For each new generation a new Avatar is born, just as the cycle dictates. One dies, another must come forth from the next nation. Water to earth. Earth to fire. Fire to air. Air to water.

The Avatar spirit has chosen many different souls to fit this role, from different walks of life and different blood in their veins. From farmers and nobleman, warriors and maidens, those with nothing and those with wealth to spare, the Avatar has come from them all. The spirits choose not by the things that divide us, but by the character and strength the spirits know the new Avatar will need to allow them to maintain the balance of the world.

But even the spirits cannot foretell the future.

They cannot know when the decisions of humans, so very flighty creatures they are, could make a young Avatar stray from the balance. They cannot be sure that the goodness that the Avatar was born with won't be buried by the harshness of the world. Because even though the Avatar is to be the great bridge between the spirit world and the human world, they are still human. And humans are always in danger of corruption.

In an instant, a human can become a thief, or a murderer, or a monster.

Not even the Avatar is immune to this.

.o.O.o.

Korra was the Avatar.

Senna sat with her back against the wall, staring at her daughter. Her little girl, curled up on the tattered furs that created a small nest, her expression seeming far too innocent in her little round moon of a face. Even in sleep, Korra's lip jutted out in a defiant pout, a small knot beginning to rise as her eyebrows pushed together.

She'd always had a personality that was so much more stubborn and fiery than was generally thought to be the waterbender norm. Just like her father; her wonderful, impulsive, shamed father. Senna's fingers curled around the singed parka in her hands tightly, the blackened fabric popping a few seams under the pressure. Perhaps that was why she did not recognize the behavior of earth and fire benders sooner.

A heavy hand fell on her shoulder, and Senna blinked away the tears that had begun to make the colours of her daughter run like an image seen through frost-plated glass. She gently rested her hand over her husbands and looked up at Tonraq's solemn face. He kneeled so that their eyes were level.

"I got rid of everything she burned," he murmured, his pale eyes darting towards the door, "I brought them to the ice's edge and let them sink. That parka is all that's left. No one has to know about what she did."

Senna looked down, slowly uncurling her fingers from the half-finished, half-destroyed article. She'd worked so hard to make something nice for her first and only child. And now it stained her skin with the darkness of ash and fear

"That compound in Kekertuk," She said softly as she handed him the parka, "It's finished. Rakki said she saw it last week. She said it's surrounded by walls of ice and stone that are fifty feet high and could probably keep anything from getting in," Her voice trembled, "Or could keep anything from getting out."

Tonraq curled his arms around Senna, her entire tiny frame seeming to disappear into him. The parka slipped from his fingers and onto the floor as he rested his hand on her back.

"They're not going to take our daughter away," he whispered into her hair, his voice cracking slightly, "We're not going to let anyone lock her up in that prison. You hear me? We won't let them."

Senna's hand tightened in the fabric of his shirt.

"But with who she is, Tonraq," she said, "and who she will have to become, wouldn't it be selfish to try and hide her?"

Tonraq pushed her away from him, gently, just enough to see her eyes. He leaned forward until their noses were almost grazing each other, his warm breathe ghosting across her face. His jaw worked as if he wished he could grind his teeth but was holding himself back, eyes narrowing.

"No," he growled, voice rising, "They're the selfish ones. They should't be allowed to lock up a child for her entire life because of this… this destiny that was forced upon her," Senna tried to look away, but Tonraq placed his hands against her cheeks and turned her face back towards him, "We will not deny Korra who she is, Senna," he insisted, "We'll train her waterbending until we feel she is ready to move on to master the other elements. But the Order of the White Lotus? We can't let them get a hold of her. They'll hide her away from us and we'll never see her again."

Senna's eyebrows pulled up in the middle, her forehead creasing as she looked over at Korra's sleeping form. The small girl's foot jerked out with a dream-kick and her shin connected with a shelf holding the family's clay pots and bowls, making them rattle dangerously. She swallowed, her fingers trembling.

"Alright," she said quietly, looking back at Tonraq, "Alright."

...

After that very little was discussed of plans. There wasn't much to pack, and there was only one place they could really hide, a place that accepted hundreds of Water Tribe people every day. A city, one that was big enough to disappear into and was such a strange combination of the four nations that no one would expect the Avatar to be there.

Republic City.

They left that night, on a trade ship bound for the United Republic of Nations, leaving behind an empty house and the silence of goodbyes they could never speak.

So. This is my Legend of Korra chapter fic. It's an AU, a sort of 'What if'. I've always wondered how the Avatar spirit choses who will be the next Avatar, if they're selective about the way the kid's family lives or if it's about personality or if they just sort of throw it to whoever is born in the next nation the moment the Avatar dies. So I started thinking, what if someone who came from a less than savory lifestyle like, say, a criminal, ever became the Avatar?So, I decided to write this fic about Korra becoming a criminal.