When Amon had said she was going to be last, he hadn't been lying.
He had taken all of their bending—all of theirs. Mako, Bolin, Tenzin, all of Tenzin's children, Lin. Everyone.
She had been giving no other choice but to watch, her arms tied behind her back, the cords chaffing the skin. That hurt, but not as much as watching all of her friends get their bending taking away. It was their bending—it was part of them, their essence. They'd still have their lives but they would be missing a part of them. Amon ripped junks of them out, and she had been forced to watch.
She was a failure of an Avatar. She had always been one. That day on the cliff, when she had let her tears fall and Pabu had come to clean them off, had been nothing compared to the soul-crushing failure she felt now. Before, it had been nothing but a few failures, a few regrets, a few short-comings. This was true failure. This was the culminating moment of her failure.
Republic City would fall. Benders would fall. All because their Avatar hadn't been good enough to save them. Aang could've done it.
Maybe she deserved to have her bending taken away.
An Equalist pushed her forward, their grip unyielding. She would have bruises on her arms later—assuming she lived. But bruises wouldn't mean anything. She would look at them and scoff, wondering why they had bothered to show themselves when they meant nothing compared to the hole that was left when her bending would be taken away.
They kicked the back of her knees and she fell forward without a fight.
The crowd was impossibly huge. Frighteningly huge. They were going to flood the area, start spilling onto the stage. She didn't even know there were this many people In Republic City. And they had all came to see her failure.
"Korra!"
The familiar voice sent a jolt forward—painful and hopeful all at once. Mako.
She looked over. He was there, sprawled against the ground and tied up. Just like her, he wore the Equalist outfit they had donned in their attempt to infiltrate the Equalist warehouse—another one of her failures.
Just moments earlier, she had seen Amon take his bending away. His ears were wide, luckily just having resurfaced into consciousness again.
She opened her mouth, an apology ready. I'm sorry. This is my fault. My fault. My fault. My fault. But no words found their way out of her mouth, and when the shadow loomed over, all thoughts disappeared.
This was it. He was going to take her bending away. She deserved, she decided.
"Korra!" Mako yelled again, this time louder.
She didn't look over this time. She couldn't. She didn't want to face whatever was in his eyes, whether it was anger or disappointment or pity.
This fear wasn't new to her. She had felt before when she had challenged Amon weeks ago. That time, she had been sure that he was going to her bending, but he had spared her. This time she knew she wouldn't be so lucky.
She deserved it, she reminded herself. She had let all the others lose their bending—it was only fair that she lost hers too, right? But that didn't stop any of the fear.
Amon pressed a finger against his forehead.
Panic seized her, and in one last attempt, she tried to free her arms. She flailed desperately, but her bonds were tied so tight she hardly even wavered. It was too late.
She closed her eyes and screamed.
Note: Inspired by people theorizing on Tumblr.