A brief A/N:

I disliked Mako, and part of me would have preferred he died during the finale. At the same time, I would have liked to like him. This is an attempt to understand him through those around him. Will hopefully be told in five or six parts, written over the course of a couple weeks. Unbeta-ed, very rough.

Glorious For Its Brevity
by Kaj-Nrig

Bolin carries him out of the machine on his shoulder the way he would a sack of sweet yams and lays him down on the first remotely smooth surface he sees. Bolin pounds at his chest for a long time in a bid to get his heart pumping again. It doesn't work.

Tenzin and his family are the first to stumble upon the two; Jinora decides to stay behind with Bolin while the others search for Korra and Kuvira nearer the newly opened spirit portal. The young girl tries at first to help him, but he slaps her hand away. "Don't touch him!" he yells. "I need to—I need to—" His voice trembles with desperation.

"He's gone," she says as gently as she can, and the words choke her on the way out. She reaches for him again, this time placing her hand on his shoulder, and though he doesn't react to it, he doesn't push her away again, either. She repeats herself until he finally, slowly, stops beating Mako's still chest and lets her pull him into a sitting position.

"I'm so sorry, Bolin," she whispers. His response is to grasp at her until she wraps her arms around him, and the two of them clutch each other urgently. He cries into her shoulder for Mako, and she does the same for him.

They mourn together for what must be an eternity, yet when they pull apart their hearts are no less heavy. "What happened to Korra?" he asks, if only to break the silence. Jinora informs him of Korra's continued absence.

He needs to help search. But he won't leave Mako here. He can't. He carries Mako to the spirit portal by himself, and refuses help from anyone; not even from Asami, who breaks into tears of her own upon the sight of her once lover resting limp in his arms.

The last of Team Avatar to find out is Korra, who stumbles out of the spirit portal with Kuvira in tow. He hates seeing Korra's smile disappear as she approaches him. He hates disappointing her. Still, he accepts her hug without a word, and then the Avatar, after some extremely careful consideration, steps aside.

Kuvira looks at him as if seeing him for the first time. He looks back and wants nothing more than to crush her face between two slabs of stone. He didn't expect to see her here, or at all for that matter. Her presence is like a knife, twisting and writhing in his heart.

He could do it. He could, and he would not let anyone stop him. Kuvira's troops are too far away, and nobody stands between him and her.

Bolin seldom hears from his voice of reason. The thing is timid, and shy, and easily shouted over by his baser impulses. But this time it stands firm, and it speaks calmly to him in a voice that always looks out for little brother, that protects Bo from making rash decisions. "Let her go," it tells him. "Let the world deal with her, and let's work on patching you up, okay?"

"Okay," he concedes after a time. "Okay."

He resettles Mako's weight in his arms and turns around. Chief Beifong and Suyin are waiting with shackles. When they pass each other, Chief Beifong glances at Mako, and her face hardens into something dangerous.

The next person he comes across is Tenzin. "I need your help," he tells the elderly monk, who simply nods in understanding and leads him away.