They had Tenzin.
That was the only idea that mattered to her anymore. They had her mentor, and Korra had no idea what they were doing to him.
Well, some idea. She knew they wouldn't harm him, at least not while Tarrlok's troops had Hiroshi Sato safely imprisoned and his secret factories seized. Amon was a radical, but he had proven himself a very shrewd and practical man in the minutia of warfare. As long as they kept Sato alive, it seemed Amon would keep Tenzin alive.
But for how long, Korra wondered during the hours when she should be sleeping. When would the Equalists decide that Sato wasn't valuable enough to save? Amon had told Korra that a showdown between the two of them was inevitable; would he keep Tenzin alive in hopes of using him as bait, or would he kill Tenzin just to provoke Korra's immediate wrath, leaving her in much the same position. Tarrlok had managed to keep Korra from running off after Tenzin that terrible night, and for four days Korra's allies had managed to keep her from doing anything reckless.
Reckless.
That word echoed on a nonstop loop in her head, coloring her nightmares and filling the cracks in her waking hours.
How many times had Tenzin used that word to describe her? That was usually the message of the sermon. She barged into things without thinking first, without considering the hows, or even the whethers, of the situation.
"You can't just tear your way through every problem," he said once.
Well she wasn't being reckless now. And how much good was that doing her? How long before Amon realized that Tenzin wasn't good enough as bait? How long before he decided on the other thing?
Still her friends urged patience. Bolin with a tender touch and an encouraging word, Mako with a firm look that spoke of years of sad experience, Lin with a soldier's stern advice. And Asami, with a gentle but proud expression of sorority.
How dared she.
How dared she, who had her father back, alive and well if still a prisoner, counsel Korra on patience.
She had been training... She could call it training, but in truth it was merely venting, doing unto the practice dummies in the yard as she would to Amon and every last man at his command. The dummies burnt a lot easier. Tarrlok had come for who knew what reason at first. She apologized stiffly, almost from reflex, for the out-of-control display, but the older man waved away her apologies like so much smoke.
"Don't apologize for your ferocity, Korra," he said. "It is perhaps your finest attribute. Too many soldiers hesitate; they go for the maiming blow instead of the killing blow. That's how the enemy gets the upper hand. Especially in this conflict with the Equalists. Too many of our benders let that shred of... perhaps it's pity, perhaps it's simply underestimation of a non-bending foe... but whatever it is, it halts them from unleashing their full strength on their targets, and that is the real danger. Their machines can be overcome, it is the extra moment they have to strike that leaves them standing today."
Without realizing the strangeness of this action-perhaps she was simply that exhausted, that beaten and worn and withdrawn into her own mind-she sat down right there on the steps with him and listen to his words. He in turn listened to hers, sitting quietly while she unfurled her anger and frustration. She told him about her newfound contempt with Asami, something she dared not share with Mako or Bolin, as well as the guilt that came with the contempt.
"You are right to feel the way you do," Tarrlok insisted, much to her surprise. "I hope you don't mind if I say this about a friend of yours, but the Sato girl is rather short-sighted. She doesn't understand the power and the responsibility that are yours. You are the Avatar, and the safety and balance of the world are part of your destiny. The Sato girl is just happy to have her father in safe care, and happy enough that I think you understand now why I wanted her nowhere near the fighting. In the end, can you be certain she wouldn't sabotage our plans out of mercy for him?"
She thought on that for a while. She realized with absolute certainty that Asami would only ever go for the maiming blow over the killing blow, if there was a chance her father would come to harm for it.
"As strange as this may sound, the Equalists are right about one thing: there is an inequality. Benders are more powerful than non-benders. That's simply a part of the natural order, the way things were meant to be. This isn't the kind of thing one voices in public, but it is true. You as the Avatar are the finest proof of this: just as you are to us normal benders, we are to non-benders. That is the spiritual hierarchy of the world. You may be cursed with a heavier weight upon your shoulders, but you are also endowed by the natural order of things with the strength to shoulder it despite its weight, and that makes you superior."
Korra had never quite heard it like that, but realized that it was exactly true. She had known it the whole time, but only needed to hear it to have it crystallized for her. The feeling of this knowledge burrowed itself inside of her and warmed her to the core.
Tarrlok left her with the news that tomorrow they were to enact a large-scale raid on suspected Equalist headquarters. Korra was to spearhead one front of the attack, pushing in through the main entrance. He left her with a paternal hand upon her shoulder, but unlike countless others before it, this one felt genuine. Water may have been his element, but his eyes glinted with the fire of faith. She had been told that hers did the same.
She thought to herself that if Tenzin were there he would still warn her against trusting Tarrlok.
But Tenzin wasn't there. And Korra knew who was responsible for that.
To say she was at peace when she went to bed would be untrue, but Tarrlok's words gave her confidence and focus; she might not have slept well, but at least this time she slept. And the next morning, she was ready.
"Never relent," Tarrlok told her before the call was made. "You are the Avatar. Show mercy, and victory is inevitable."
With that, he gave her the go-ahead, and she blasted the door open.
Korra let the world go, let all of her other worries and cares and plans and ideas fly away, and immersed herself in those moments. Enemy after enemy came towards her, each armed with some device or gadget or weapon meant to level the playing field.
All of it in vain.
She was the raging volcano, she was the bellowing hurricane, she was immovable as the mountain, she was the very tempest of the sea itself, and none could stand in her way.
She cut through them all, layering each wall and floor and ceiling with their blood, crushing them utterly. One by one they stopped moving, but she never did. She tore through every problem she'd ever had.
No hesitation, no mercy. Only victory.