In the stone elevator, Korra couldn't get enough air.

Her stomach heaved in a way that had nothing to do with her ascent. The mere sight of the lift's torches made her throat dry, but when she shut her eyes all she could see was the rabid grimace on Zaheer's unkempt face when he tried to claw at her. That, and the echoing laughter of the evil spirits who had been his only company for so long.

What did you expect?

The air trembled, and Korra staggered, blinking rapidly.

You chained him in a dark vault and threw away the key. For a man with his philosophy, he might as well have been buried alive. Did you think he'd truly be left alone?

As soon as the stone gate rose, Korra stumbled out into the sun.

And vomited.

"Avatar Korra!"

Shivering, she crumbled to her knees. Ren was beside her immediately.

"Avatar Korra, what's wrong?"

Zaheer had always been deeply attuned to the spirit world. He'd studied it for decades from within. In some ways his connection was as strong as, was stronger than, Korra's own.

Heating her palms with a deep breath, she rubbed her arms to dispel a chill that had nothing to do with the twilight air. "What…what did we do to him?"

How did you feel in Tarrlok's cell? Or when the Red Lotus chained you to a rock and declared that you would die there? What spirits would you have attracted?

But if they'd put him anywhere else, Zaheer could have Airbended his way out. Plus, he was a master tactician. Thirteen years he'd been imprisoned before, and from a single opportunity to escape he'd toppled the Earth Kingdom into years of chaos. He'd nearly succeeded in murdering Korra herself and ending the Avatar forever.

Her mind went back to a rocky pillar, to her broken and exhausted body trying desperately to expel a poisonous metal, to air suddenly cut off as it was torn from her lungs in a rush…

Ren put one arm around her shoulders and held her hair back with the other. Korra wiped her eyes with her sleeve as she stood. Every breath she took was ragged. "I've faced down evil before. Power-hungry leaders, revolutionaries who didn't care who they hurt." She swallowed past the lump in her throat. "But that was…" What? A monster? Or a broken man surrounded by them?

Ren cocked her head, her expression surprisingly calm. Korra suspected that seeing the Avatar's discomfort in some way quieted Ren's own. "So he wasn't like that, always?"

Korra shook her head, mind abuzz. "He could have been my teacher." We imprisoned him and left him to rot. Twice. How can I be surprised that in the end, he did?

It was an answer of sorts. If a single man trapped in a cage could muster such unrestrained malevolence, what about a whole faction of hidden fanatics? Lord Zuko had chased out his father's radical supporters more than half a century ago, but he'd never managed to finish the job.

If Aang had killed the Firelord, that movement might never have been born…

Hiroshi Sato's face, love for his daughter etched into his lined features. How much he'd aged in a few years in prison. He'd done what he could to redeem himself. Even nine years after his death, the memory of Asami's grief squeezed Korra's heart.

And others, memories of enemies not her own from long before her birth. An Earth king falling down an opening chasm to his death. A narrow, chiseled face that resembled a middle-aged Lord Zuko. Yakone, no longer able to manipulate blood at will.

But what worked for Aang to subdue Zuko's father allowed Yakone to father Noatak and Tarrlok.

No easy answer. As usual.

Korra had no sympathy for Zaheer. No government, from the smallest mountain hamlet to Republic City itself, was safe while he fought for his anarchy. But he wasn't the only powerful bender imprisoned for his crimes. He might not be the only one malicious spirits could corrupt.

What if Kuvira is vulnerable?

"Avatar, if I…why did you come to see him?" Ren's smooth face and quiet voice betrayed nothing of what she might be thinking. Korra stared at her. Could she trust the Earthbender to keep Korra's worries private?

If she decided she couldn't trust even the White Lotus, who could she possibly turn to?

Asami, I need you.

She rolled her shoulders, settling herself. "Let me ask you something first. You were in Republic City during Amon's uprising."

Ren took a step away from Korra, eyeing her carefully. "Yes," she answered softly. "I was eight."

