The Dual Bender

Chapter 31: Hell On Earth

Korra POV

What was so bad that he couldn't tell me what happened? I think to myself as I lay alone in my room. I need to talk to him. Even if he doesn't want to.

What the? Where am I?

Gaea: "You are in his dream, or should I say... Nightmare." I look over and see Gaea standing there in her normal misty white form.

Korra: "Why am I here?" I ask.

Gaea: "He will never tell you what you wish to know. But you and I both know... If he doesn't talk to someone about it. It will eventually consume him." I nod, understanding why I'm here now. "I have shown you pieces of his emotional trauma... But I am afraid this... This is a much more gruesome part of his history. I warn you, young avatar. Once you see this... There's no going back. You will never see him the same way." I nod my head again. Then the scene fades into a lake. Wait...?

Korra: "Is this?"

Gaea: "Lake Laogai. An abandoned complex once used by the crooked Dai-Li to brainwash their citizens and hold prisoners during the war... And a complex where some of M/N's darkest memories lie." I'm teleported under the lake and into a room, I see a young M/N, maybe around 12-13. Except he's chained up in the middle of the room. The chains are taught, like they're pulling him. Then the door flies open, revealing 2 men, I see one holding a nine-tailed whip... While the other, has a glowing piece of metal.

Man 1: "Where is the other dual bender!?" M/N spits at the man. He wipes off the spit and nods to the other one. I now realize the piece of metal is actually sharpened at the tip. The man slowly impales and burns it through M/N's shoulder blade. I see M/N pull the chains, except the two men now step back, and a liquid begins to rain on him. Every time a droplet hits him it steams for a second before dissipating.

Korra: "What are they doing to him?!"

Gaea: "They want to know where his sister is... But what they don't know. Is that M/N killed the husband of one of the members. The woman swore revenge on him..." Oh no...

Korra: "She was the masked man that killed Laura." The spirit nods.

Gaea: "The woman's plan was to kill Laura, and then when M/N told the men she was dead, they would never believe him, and he would be tortured and stuck in that room for the rest of his life."

Korra: "So M/N, he truly had no way out?"

Gaea: "Even if Laura was still living, M/N would never have told them, but since she was dead. He felt like he had nothing to live for... Like he deserved to die... As to your question, they have the chains rigged to open a gateway, filled with molten silver, whenever M/N pulls on the chains, it opens the hatch. So he couldn't sleep, or even move, without getting burned from the metal, as for the sharpened metal. It's rusted, they are going to infect him with a bacterial infection known as tetanus. It will cause his muscles to spasm."

Korra: "Making him pull the chains..." She nods.

Gaea: "They were going to make sure they wasted no time with him. They were going to make him inflict pain on himself." I turn back to see the metal sticking out from his chest. He clenches his teeth when the man removes it from him. Although the wound, it doesn't close.

Korra: "Why isn't the wound healing?"

Gaea: "M/N has not found his ability to heal, only in what is very similar to your avatar state can he heal himself. But he needs his strength to access that ability. Strength he does not have in this situation. He was given food, but they threw it at his feet... In order to eat..."