Korra woke up, hungover and sweaty. She tried to remember what had happened the night before, but she couldn't think straight, and it seemed just plain incorrect. She wouldn't cheat on Asami, anyway, she was much better than-

Korra froze, realising what, and more so, who, was beneath her.

"No, no, no…" Korra murmured, clutching her head in her hands. Everything around her was spinning, but the jigsaw was slowly forming into an ugly picture ever so clearly. Going hard on the beers before hitting spirits. Antagonising an angry, drunk (and now that she thought of it, looking around at his apartment, lonely) ex. Korra tried to convince herself that it wasn't her fault, that Mako had forced her… No, that was diabolical on so many levels to blame him in any way, shape or form. She had broken into his home when he clearly tried to avoid visitors, started drinking heavy, and her emotions had always got the better of her much more easily than the bare chest of the man that she had just been drooling on.

"Uhhh," Mako grumbled in his sleep. He obviously felt the weight of her body, minus her thick clothing, on his waist. She might have been inclined to pout moodily any other time, but they had only gone this far once or twice years ago.

She silently got off the sleeping firebender, and tipped-toed around, getting her clothes back on. They spelt awful, and Korra nearly threw up at the sight of vomit on her top. It was a traditional southern water tribe tunic, white fur at the bottom, but there were extremely intricate designs of waves and mountains on this. It was especially formal, only for good occasions. She cringed at the sight of it.

Korra bent the vomit off of the tunic which came down to her mid-thigh and slipped on her leggings, and shoes shortly after that.

She frowned, glancing over her once-soulmate. Even now, in the pale sunlight of the morning he was incredibly hands-

Shut the fuck up, she chided herself. You've already betrayed Asami's trust and now you don't even feel remorse?!

At that moment, the weight of what she had done really hit her. She would've started crying at that point, but she really didn't deserve to feel sorry for herself. Instead she went up and dressed Mako back in his clothes, hoping that he would play off any vague memories as a dream. She made a stubborn point of not looking at the place which had already gotten enough attention just the night before. Then, she slipped out the door, using her metal bracelet to lock the door behind her. As she ran down the hallway, tears streaming down her face, she tried to push the wriggling thoughts out of her head. This was too public a place to break down. As the harsh rays of early-morning sunlight nearly caused her to trip onto the road, temporarily blinding her, she broke into a sprint, her heavy guilt trailing after her. She needed somewhere quiet, where no-one would find her for the time being.

Not the spirit world. Her energy could cause even more trouble given that she was the avatar. She refused to let herself go to Air Temple Island, as she really didn't deserve other peoples' pity at the minute. She decided to escape to the mountains just outside Republic City. Normally, she would've flown on her glider but that clearly wasn't option. Always messing things up, she chided herself. But just as well, she wasn't limited to airbending.

She closed her eyes, but couldn't control her breath. It was too much effort. She clenched her fists shut, her arms down by her sides. Flames blasted out of her knuckles and heels, and she began to rise quite rapidly. She had done this once before, but that was in the Avatar State.

You're doing it wrong, don't use emotion to fuel firebending! Mu Zhao, her old firebending instructor, gave out in her head. But she just pushed the old lectures down and flew up onto the 9-storey building beside the 20-storey apartment block. She used short blasts to hop from rooftop to rooftop, careful to use airbending to land on the wooden roofs. The bottom of tunic got slightly singed but she didn't notice. It wasn't long before she was a good walk out of the city. She landed in a valley, exhausted from the intense concentration required. She doubled over, then threw up.

Korra looked up. She recognised it as the place Kuivera had entered Republic City, in her giant mechasuit. There were huge depressions in the earth from the footsteps that had threatened to destroy the metropolis.

"Hopefully I can do something somewhat helpful today," Korra muttered, to no-one at all. She splayed her hands out in front of her, and inhaled, bringing her hands up as she did. The dirt began to rise slowly, but Korra wasn't concentrating hard enough, and the depression only filled in in lumps. Korra let her emotions get the better of her. She went from miserable to furious in a few brief seconds.

"WHY CAN'T ANYTHING GO EASILY FOR ME?!" she screamed into the sky. Luckily Republic City was a solid mile away by this point, so no-one was around, especially this early in the morning. Korra started punching the ground, cracks appearing the grass, although they went spread around more than they went deep.

"Just a break," she cried, angry reverting to sorrow just as quickly as it had turned a few moments ago. But this wasn't just the events of the previous night coming out. "Please."

She felt all of her feelings pouring out, not just the ones at the current situation. Vatu ripping Raava out of her had not only physically exhausting, but also traumatic. Just as she had felt when Amon had taken her water, earth and firebending away. The old yet vivid memory of being a nudge from jumping off the cliff. The realisation that she wouldn't be able to be the one thing she had ever wanted to be growing up turning her, the avatar – the hero - extremely suicidal. She had never really had a friend she could talk to about these things. It was always get ready for the next terrorist threatening to overthrow society. That's why when she had become best friends with Asami, she felt so at ease, finally another girl to relate to. Then she had felt feelings of love for the person who had also been through the mill mentally. She could cuddle up and cry into her shoulder without having to worry about being judged when no-one else was around but them.

But now she had betrayed Asami, the person she could open up to without consequences. Tenzin was also helpful, but he just wasn't the same, despite never failing to find the right words.

"Why does the universe hate me?" she wailed, throwing her arms up with all of her feelings on the end of them. Suddenly, a geyser of lava shot out of the ground 30 feet away from her. She snapped out her sorry state for a moment to watch in awe at what she had just accomplished. "I can… lavabend!" she said excitedly, before going back to her moody self from a few moments ago. "Maybe I can jump in and I won't ever have to face Asami."

