dark. At first, I almost thought about them have a happy ending at the end of Book 2, and just leaving it at that. My rough draft for that happy ending is actually in Book 3: it’s Asami’s dream of Korra busting into the trial and rescuing her.
It just didn’t fit, however. It was too fast, too easy.
I wanted them back together. I wanted them to be the over-powered battle couple that they truly are, but then where is the story?
So, I brought them back together. I had their love rekindled.
And then I tore them apart again.
And I spent a lot more time on their pre-fall story, showing how they had been torn apart already.
For a long time, Book 2 was my highest rated story, having been surpassed now by Greatest Change (I’ll be honest, I’m kind of down about the lack of engagement Book 3 has gotten. It really makes it difficult to want to continue writing big, intricately plotted stories like this – edit: wrote this a few weeks ago. Feeling better now, and have lots of writing plans). People liked it. People were horrified at what I had done to poor Korra and Asami.
Hell, I didn’t know it at the time, but it had even started the process of me getting a girlfriend!
This leads to Book 3. Book 1 was a complete rewrite of Winter Soldier. Book 2 started with a rewrite of part of Civil War, and then became completely mine.
Book 3 was basically my own story, from beginning to end. It had Korra’s story, Asami’s story, their backstory in the form of interludes, and then their story as they finally got back together for good.
It had my version of Korra Alone, as well as Asami Alone. I tried to show them moving forwards, but then sliding back, more than once – healing from trauma is not linear, nor is it quick, nor is it easy. Season 4 of LoK shows this so well with Korra’s struggles.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about Asami’s struggles, which got only the briefest of screen time. So instead of Asami Alone being pushed to the background, as it was in the show (a decision that still irritates me), we got Asami in her hellish prison. I didn’t want to spend too much time there. It’s not that type of story (plus, honestly, I had no idea what more I could do with the in-prison scenes. Slow reflections on how shitty everything was? I think there was enough of that already. Prison sexual assaults? Nah. Have her slowly dig a tunnel and cover it with a pinup of the Avatar? Too slow).
But I also didn’t want it to be too easy.
So that was a tough part: figuring out how to give Asami the chance to escape without it being too easy. I’m not sure I pulled it off, but thing about it was... escaping the prison under the mountain was the easiest part of her escape. Escaping her own head, that was something else entirely. Something that she might never do completely.
The story also had a hefty price for Korra to pay. That price, where Korra loses her eyes, has been fated for her for around a year now (long before I wrote Korra losing one eye in Furthest Depths). I knew basically how I wanted the story to go, and I knew that the price that Korra would have to pay needed to match the price Asami already paid. It had to be both.
It had a happy ending for both of them that I hope feels earned. Denadareth mostly predicted the ending back in his comments for chapter three of this book.
It’s weird how writing works for me. It’s been almost a year (over a year? Not sure) since I knew this would end with them together, and with Korra having lost her sight. It’s been over three quarters of a year since I wrote the first draft of the second epilogue chapter that I just posted (I looked up the document creation date – I wrote the first draft of the final epilogue before I even had started posting Book 1).
I always knew how this had to go. I just had to figure out how to get there.
Hmmm... other random thoughts:
I’ve written Korra and Asami good, I’ve written them good but bloody (very bloody in this series), I’ve written them bad (The Furthest Depths of Hell Itself), but one thing they all have in common in my stories is that they are in sync and drawn towards one another. I even have a story idea (that I will probably never write) where they are enemies and end up killing one another, but even then, they are drawn towards one another and are in sync.
I cannot imagine I will ever write a Korra and Asami story where they end up with someone else. It’s just not how I operate.
It is also part of their intrinsic characters, I think. Korra’s first assessment of Asami: Prissy, elegant, beautiful rich girl. Asami’s first assessment of Korra: amazing. Outside of the word prissy, nothing changed from when Asami was first introduced to the end of the show. They were meant for one another right from the start.
What else?
There are always the implications of violence and casualties in the MCU. Winter Soldier was the first and in many ways only MCU film (that I can remember off the top of my head, at least) to actually show the cost. I took that, ran with it, and cranked it to eleven in this story.
I’m not sure how much sense any or all of the above makes, but hopefully at least some. Don’t hesitate to comment with thoughts, questions, or praise (as Bolin once said, I love praise), if you so desire – I would love to hear from you.
