"I'm not like you, Aang," she whispers to herself every time Katara tells a story that she hastily ends when she notices Korra's expression fall, or whenever Tenzin looks at her, and she can tell that he wonders how his father had come to be the foolhardy, naïve young woman struggling with Airbending. She could feel the weight of expectation on her shoulders every time the ferry passed his statue, standing so tall and sure of what his purpose was. I didn't save the world at 13, didn't master three elements in a year. I can't even connect properly with my spiritual side.
She knows that the statement isn't entirely true; she's used the Avatar state to energybend, so she has connected to a small extent. How can I live up to such a legend?
She opens her eyes almost immediately after falling asleep, but she's not in the sparse but cozy room on Air Temple Island. She is sitting in a meditative position on a stone platform surrounded by mist, nothing surrounding her but empty air. Aang is sitting across from her, his expression somehow both serious, yet playful. "You'll never live up to the legend of ANY of your past lives, Korra," he said, "and that is as it should be. The world is different at the renewal of each cycle, and requires a different kind of Avatar. You will forge your own legend, and that which you struggle with will become easier in time."
"But it's not happening fast enough," she stated, her eyes swimming with tears. "I'm a failure. I'm too impatient, I know that, but it doesn't mean that I know how to fix it."
"We each have our flaws, Korra," Aang said softly. Images flashed past her eyes; Aang's young eyes narrowed in fury and rage in the Avatar State, the darkness that would begin to creep out if he couldn't pull himself together. "I never wanted to BE the Avatar," she hears him whisper, and Aang's face is solemn now. "My story did not have a happy beginning, but I wrote my own ending to it. Since the very beginning of the Avatar cycle, it has been our calling to suffer more than anyone else in the world could suffer. I believe in you, Korra; I know that you can rise above it, and bring the title of Avatar to an even higher level of honor than it has ever borne." As had occurred when he restored her bending, numerous incarnations of her past lives appeared, wraith-like, behind him, and she saw softness and understanding in all of their expressions. "We are honored to BE you, Avatar Korra," they intoned. Her eyelids fluttered closed.
Even as she awoke, she could feel the moisture on her cheek, and the warmth in her breast.