"This life is never easy," a familiar yet astonishing voice said behind her. She swivelled around to see one person, or rather, spirit, she had never expected to see again.

"Aang!" Korra exclaimed. She momentarily pushed all of her negative feelings aside for amazement, baffled at how she was seeing him in front of her. She vividly remembered how she had felt him being ripped away before. "H-h-h-how…"

"Every avatar is simply binded with Raava, but we did not die when the connection was severed," Aang explained. "I am here of my own free will, and as an Air Nomad I was always very spiritually connected. Every spirit can sense Raava, and in the spiritually charged Republic City, you are effectively a stronger beacon than the spirit portal itself.

Korra nodded. She could feel the spirit portal right there and then, the push-and-pull, the slow swivel, but she didn't really notice it anymore as it was always there, like her left hand. Even though it was miles away, she sensed it without bother.

"Very few avatars have ever been lucky enough to go through life without some degree of stress and/or trauma," Aang continued, his calm voice therapeutic. "I had the dilemma of upholding my entire culture, but by murdering Ozai, which was the only option until the last minute, I would have disregarded my respect for all life as an Air Nomad."

"But the Fire Nation burnt your entire culture to ashes," Korra interrupted, then winced. It came out a lot worse than she meant it to. She stared at the ground, embarrassed.

"It's okay," Aang said, un-offended. "I dealt with those demons long ago. Although you could be more subtle," he finished with a smile.

"Sorry," she apologised. "But did you ever… you know… later on in life… have to… ya know…"

"Yes," he said bluntly. Korra blinked, taken aback, even though she was the one who had asked the question. "I was barely thirteen when I faced Ozai, and still very innocent. Had I been in the same position ten years older, I doubt I would have spared him the mercy of life, although he was humiliated thoroughly." He looked at her with his piercing grey eyes. "I spared many lives by removing peoples' bending, and I thought that I could live like that my whole life, never lowering myself to taking another's life, whether it be an animal or human, despite the fact that Roku warned me many times that I was only adding to my problems."

"By letting these murderers, rapists, paedophiles and sadists live, many of the people I had spared broke out of whatever prison they had been confined to, and plotted anew. No leader of a significant movement or organisation got there by brute strength alone, and while many of them lost their respect, a good few just built themselves up again and the initial effort had all been for naught."

"In terms of the Fire Nation, Zuko was the only person with the birth-right to the throne, having defeated Azula in an Agni Kai (Katara beat Azula but she broke the rules of the Agni Kai by attacking Katara in the first place), and the people wouldn't accept a non-bender, so it fit into place nicely. But as I learnt later on in my life, sometimes you can't be righteous and noble when the weed grows back. I killed six people in my lifetime, and even though I hated it, I don't regret it."

Korra was stunned. It was stupid, she had been given a very honest answer, but she had only ever heard about his good morals, and how he had such integrity even for an Avatar.

"Wow, I… for some reason…" Korra began to mumble, then stopped herself. She had her own issues that were more relevant, at that very moment and time. "I'm sorry to change the subject so suddenly, but I need your advice. I've betrayed my best friend and girlfriend by cheating on her. She's the only person I can ever open up to, but now I don't deserve her trust. All I ever wanted was to be badass and be the hero as the Avatar growing up. But all I've ever done is have to rely on my friends to save me.

"I was powerless against Amon, and it was only through luck that I hadn't learnt airbending by that point! I would've condemned the world to 10,000 years of darkness if it weren't for Jinora! I was helpless to stop Zaheer, and in letting him cripple me mentally and physically, the Earth Kingdom was ravaged by bandits until it was militarily suppressed by a fascist dictator that wouldn't have come about if it weren't for me being incapable of dressing myself!" Korra shouted, out of breath.

"I am telling you this now because soon you will have a hard decision to make. Sometimes, we have to take hard choices that won't win you any popularity points," Aang said, seemingly ignoring her rant. "I can't say that I was flawless. But you have to deal with the benefits and the consequences of your actions no matter how they may seem in hindsight. Kyoshi supressed a revolt from the people of Ba Sing Sae, and ended up founding the most corrupt secret service in the Earth Kingdom in order to prevent it happening again. That was the wrong decision to side with the Earth King and create the Dai Li, but it was sensible at the time."

"HOW DOES THAT HELP ME RIGHT NOW?!" Korra shouted out, her feelings getting the better of her. She would've thought that outburst through more but her headache was splitting her temples open.

"It isn't relevant right now, but it will be come the near-"

"FUCK OFF!" She screamed, all coherent thought leaving her head. She slashed a cylindrical 10x10 metre fire column at Aang, not in the mood for any spiritual mumbo-jumbo as it felt. She didn't stop there though. She continued to practically incinerate the spot where he was. She then used her newfound ability to lavabend and attempted to make the ground erupt underneath him. But she failed, fell over and retched, on her knees, angry, afraid, confused, guilty, sick, lonely, miserable and started to cry.

"You must sort your personal issues before you deal with the world's, and you do not have an abundance of time," Aang's voice echoed around, coming from nowhere in particular.

It was only a projection so he won't have been physically harmed, surely, Korra reasoned, immediately regretting what she had just done. Great, I've just ruined another relationship with one of my mentors.

"It's okay," she heard his voice echo, reading her thoughts almost. "It's only natural that you're frustrated given your current circumstances, but you cannot vent your personal issues through your power."

She looked up but there was no sign of him. Just a bunch of embers slowly dying out in the morning dew. She extinguished the flames just to be safe, as well as cooling the lava into rock (which looked quite ugly now, a black spot in the middle of a green valley) and began to trudge back to Republic City. She hadn't really matured fully yet, letting loose like that on someone like Aang. Why couldn't she just be happy with no issues and things that she had nothing to do with get better on their own?

Little did she know, things would soon enough be about to escalate several tenfold.