Finally, I have a bunch of stuff on the go, but I have no idea what will be the next story I post, or when it will be ready.
I hope you enjoyed the journey. Thanks for reading.
Adora
PS: If you’ve made it this far, I have a little bonus for you:
You, and Me, and She, Makes Three Four
Several Years After the Battle of Omashu
“I’d forgotten how cold it is in the south,” Asami yelled through the scarf covering her face and mouth. “What are we doing out here, anyway?”
“I’m not sure,” Korra answered, so softly through her own scarf that Asami wasn’t even sure that she had heard her wife correctly.
It had been easy enough for them to get to the Southern Water Tribe. The very friendly state government of Yi had provided them with false documents. The Great State of Yi, as it still proclaimed itself, was proud to be home to the Avatar, and very accommodating towards keeping the identity of both of them hidden. The biggest problem Asami had had with the state government was the frequently expressed desire by state officials to have both her and Korra as official parts of the government.
Said desire, she had to admit, while flattering, did not line up precisely with their desire to keep their continued existence hidden. But so far there had been nothing more than requests, and as long as that was how it stayed, then it was nothing she could not handle.
After getting the documents, it had been time for the two of them to do something that Asami had not had the opportunity to do for a long time.
She had gotten to fly, and had flown them from Yi to the south.
The two of them loved the home that Korra had built for them both, but that didn’t mean they wanted to be there all the time. It just meant they had to be cautious should they ever decide to go travelling. And Korra had wanted to visit her homeland, something she had not done since before they both fell.
They had thought about sneaking through the Republic City spirit portal, but with the increase in trade and bureaucracy through and because of the portals, flying seemed the much safer option. As far as most of the world still believed, the Avatar and Asami Sato were dead, part of the disaster that had befallen Omashu. Korra had managed to mitigate that disaster a little, but there had been far more damage than any one person could have prevented, even the Avatar.
Especially an extremely wounded Avatar who was not even fully conscious when she had saved so many.
It would be years before Korra would stop blaming herself for not doing more, Asami knew. If Korra ever stopped blaming herself at all.
The conspiracy theories that had sprung up about the two of them had tended to amuse Asami greatly, as did the very futile search for the new Avatar, until some people had tried to act upon those theories. Fortunately, the only deaths caused by those theorists had been to themselves.
So far, at least.
So Asami had finally gotten the chance to fly, though she knew it was going to be a boring few hours for Korra. Between being in the air, and the vibrations of the plane constantly surrounding them, Korra was truly blind, in a way she rarely was anywhere else.
Korra had stayed silent as Asami had done the work necessary to ensure their plane was safe for the journey, then had listened as Asami had talked to the tower and successfully gotten them off the ground.
Only when they had reached their cruising altitude had Korra made a request.
“Tell me what you see,” Korra had said.
And Asami had done so.
She had described mountains and towns, clouds and the sea, the disappearance of the sun as they went further and further south, and the southern lights as they got close to their destination. A couple of times she had spotted other aircraft in the distance, and the two of them had amused themselves imagining where the other pilots and passengers were going, and what their purpose was.
Tourists on their way to Zaofu? Smugglers trying to sneak something into Republic City? White Lotus searching for the new Avatar?
At one point, Korra’s laughter had faded, and she went silent, though only for a moment. Asami wondered if Korra was thinking back to the last time Korra had watched a passenger jet high in the sky, and the way it had exploded, and the way the bodies had fallen.
Asami had held Korra more than once as her lover had awoken in a cold sweat from nightmares of that day. Just as Korra held Asami when she woke up screaming from some of things she had seen.
The flight had gone quickly, over all. Weather was good at Wolf Cove, so landing was not an issue, and their identities might have been fake, but their documents were completely official, so there was no issue entering the Southern Water Tribe.
Then they had toured around Wolf Cove. They had checked out the Glacier Spirits Festival, won some stuffed animals (with Asami almost getting into a fight with a vendor, before Korra had settled her down), ate too much fried food, and had definitely not had sex that night, as their stomachs had been far too full.
They had gone to the palace, the place from where Korra’s father had once ruled over the Southern Water Tribe. There, Asami had led Korra to a pair of statues, and had said nothing while Korra used her other senses to “see” the two statues. Then, when Korra nodded her assent, she had read the inscriptions for each statue.
