The torch flickered unsteadily, dimly lighting the abandoned tunnel. Tahno observed the figure that tread cautiously in front of him who in turn watched the tunnel rats scurry into the dark corners and crevices which caused him to shudder. Something deep within him made him want to turn around and walk the other way. Years of war however forced him to focus on the job at hand, so he continued further into the darkness.

"Where are we going? There's nothing in here," the other partner, Yaakov, pointed.

Tahno sighed, running his long and anorexic digits through wavy tresses. He urged him to press on. "We were ordered to search here. Just keep going."

Yaakov almost found himself leaning against the tunnel walls but examined it briefly, taking in the moss-covered walls that collected drops of browned water, and quickly decided against it. "Then you lead," he stepped aside to let Tahno stride ahead, "I don't even know what we're looking for."

He watched the lanky man uneasily slide in front of him. He paused for a moment, reaching into his pocket for the metal case that would supply some stress relief. Yaakov watched curiously as Tahno rolled a cigarette with shaky fingers, his brows furrowed and his tongue pressed between his top and bottom lip in concentration.

"Are you okay?"

Tahno began walking again as he slid the thin tube of tobacco between chapped lips, lighting it and inhaling deeply. "I'm fine," he replied nasally upon exhalation.

While Yaakov was unknowingly here on his own accord, Tahno knew exactly what he was searching for. It was intangible. He was searching for the abandonment of hesitation. He needed to find the point where the sharp sensitivities that existed in his mind would become numb.

His cigarette had long dissipated and the tunnel walls no longer felt inviting. Instead they seemed to narrow, closing in on him, forcing him to find that place much sooner.

Yaakov's conversation attempts waned. And when he allowed himself to stop talking, he was able to notice how the man in front him had his hands housed deep within his pockets, how his head bowed forward and his shoulders tensed upward. He showed no signs of attention to his surroundings at all.

"We're not looking for anything are we?" The panic in his voice was evident and it made Tahno shudder involuntarily.

Forcing himself to continue to look forward instead of behind at his colleague, the sight of which he was sure would have him come undone; he rubbed his temple in supplication. He begged his soul for darkness and clouded rationalization, the necessities to carry out his duty.

When the padding of footsteps faded behind him, he managed to continue to walk forward in hopes that Yaakov would follow.

"They know, don't they?"

Tahno stopped abruptly in his tracks, his ears ringing and his nostrils flaring. He let a few moments pass in order to soften his facial expression into oblivion, an attempt to feign ignorance at what his colleague had just asked. As if he didn't hear him, he turned on his heels and looked around the tunnel running his fingertips against the decaying walls. Dropping to his knees, he ran the pad of his thumb against the base board before looking up at Yaakov. "We should've turned into one of the corridors. I guess you were right; there's nothing down this way."

Yaakov swallowed hard and looked over his shoulder in the direction from which they had just come. Tahno took the time to rest his forehead against his knee, biting his tongue in frustration. Just do it he argued silently with himself before standing upright again and advising the man in front of him to back tread.

"What are we really here for," Yaakov asked inquisitively.

Tahno rubbed the back of his neck. Elimination. Punishment. He kept the true answers a secret. "I don't know. I'm just doing what I was asked to do." The ambiguity of his statement did hold some truth.

Hours passed again before the pair found themselves approaching a midnight blue whole, an indication of the tunnel entrance that welcomed the star blotched night sky. Yaakov felt the uneasiness escape him upon the sight of it. A few more miles and he would be spit out of the unwelcoming environment.

His biggest fear in his role of combat was letting people down, and right here, placed in front of the enemy painted for him, Tahno was close to doing just that. He decided that now, when Yaakov felt most hopeful and comfortable, when he knew he was paying the man walking so closely behind him no inkling of attention, was his perfect opportunity.

With quick fingers, he reached for the weapon tucked away in the inner pockets of his blazer. He firmly aligned the barrel with the leading form's medulla oblongata, that essential portion of the hindbrain sheathed under fair skin.

With one calm breath, Tahno cocked his pistol before simultaneously pulling the trigger, leaving his target with minimal time to react. Thin lips pursed together as pale lids closed tightly in reaction to the familiar shock that jolted throughout his body causing his ears to ring painfully. In that same instant, warm crimson sprayed about him, colliding into and permanently staining tensed facial features at high velocities; the contact searing his skin.

The limp body hit the concrete floor with resounding force. Tahno's work was done.

.

.

.

