The Mask

Nothing had prepared Korra for the ball that was being held in her honor after peace had returned to Republic City and Amon's body had washed ashore – so horribly deformed on his left side that everybody had wondered how he had died in the first place.
But even though there were many questions still to be answered, everybody seemed to agree on the fact that it was a cause for celebration. Already two weeks had passed since all benders in Republic City had regained their powers and as she walked in between them on the dance floor, they all beamed at her happily, grateful that she had restored their lives to their former ways. Even Tahno's grin was not as sly as usual, and as he popped up behind her, he whispered in her ear: "I must insist on a dance with you, Uh-vatar."
She thanked him politely, not really sure if she was looking forward to that or not, and made her way to Tenzin. After all, she thought to herself, you've only been single for two days!
Her relationship with Mako had been brief, passionate and more tumultuous than the war with Amon. The one moment they had been making out with such fire, the other moment they had been at each other's throats. Not to mention that Asami had been so hurt by their entire relationship, that it had burdened Korra with a feeling of guilt she had never experienced before. They had broken up in mutual consent, but it still hurt – for him as well. He was not even present at the ball. Soon the dancing would begin, and she saw how Bolin was trying to impress Asami with his dancing moves. She supposed her first dance would not be with Bolin then. Tahno winked at her from a distance and she shuddered a little bit.
Dancing with Tahno? Yes, it could be fun, but she did not want a relationship from it, but she was starting to get her doubts if Tahno was into it just for the fun.
As the clock struck nine and the music started playing, everybody put on their masks, causing great fun amongst the attendants. To celebrate the defeat of Amon, a masked ball had seemed appropriate. It had been voted for in the council, and even Tenzin had agreed to it, even though his yellow mask was quite small, only covering the area around his eyes. With his trademark beard and his Airnomad clothing, the mask was not much of a disguise for him.
Korra hoped she was a little less recognizable. Her hair was loose and the blue dress she was wearing was also new. It had been a gift from Asami, who had treated her to it the day before. They had spent hours in the city, shopping, drinking tea and talking about what a jerk Mako was at times. Typical girl-talk, and Korra had to admit that she had liked it much more than she had expected.
Her mask covered all of her face, except for her mouth, and she smiled as Tenzin held out his hand to her.
"As we came here together, it seems appropriate that I ask you for the first dance?" he proposed to her politely.
"It would be my pleasure, Tenzin," she replied.
The dance, however, was much like Airbending training, with Tenzin giving her pointers. Korra was in a good mood today, and she did not mind at all, fully aware that her dancing skills were below par.
Her second partner turned out to be Tahno, whose mask had scared Korra out of her wits. When the mask of a skeleton had popped up in front of her, she had let out a short shriek, to the amusement of the Wolfbat. She was still trembling slightly as he swayed her over the dance floor, saying things like: "I see the fear in your eyes, Uh-vatar, afraid that my dancing skills are as lethal as my pro-bending moves?" and "Poor Uh-vatar, will you have nightmares of me tonight?" But even these remarks could not unsettle her, in fact, she felt rather amused by them. She was quite sure that there was some sort of mutual respect between them now, even if it appeared different to an outsider.
Her third dance partner, she did not even know. He was quite tall and wore a blue mask, which matched hers, but covered up his entire face. He wore a beautiful cape and the hood covered his hair and placed his eyes in a dark shadow. But Korra could see through that shadow and was surprised how the blue in his eyes was brought out beautifully by the color of the mask. For a moment Korra was mesmerized as he held out his hand. He did not speak, but that was not necessary either as Korra quite liked to focus on the dance. Even though it was rather slow, the choreography was something she needed to concentrate on. Few step forwards, bow, few step backwards, switch places with the person next to you, walk over to each other, cross the man on your right side, stand on the position where he was standing, repeat. And each of those parts had to be done to the count of four. Not incredibly difficult, but it did not come as natural as her waterbending moves.
"I see you are counting," he said quietly as he crossed her, and she smiled politely.
"Bending is easier," she replied as she crossed him again.
When they came to the part where they had to hold the palms of their right hands against each other, Korra trembled slightly from the intense stare he was giving her. When it was time to separate again and go back to their places, they both seemed to miss it, still with their hands against each other.
"I'm sorry," Korra apologized, flushing as she quickly stepped back to her place.
He did the same, but when they met again, he suddenly said: "I need to ask you a question, Avatar."
She was a little surprised that he – a stranger – had recognized her and had the guts to ask her to dance. She had thought that he had not known her at all, but had just chosen her because their outfits seemed to match. (Clearly she had spent too much time shopping with Asami for even thinking such a thing.)
"Sure," she replied shortly.
The next time they slowly stepped around each other, he asked her in a soft voice: "I was hoping that you could restore my bending to me."
"You were not in Republic City two weeks ago?"
"No, I was… somewhere else."
It did not raise any suspicions to Korra that he did not mention a location, and she said: "Sure, but I'd rather not do it here in public now. Since I am undercover, you know, with this mask and everything."
She grinned and his eyes looked at her kindly and she assumed that he was also smiling underneath his mask.
Once again they missed a few beats before they returned to their places opposite each other and bowed. The dance had just finished, when Korra took the stranger by his hand – because she knew that she might be asked by somebody else if she did not show that she was taken for the moment – and they both left the large hall.
Korra stepped outside and they both walked down the stairs to the waterside, looking out over Memorial Island and the Air Temple. It was rather quiet and Korra felt a little chilly in her dress, but she did not hesitate to take off her mask before she smiled at the stranger, expecting him to do the same thing.
"You look beautiful tonight," he suddenly said and it surprised Korra.
What a charming man, she thought to herself, also glad that so much time spent with Asami in the bathroom had paid off.
"You need to remove your mask if you want me to give back your bending. And you have to kneel."
He went down on his knee and looked up at her, taking down his hood first before he slowly took off his mask.
Korra immediately noticed an ugly and fresh scar on the left of his face and it was only after she had forced herself not to stare too much at the scar that ran from his cheek until his neck, and probably underneath his collar too, that she looked in his eyes again and gasped for air.
"I am sorry for surprising you, Avatar Korra. But I wanted to speak to you alone."
Korra nearly felt like fainting and turned visibly paler.
"Tarrlok," she whispered, the weak sound of her own voice suddenly making her more self-assured. She was not going to be weak about this. "What are you doing here? We thought you were dead. What happened?"
Still sitting on his knee, Tarrlok suddenly told her what had happened, how Amon had wanted to escape with him, how he had blown up their boat but had been tossed back into the sea, how he had washed ashore a few villages further than Republic City and had not returned until he had heard about the ball…
"…And now here I am. I can truly understand if you do not want to return my bending to me. I am Yakone's son and I did horrible things to you, for which I will apologize a hundred times over if you want me to. But as I read in the newspapers how nobody seemed to know what had happened to Amon before he died, I wanted to let you know. I leave myself in your hands now. For some reason the spirits spared my life, and I want to repay you in any way I can for the horrible things I did to you."
Tears stood in her eyes as she looked at his deformed face, at the humble way in which he now sat before her, at the regret that burned in his eyes.
She let herself drop on her knees in front of him, leveling her face with his, as she suddenly put both her hands on his cheeks, even across the scar, which caused him to flinch slightly. He had sacrificed everything. For her?
"Thank you," she whispered as she looked into his gentle eyes. "Thank you for everything."
Softly she kissed him on his lips before she stood up again and placed her thumb on his forehead and her other hand on his heart.
Before her eyes turned white, she whispered: "You have redeemed yourself, Tarrlok."