One was a statue of Korra’s father.
“First Chief of the Independent Southern Water Tribe,” was inscribed underneath Tonraq’s statue. “Devoted Father And Husband. Leader. Warrior.”
“Dad,” Korra had whispered as she reached out and touched the statue.
The other was a statue of Korra.
“Beloved Daughter. Avatar. Legend. Gone Far Too Soon, But Always Remembered,” was inscribed underneath Korra’s statue.
Both of the statues depicted their subjects in heroic poses, and were worthy of their source material, Asami felt.
Korra still couldn’t cry, and never would be able to again, with her tear ducts permanently burnt shut, but Asami felt that she had cried enough for both of them. Even if she hadn’t been feeling extra hormonal already, it was still a tear-worthy event.
Even more tear worthy was another statue they had come across, a little more out of the way. It had depicted a young Korra, grinning as she ran, her polar bear-dog Naga running by her side. Despite not being able to see, Korra had been the one who needed to be the guide when they left, as Asami had cried too hard to manage guide duties after looking at that statue.
They had made love that night, and held one another tight, as they both felt the impact of those long gone, but not forgotten.
Now, they were nearing the end of their journey to Korra’s old homeland, and they were out in a driving storm, only because Korra had felt that she had needed to be out there, even though she was not sure why.
Asami nodded at Korra’s words, then winced. She was still not used to Korra not being able to see anything, especially since, in normal circumstances, Korra could sense things with more detail than a lot of people could see with their eyes. But in a storm this fierce, Korra’s sensing was just as limited as Asami’s eyesight, if not more so.
“Toph would have been proud,” Korra had said once about her abilities, with a chuckle.
Korra held out her hand. “Lead the way, Mrs Sato.”
Asami wanted to arch an eyebrow so badly it was almost painful not doing it. She took Korra’s gloved hand.
“Lead the way where, Mrs Sato?”
Korra shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll know when I know.”
“Sounds good,” Asami agreed. She had learned to trust Korra’s instincts a long time ago. The few times she hadn’t, she had generally regretted it.
So the two of them walked in the blowing snow, Asami’s goggles and scarf barely keeping up with the weather. Asami could only hope that they didn’t accidentally stumble over a hidden crevasse in the snow or something.
She took another step, and then another, and so on, until suddenly she tried to take one more step but Korra held firm, and wouldn’t move.
“What is it?” Asami asked.
“I hear something. To the left.”
Asami could hear nothing over the sound of snow blowing, but she turned to the left, and led the way once more.
“A little more to the left,” Korra instructed. “No, too far. Back a little to the right.”
So it went for a few minutes.
“Stop,” Korra commanded.
Korra let go of Asami’s hand, then bent ice walls around them, blocking the wind and driving snow. Then she bent fire for light and warmth, and pointed to a small mound in the snow.
“What’s that?” Korra asked.
Asami crouched down and wiped away snow, until a small creature was revealed. It was cold, and shivering, even though it was covered in snow white fur.
Korra fell to her knees, the heat from her bending warming all three of them.
The creature, which had raised its head enough to look at Asami, turned towards Korra and whined. Then it made it’s slow, unsteady way towards the Avatar.
“Naga,” Korra whispered.
The polar bear-dog wagged her tail, and crashed into the woman she had waited lifetimes to see again, knocking Korra onto her butt and back as she did so.
Korra laughed like Asami had not heard her wife laugh for decades.
Asami crouched down as well and reached out with her right hand to pet the small animal. Tears filled her eyes.
“Family,” she whispered as she removed her hand from the polar bear-dog and put it on her stomach. It was three months since she had her last period.
Then Asami used her left, metal hand to pet the small animal. It was past time for her to accept that the metal arm was hers, just as much as her other, flesh-and-blood arm was.
Family. The thought was almost overwhelming.
With more family to come.
-------
This little post-credits scene (to borrow a phrase from the Marvel movies once again), is dedicated...
To Denadareth, who is the strongest Naga proponent ever, and whose tireless nagging back in December 2023/January 2024 got me wondering if there was a way to bring the bestest girl back. Remember when I hinted way back when in some comment or another (I couldn’t find it, but I know that it exists) that she might come back? I wasn’t lying. ;)
And...
To T0rni... My Korra. The last couple of months have been the happiest of my life.