Something very old... I believe I began work on it two or three days after Endgame. I have a similar work for Aang that is not this ready for publication, but maybe will get up here one day.
Korra experiences quite the range of emotions here!
"I can Airbend?" Feeling limp, Korra pushes against the wall to stand straight again. Suddenly fire fills her veins again and she screams, "I can Airbend!"
And then she is.
She's using Firebending forms and ancient Earthbending katas, but the fierce, cold wind inside her doesn't seem to care as it blasts, ricochets, and throws Amon backwards.
And then she is frozen and burning and boiling and twisting and pain, but she can still feel something cold scalding her insides and she grunts, "No…you…don't!"
A wave of wind pushes Amon, throws him until he is shattering, or maybe that's the window, and he's gone, gone –
He rises out of the water on a spout that seems too impossibly tall, the paint – something – that made the scar fading in the wind – and the crowd is catching fire, gasping, shrieking, pointing –
And then Mako, next to her, strong, firm, cool-headed Mako is shooting fire farther than she'd ever seen anyone bend before, and every shot misses until one finally connects (even though Amon keeps going) and Korra still can't tell if it was wrong not to feel remorse.
Then she turns and touches him and doesn't feel anything anymore.
.
When Lin Bei Fong touches her shoulders, Korra just feels number. The only thing grounding her is the feel and the intense look in her eyes.
When Lin says in her growling voice, "I can't believe Amon got you, too," Korra suddenly doesn't see her as Tenzin's ex, the cop who arrested her on her joyride through the city, or a name in the paper. She sees her as a woman, an Earthbender, a beautiful daughter of one of her past life's best friends.
Korra's about to cry – why did it take until now to be friends? – when Bolin interrupts cheerfully, "At least you unlocked your Airbending!"
Mako's expression is unchanging as he instructs, "Bro. Not the time."
"Right! Right. I'll just stand over here. Quietly. In silence."
They watch as the ships come through the mist. Tenzin looms behind her. "You saved Republic City."
"But Amon got away."
He rests a hand on her shoulder and she grabs it, a strong ache suddenly flaring and disappearing in her chest.
When Bumi sails into view, everyone else has some sort of reaction – Ikki especially – but Korra can't bring herself to feel anything.
.
Emptiness.
They swaddle her in blankets like a sick person for the flight, even though she'd rather feel the wind. At one point she thinks she smells smoke and something acrid like burning hair, but it must be another hallucination, because in some other part of her mind she can hear rocks crunching and the heady swirl of water.
As soon as they reach the South Pole, she is passed off to Katara, who embraces her with open arms and hurries her inside. Katara had been wired (despite her slight intolerance of modern technology) the information and reports from the city's best healers, and her firm mouth wobbles as she rubs Korra's back in slow circles.
Korra plods into the temple with Katara's arm supporting her, and her old sifu slides the old-fashioned door shut, slides the blankets off from around her shoulders, and pulls her parka up and off.
She passes it through the door, and Korra shivers for one of the first times she can remember.
Katara doesn't speak, instead bending steaming water from a jug onto Korra's neck and shoulders. The energy in the room changes and heightens and sweat beads on Korra's skin, sliding down.
Flashes of blue dot her peripheral vision as the water glows with energy.
It takes forever, Korra bent forward, hands slumped in her lap. She doesn't feel any different. Finally, Katara sighs and leaves the room.
She can hear the tension on the other side of the door, and somehow gets to her feet. She slides open the door and walks out, planning to ignore everybody but quite forgetting who was waiting for the verdict.
She finds three unusually quiet Airbender kids and a subdued newborn. A mother with a quivering mouth, a father with sad eyes. An unsmiling Asami. A tired looking Bolin. A world weary Mako. A frightened looking Pema. A man with a blue arrow tattooed on his head that looks too much like Aang. Something pangs in her throat for Katara, who must never be able to see her son without seeing her husband, too.
"It's going to be all right, Korra," he says.
"No," she breathes. "It's not."
Then she pushes Mako and Bolin out of the way, snatches her coat off a hook and leaves them all behind.
For some reason it surprises her when she hears his voice behind her. "Korra! Wait."
She hasn't even made it to Naga yet.
She stops, waiting for him, and when he catches up, she turns. "Go away."
"I will," he promises. "But I just want you to know…I'm here for you."
"No, I mean go away." She turns to him and scowls. "Back to Republic City." She crosses her arms, hoping for something. A spark, a flame in her stomach that'll convince her she's actually still alive. Talking to Mako had always given her a thrill before. "Get on with your life."
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm not the Avatar anymore. You don't need to do me any favors." She turns again and takes two steps before he's touching her shoulder, yanking her firmly back.
"I don't care if you're the Avatar or not. Listen…when Tarrlok took you, I was losing my mind at the thought of never seeing you again. I realized…"
He comes up to her and rests his fingertips on the side of her face. "I love you, Korra."