Korra cocked her head. That unyielding defiance trembling in the woman's voice... "You…or your parents, they fought with the Equalists, didn't they."

"We did." Ren lifted her chin, daring Korra's judgment. Korra didn't so much as twitch; that conflict was in the past, and all parties had done wrong, including Korra herself. Absent a reprisal, Ren continued in a gentler tone. "Though my father is an Earthbender, he couldn't stand what benders were doing to the city. None of us were radicals, but…my mother always says, war only sees two sides."

Two sides.

Ren cast her a sidelong look. "If this is about the war-machines…until Kuvira's attack, we thought only bending would produce such wanton destruction. But inventions like those can't even distinguish civilians from the ground on which they'll flee."

Korra nodded. "And people won't hesitate use that technology?"

Ren exhaled heavily, looking suddenly uncertain and more than a little guilty. "We were desperate, even when we'd taken the city. Well, when we thought we had. If we'd had access to the kinds of weapons that exist now…I shudder to think what Amon would have done with them."

So it was the same. The constricting grip of an insidious status quo widened cracks into fissures, stirred discontent into rage. And Zaheer was only one man. A movement that festered as Zaheer's spirit had would be capable of…well, just about anything. Throw in an industrial alliance between a few enterprising inventors and any villain - say, a legion of hidden Firebending zealots - and they wouldn't even need to wait twenty years for Sozin's Comet to come around. The world would be plunged back into war, but worse than ever before.

And if they did manage to wait for the Comet...

Before their current…problems, Korra had argued long nights with Asami about what she would do if her creations fell into the wrong hands. Technology had no checks, no balance, beyond what the inventors themselves put into place. Asami would remind her that it was no different than a rogue bender like Zaheer doing harm, but Korra could handle any bender alive. Could anyone rein in a rogue inventor, defeat rogue technology, or was such a thing beyond —

Ren punched her shoulder. Hard.

When Korra jumped back, turning a fiery glare on the girl, Ren only shrugged. "Please forgive me, Avatar Korra, but your moodiness is depressing me," she said reproachfully, still wearing guilt like a necklace of metal.

Blinking, Korra couldn't suppress a startled smile.

A deep breath. Stop it, Korra. In, out. You're the Avatar. It's your duty to the world, no one else's, to maintain balance between humans and spirits but also between societies, between the elements. To stand and face their evils as well as celebrate their good.

And to face yourself with an open mind. You share responsibility for some of what's happening here.

Shaking her thoughts free, Korra reached for her air glider. One step at a time. "Catch a scent, but don't be so distracted that you let the wind bowl you over," Tenzin would rebuke her if he could hear her thoughts.

It was time to speak to his eldest daughter. "I'll be back in three days with Jinora. We'll purify what we need to and work to close any small rifts that have opened up. I didn't see any, but Jinora's sight is keener than mine." And then I'll talk to Asami. I…I don't know how we'll reach each other, but I have to try. For the sake of balance and…and everything else, we have to succeed. We will.

"Avatar…"

Ren looked lost, and it occurred to Korra that she was only Jinora's age, not much older than Korra herself had been when Zaheer had poisoned and suffocated her. And she stood here alone day after day, not knowing quite what was happening beneath the mountain but nonetheless sensing the evil spirits that had coalesced around her prisoner. "What are you going to do about him?"

"I don't know yet. But something has to change." Korra swallowed a surge of self-loathing at leaving the young White Lotus guard behind, even if only temporarily. Down there, he's a proxy spirit portal for all sorts of hostile energy. She should never have been exposed to this. It was my job to guess that something like this could happen. To try to stop it. She put a reassuring hand on Ren's shoulder and the woman straightened automatically, girded with purpose. Korra smiled, masking her worries for Ren's sake. "And we're going to change it."

Korra snapped her glider open and leaped into the air flows, letting the wind currents lift her up and away from the lone Earthbender.

A/N: Thanks for reading! All comments and critique are greatly appreciated.