Prologue

I lifted my head, the scarf wrapped around my neck, keeping the sleeping gas from entering my lungs, shifted over my nose. Equalists were electrocuting anyone still awake, and herding the less stealthy out the doors. But the Equalist in the room with me wasn't paying attention. His loss.

His mind was focused on the pro-bending armor in the closet that he was rummaging through. Slowly I picked myself up and crept to the railing. The water below was alive with electricity, but the ring- my heart nearly stopped.

Amon stood before the White Falls Wolfbats, the three pro-benders were on their knees, and Amon was approaching the first one. I couldn't just watch, I wouldn't let it happen to them, even if they were a bunch of cheaters. Not to him.

Raising my arms I launched myself into the air and waterbended across the empty space to the ring. Lashing out a water whip I knocked Amon away from the Wolfbats, and into the rails. Spinning through the air, I took out his other Equalist followers, pushing them over the side with my water.

Then I landed on all fours in front the captain of the Wolfbats. Amon was rising to his feet, dripping with water. He stared at me, his face covered with that awful mask that made me cringe every time I saw it. It was a face that I dreamed about in my sleep. A face that I feared. But his eyes, they were a cerulean blue that stared at me with emptiness.

I rose to my full height, fists clenched at my sides to keep them from shaking with fear.

"Not like this," I pleaded. "Not like this."

"How then, Lani," Amon said, I flinched. How did he know my name? "How would you want me to take their bending?"

"Don't be cruel. It isn't fair," I said. I knew what he was going to say next. I was often reminded of it often whenever I said life wasn't fair.

"Life often, never is."

"Please," I was begging now. "Please. Don't."

"Stand aside, Lani, don't force my hand," he warned in a threatening voice. My shoulders slumped, head bowed. He wasn't going to let them go. He was going to hurt them, and I wouldn't be the one to stand by and watch. That was the difference between me and Korra. I was the nice one, the calm one. The one who was the underdog, and usually lost the fight. If I fight Amon here, my gut told me, no, my conscience told me that I would lose my bending. It scared me, and I was shaking. But I had to. Then I rose my fists and met his eyes.

"Lani," Tahno whispered desperately from behind me. "Run."

"If you must, Amon, you'll have to go through me," I said, bending water around me so that there was a wall of water between him and me. Amon approached it, dodging every water whip I sent at him.

Then a gripping pain filled me, my arms locked up, my legs froze. What was this? What was happening? My wall of water fell and Amon stopped in front of me. His hands were on my shoulders but he used no force, at least not physically. I was forced to my knees, eyes wide. He wasn't . . . he couldn't possibly-

Amon grabbed me, flipping me around so that I was staring at Tahno's wide terrified eyes. I breathed through my nose heavily, Amon held me by my neck, tilting my head back to stare into his masked face. This was it.

Then his other hand came down, thumb pressed to my forehead and everything changed.

"LANI!"