Warmth spreads in tiny halos from the spaces where he touches her, but as soon as she grabs his hand and drops it, the feeling fades into the air. "I…I can't," she gasps, then pulls herself up on Naga and gallops out the open doors of her prison, ignoring his voice calling after her.
She makes Naga stay away from the edge of the cliff, herself walking to its very edge.
And she cries.
Not big, heartbreaking sobs like when she was younger, but simple hot tears sliding out of the corners of her eyes and dripping down her cheeks.
She watches one shimmering droplet fall parallel to the ice until it fades from sight, then covers her face and curls into a ball, so tired, so completely worn and weary that the thought of crying almost makes her want to go to sleep.
A tall, man-shaped figure in red and orange appears in her peripheral, and she chokes, "Not now, Tenzin! I just wanna be left alone."
Despite herself, she reaches up and tries to wipe away as much of tears as she can.
The man surprises her by protesting, "But you called me here."
Korra sits straight up at the warm, deep voice and turns abruptly to look the man full in the face – a man with grey eyes instead of blue, a short, well-trimmed beard, and an arrow tattooed so long ago it looks ancient.
Something inside her lifts, and she smiles weakly. "Aang…!"
Looking down at her, he says proudly, "You have finally connected with your spiritual self."
"How?"
He's smiling at her and says calmly, "When we hit our lowest point, we are open to the most change." And then something is changing in the air behind him and there's Roku, and Kyoshi, and a Kuruk that reminds her of her dad in a weird way, and then Yangchen and a Firebender she doesn't know the name of, and countless people she feels that she should know but doesn't…
But none of them are smiling like Aang is.
She can see why he made such a good father.
When he reaches forward, she feels like melting into his touch. He rests a thumb on her forehead and holds her shoulder with soft, firm hands.
She closes her eyes, and through her eyelids she can see blazing, gentle white light glowing from Aang's eyes and the arrows on his hands.
And then he steps back, and all of them just melt, fade and disappear into the freezing wind.
And then the strangest feeling floods her: energy and power that feels rushing and overflowing like water and air, filling her to the brim until she's sure it has to be gleaming through her skin.
But she's calm.
And when she opens her eyes, they glow.
Her hair whips in a wind of its own, her parka and clothes flapping wildly. She rises in a spiraling upside down spout of air, and when she raises her arms, air shoots out in every direction.
The next time she does it, waves of fire taller than her race along the ice, but nothing catches. She stretches her arms apart again, and blocks of ice rise and fall in a wave like earth. Below her, she can feel the sea, the endless depth swelling and responding to her, and an enormous wave crashes against the cliff, exploding in front of her as she grasps her hands over her head.
She still can't get exactly what happened, but she feels powerful and wise. She spreads her arms to steady herself and the air vortex dissolves, depositing her one foot at a time into the snow.
The feeling floods out of her, leaving behind a warmth, a fire she hasn't felt since Amon took her bending away.
Something doesn't feel right, though, and she turns suddenly to see Mako standing behind her, staring, slightly open mouthed. Possibly, the first time she's seen him shocked.
And then he smiles. She runs, almost in slow motion toward him and his open arms. She jumps into them, her feet leaving the ground and he spins her once, sets her down, and then she tells him, "I love you, too."
When his lips touch hers – again – she doesn't know if there's ever been a time in her life when she's felt more.
.
After they finished, Korra drags Mako back to Naga, galloping back to the compound.
Standing on the steps to the temple, Korra's anxiety and uncertainty dissolve as Lin Bei Fong kneels proudly before her.
Full of emotion, Korra steps forward and touches her head and shoulder. She closes her eyes and breathes, and every breath of sharp, winter wind is a reassuring word from Aang.
When she opens her eyes again, they glow. Her hands do, too, where they touch Lin's skin. Their connection lasts for an eternity, and she can feel the power of the Avatar absorbing into Lin, flooding through her veins and arteries, her bones until she can feel the place in her center where she can't touch the earth anymore. Korra doesn't do anything; she just is, and the glowing power heals the connection instantly: the crooked clot the Bloodbending made breaks in a blast of light and bridges the gap between Lin and her Earth.
She can see it in Lin's face when she looks up at her, years dropping away. The other woman stands and raises her arms slowly, majestically, and all around her, boulders lift into the air.
Lin lets them drop, and turns to Korra. "Thank you."
She bows.
When Korra turns to get down from the steps of the temple, she faces Tenzin, who wears a strange look on his face, of a sadness and joy.
"I am so proud of you, Avatar Korra."
It sounds so natural coming from him, and it suddenly occurs to Korra that she's a fully realized Avatar, she saved Republic City from Amon, and fallen in love.
She smiles.