The Odds.
(So I haven't written fanfiction in years. I'm a little bit rusty so constructive criticism is welcome. This is about Korra's life leading up to facing Amon. I tried to make it as short as possible. Enjoy if you can! If you don't like it, let me know.)
1 in 102,685,000.
Those were her odds. The odds of being born Korra, the Avatar.
The day she is born marks more than just her birthday. It signifies the reincarnation of the next Avatar, the next spirit of the planet incarnated into human form, the next person fated to master the four elements and bring balance to the entire world.
All of this born into one tiny baby girl.
Her round, cerulean orbs flutter their dark lashes as she takes in her surroundings, embracing the world she is destined to save. Her chubby, pink hand curls around the calloused index finger of her father.
"Isn't she beautiful?"
Tonraq smiles and bends down to kiss the forehead of his crying and laughing wife, Senna, now mother of his child. Two people brought together by the driving force of fate. It definitely feels that way when the odds of them meeting were 1 in 20,000.
They name her Korra.
At only four years old, she becomes aware of the unimaginable power she possesses. It happens while playing in the snow with the other children of the Southern Water Tribe. What starts as an innocent game of Hide and Splash quickly turns sour when a boy on the other team splashes Korra in the face. Senna recalls the furious, round-bellied toddler raising a patch of earth and sending her attacker soaring through the air.
"He started it!"
Senna and Tonraq do their best to inform their only daughter of her uniqueness without inflating her ego or placing too much pressure on a child at such a young age. But Korra's eyes only sparkle when she is told the great stories and legends of the Avatar, and she relishes in the fact that she is the "Chosen One."
She is not fragile.
The early years seemed easy compared to what is yet to come. Tonraq and Senna watch (excessively) over their daughter, and often struggle with keeping her out of trouble. Of course, that never stops Korra. To her parents delight, at six years old she brings home an abandoned polar bear dog, which is only a baby at the time. Senna's stomach drops and Tonraq quickly reaches for his bone spear when the giant animal gives Korra a sloppy lick on the cheek. The odds of the polar bear dog being a kind one instead of the vicious creature usual of its kind… well, Tonraq and Senna would rather not think about that one.
"Can I keep her?"
The years pass, and with them so does the baby fat and the shadow of a doubt that Korra is destined for great things. She is put into training and watched over by the Order of the White Lotus, who do their best to keep her out of trouble despite her reputation with authority figures. They are never very successful, but when it comes to Korra no one is. She continues to grow and to learn, to live and to thrive. Her parents watch her slowly start to slip away from them, and they keep her in their thoughts constantly. Meanwhile, Korra keeps her training top priority, aspiring to become the best bender she can possibly be. She feels she has nothing to lose.
"I have to find my own path as the Avatar."
The day she meets Mako and Bolin is just another set of numbers. Just another chance occasion that beat out the other odds. It's the day that she gains her first true friends since she started training. It feels like it's the first time she's been able to just be a teenager instead of the Avatar. But she also knows that she has a duty to protect these people, the ones she loves.
Because numbers have no sentiments, and the odds have no mercy.
Chance occasions and odds have also created monsters. Of all the people to see their parents murdered before them, of all the people to rally the nonbenders of an entire city, of all the people set out to achieve such a destructive vendetta, the numbers have pointed to Amon. Amon, a man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, who was turned into the greatest threat to benders all over the world, who wishes to see Korra dead. A man whose odds threaten the very world Korra was destined to protect.
Regardless, the numbers have added up. It's her time now.
1 in 102,685,000. That's all it took for either of them to exist. That's all it took to create the savior of the world and its destroyer. According to the odds, things so unlikely to happen as to be almost impossible.
As she tightens the ponytail holding up her long dark hair, Korra knows that this is what is all comes down to. This very moment, as she stands outside Amon's headquarters, ready to attack and finish this whole thing for good. Ready as she'll ever be to put the numbers to the test.
She wipes a bead of sweat as it trickles down her cheek and takes a deep breath.
She can only hope that the odds are in her favor.