The wind began to blow the terrible smell of garbage up from the dark alleyways where shadows lurked in the murky darkness. He walked aimlessly, allowing him time to clear his mind of the impurities imparted on him this night.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of panting suddenly filling the surrounding air. His eyes skimmed about for the source finding nothing until he turned a sharp corner, his veins constricting and his heart pounding rapidly against his chest. He could see a large animalistic silhouette, one that did not affect him at all as much as the more immaculate and very feminine one, much tinier, that accompanied it.

The moonlight made her chestnut brown hair shimmer with dim light, her blue furs seeming to fade palely in its glow as it cast a silver organza veil over her, her appearance casting an entrancing spell over him as he found himself being pulled in her direction.

It had been four miserable years since he had last seen her. After attempts to restore her bending abilities along with everyone else's' who had fallen victim to Amon's reign were futile, Tenzin required the young avatar assist him on a journey to the Southern Air Temple. Seeing that Korra had been without the other forms of bending for over a year, he decided she focus on the only one she was not left bereft of in order to better master the art of air bending. And that was the last he heard of her.

One particular night unforgivingly invaded his senses as he stalked behind the young woman. He could still feel her tears prickling against his skin, her sobs resounding in his ears as she begged him to distract her from the pain. It was the night she had come to him in recognition of broken and unfulfilled promises. She basked in their sole morbid relation, being stripped of their seemingly inalienable powers by a crazed masked villain.

"I just want to feel."

He shook her by her shoulders pleading with her, informing her that he had nothing to offer her, that this isn't really what she wanted, that this was wrong and that in the morning she would turn her back on him and blame him for taking advantage of her.

"I trust you."

Those words rung heavily in his ears, drowning out any private objections he had of his own. Her protests made it impossible for him to believe that, unknown to her, he was hurting her. While she was oblivious to it, he was constantly hounded by it with every brush of her lips, every encouraging word she'd spoken to him, every caress of her supple skin. He then continued, too selfish to deny himself of what was completely and truly wrong.

And in that moment, in the calm beating of her heart and the slow but quiet slip of breath that escaped her warm and welcoming lips, he falsely believed that this, this was right. He kissed her. She was his undoing and for her he would pretend.

The next morning had come and while harsh words full of truth failed to be shared between them, their encounters thereafter became awkward. They were brief and fleeting with minimal discussion and eye contact allowed possible. When her avatar duties forced her to part ways with Republic City, she did not bid him farewell and he had not sought her out in order to properly do so. It was as if the relationship between them returned to the unfamiliarity and impassivity it contained before the loss of their bending.

A low growl rumbled throughout the streets, breaking Tahno from his reverie. He cursed himself for tripping over a pebble that went flying toward the curb edge and plunking down the drain, the noise gathering the attention of the two figures meters ahead.

He had the sudden urge to hide behind the side of a nearby building but decided against it knowing her companion would sniff him out. Instead he watched nervously as she caressed the ear of her polar-bear dog and spoke soothing words in an attempt to console her while looking over her shoulder in the direction the animal's head bowed. Her eyes squinted into the darkness, plumes of fog rolling lowly against the ground in the distance.

She could make out a blackened figure, darker hued than the midnight sky that surrounded them. "Who's there," she called out, her tone convicting much more authority than she actually possessed at the moment. Her heart began thudding against her chest causing her ears to buzz.

When the figure snaked closer through the darkness, Naga slid in front of her avatar, crouching into a defensive stance. She grunted while nodding her head and narrowing her eyes at something in the nearby darkness.

"What is it," the young woman pleaded in a low whisper, now believing that someone may be following them. She wanted to make a quiet escape, to slip away in the night after sneaking in for a quick glance of the air bending family she had grown to love. If someone was there to blow her cover, she wanted to rid of the situation before allowing it to happen. Stepping aside for a better view now blocked by her defensive pet, she called out once again. "I can see you're out here! Why don't you stop being a coward by hiding in the darkness and show yourself!"

The chuckle that emitted from the fog forced her eyes to widen and an inhalation of a sharp breath to feel her lungs to capacity. "Tahno," her voice questioned with inclination.

She took a few cautious steps forward as he strode confidently toward her, his face slowly piecing together from the dark that consumed him.

"Shucks," he snapped his fingers in open air playfully while continuing on, his words full of sarcasm, "I guess the jig is up."

The distance between them closed and Korra found herself pushing him in agitation. "Don't do stuff like that. I almost had you dead," she spat.

Tahno snorted. "Is this how you greet someone you haven't seen in years?" His eyes darted between her and the large polar-bear dog that still remained snarling with bared teeth.

Korra looked over her shoulder at her pet. "Shush girl, it's just an old…" she turned back to the man in front of her who still towered over her petite frame, greatly, "acquaintance."