A/N: I don't entirely know where this came from, but it seemed a lot better in my head. I'm still having intense feels about the finale, but I feel like I'm one of the few who liked it. Quite a few people seemed to think that Korra getting her powers back was too contrived, and she didn't deserve it. I am of an entirely different opinion. And we saw Aang! /massive feelings attack. -Tinged
She is the Avatar, and she is nothing.
She's always been the Avatar, but she's never been nothing.
She knows that she shouldn't put such an emphasis on her Bending. She is many things, and a Bender is only one. There is so much more that makes Korra who she is.
But without her Bending, she is not the Avatar.
The role of the Avatar is to bring balance to the world. She is the spiritual connection between this world and the next. She is the Master of the Elements, the bringer of peace.
And it's gone.
It's all gone.
At the edge of a cliff, a sheer drop to the frozen ground below, Korra contemplates falling. Death would be permanent, and it would be final, and she would have to leave behind everything she has grown to love here in this world: Tenzin and his family, Lin, her parents, Katara. Late-night rides with Naga and Bolin. Racing around with Asami. Pro-bending. Mako.
She sinks to the ground and she cries.
It's not just because she's lost her Bending, although there's an ache in her chest that throbs whenever she thinks about it.
The role of the Avatar is to bring Balance to the world, and if she cannot Bend, she cannot be the Avatar.
Amon is gone, but who knows who will be next? A greater threat is lurking in the shadows, and what can she do to stop it? Nothing. She is nothing, and she can do nothing.
If she were to die, a new Avatar will be born. An Avatar who is wise and spiritual, all the things she could never be. An Earth Bender. Bolin might like that, she thinks, and she breaks into a fresh wave of sobs at the thought.
She doesn't want to die.
But isn't that what this world deserves?
This world deserves an Avatar, one who can master all the elements, one who can access the spiritual world, one who will not fail them. The world deserves an Avatar who can bring peace and balance. They deserve an Avatar who will unite the Benders and non-Benders together again. The world deserves an Avatar like Aang.
She is here to serve the world, and that means making sacrifices. Losing her Bending is nothing, in comparison to what she will have to lose to bring the world back to the way Aang left it. Amon took her Bending, but he cannot take her duty and love for the world, for the people in it. If her death means the safety of her mother and father, of her friends and her family, of Republic City, of the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation ... then she will do it.
She'll let them go. Rides with Naga, laughing with Bolin, Mako, all of it. The world does not deserve a selfish Avatar. And Korra is so many things, but she's never been nothing. If this is what she can give to the world, she will give it.
She sits on the cold ground and she cries, and it's acknowledging that she has lost everything, and will lose even more. She will never be able to tell Mako that she loves him, too. She can't train with Katara, can't hold Naga close, can't fish with her father or cook with her mother. No more teasing Tenzin or the Airbabies. No more talks with Asami, where Korra ends up laughing so hard her sides hurt. None of that, ever again.
She won't go back to say goodbye. Her resolve is thin, and it won't survive under their protests and their pleas. She will do this now, while she's still strong. She'd doing this for them.
When she lifts her head, the tears freezing on her cheeks, she spots a flash of red and yellow from the corner of her eye, and her heart breaks. Tenzin had Avatar Aang for a father; now he has Korra for a protégé. Not a good comparison. She's so sorry of so many things, but this, she thinks, is what she's sorry for the most: failing Tenzin.
"Not now, Tenzin. I just want to be alone."
"But you called me here."
Her voice catches in her throat, and she knows whom she's talking to, at last, at last.
Korra is the Avatar, and she has never been nothing.