AN: Warning this chapter has content of gory details that may be upsetting to some people. It covers Korra's past and there are unpleasant descriptive details (well, at least my attempt… LOL).

P.S. This chapter is of course told in Korra's POV.

Ch 10: the past.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

Devilish screams were echoing throughout the empty, white hallways.

"AAARHHHHHHH AAHH AAAHHHHHH!"

Again. Again and again.

Screams.

People in white lab coats dragged around limp bodies one after another. New drug doses, that's what they gave us. These so called drug enhancements would either kill us or make us less and less human… they experimented on us. Like lab rats. They wanted monsters… unstoppable killing machines incapable of feeling pain, fear, or exhaustion. Inhumane power. Beastly instincts, whatever it was, they wanted an invincible tool capable of carrying out any mission without failure. Those men in suits, they were the ones giving the orders to advance this, this experiment. We hated them. We DESPISED every, single one of them.

The injections they gave us… they were beyond excruciatingly painful. It all starts off with us being drugged with something that renders us completely useless so we couldn't fight back. Then, we were all strapped down to a cold, thick and blood stained metal chair…

I always felt groggy and the last thing I can remember during this… this 'enhancement' is a pouch of gold liquid set up on a machine that was hooked to my veins. The pain and fear of seeing this gold liquid slowly seep into your body… no one… absolutely no one can comprehend it…

When… when it hits my bloodstream… I always jerked back and forth, shaking and yanking at the unbearable restraints… it always felt as if lava was being injected into my body. It was… smoldering. Incinerating… I always felt as if my flesh was tearing me apart as my blood boiled me inside out. During these so called 'check ups' or 'improvements,' only devilish screams of agony could be heard. Nothing, absolutely nothing compared to this serum. Even the tests they did on us…

Barbaric torture… they slowly ripped off our nails one by one… they broke each and every one of our bones until they were fractured starting from bottom up… we hung and lost all sense of feeling and touch in our legs before our bodies and arms became numb from the torment. We… we could hear each other being snapped and cracked through the isolation chambers as they pulverised and yanked our lims in directions they don't… belong in. We were completely beaten over and over again with numerous blunt objects… we, we were broken time and time again.

Mutilation… we were probed by knives left to bleed out and cut like a lab rats. Everything was putrid and our blood dripped down our bodies as if we were in a slaughterhouse. Our flesh and muscles were torn apart and we were drenched in toxic chemicals. They even completely severed our lims by sawing it off one by one to see if they would grow back on its own. However, the most traumatizing sight to watch was when they disemboweled us and left our bloody intestines and organs to hang from our ripped open abdominals.

Water torture… they would drown us in subzero water until our lungs and neck froze or even burned from the severe cold. Then they would immediately dip us in scalding water until our flesh threatened to melt from the inferno… when we stopped breathing, they'd take us out, resuscitate us, THEN start waterboarding us… repeating and switching between the god forsaken heat and cold over and over again. I'm sure none of us even recognized where the pain was coming from.

The electric chair… series of wires were connected to multiple parts of our body running excessive, electrifying bolts through us. Fridge water was thrown on us to intensify the damn shock. Our skin ruptured and blood was everywhere. But the worst of it all was the smell of our burning flesh. Hell, the word putrid is a simple understatement… our sanity during these… tests… it couldn't keep us alive.

We all died a long time ago.

Ironically enough, they had succeeded in creating monsters but they will never get what they wanted. Obedient soldiers. We refused to obey them. We were inhumanely strong yet WEAK and at times, days and weeks or even months of starvation made us… crazy… after all… just about anything and everything was done to us. But honestly, we got used to their experiments and these were all nothing compared to the fear of that DAMN god forsaken serum…

… I can hardly remember my childhood…

The little memories I have of my father, Tonraq and my mother, Senna were the only things that kept me sane. It was the same for the all of us. Everyone of us hanged onto that last memory of anything good in our lives.

"Korra…" a man musters as his body spazzes as his eyes flickered between gold and orange.

"Iroh…"

We were all in the same room. It was that time again. They were testing us to see how we'd react together in the same room under the influence and moonlight. For some strange reason, we were always more crazed and more violent when there was a full moon. As for our eyes, we don't know why but they just change under intense excitement.

My vision was starting to become red and I could feel rage building up fast. Biting down hard, I feel my jaw snap and fell onto the floor from the pain. I start gripping the floor, cracking the tiles, "Mmrgh… arh… ARGH!" I shout screaming from the pain that was seething through my pores. "I… I need to kill. I NEeD to KILL! I nEed to RElieVE my PAiN!"

Everything went black.

I don't remember what happened after that but it was next morning and we were all back in our separate rooms. We had similar injuries: bruises, gashes and even some broken joints. As I looked at my wounds, I wondered if they would leave some scars on our bodies from how bad they were. I doubt it though, most of the damage seemed to have healed within the time we were asleep. Only the more severe wounds took longer to heal.

Glaring into the cracked mirror in my cell, I washed my face and then body, cleaning all the blood stains. As I look in the mirror I can't recognize who I am. Korra? Who is that… a girl from the Southern Water Tribe? No, they striped my identity a long time ago and I am not even a woman anymore.

They had changed my genital for an experiment to see what would happen and well… guess what, it worked out perfectly fine.

Hell, am I even human? What am I? I am no man or woman. Or am I both? Or am I the furthest thing from that?

No…

I am a monster.

That is who I am. That is who WE were.

Running my hand through my long hair, I look across my room to see if Iroh was awake. Iroh. We became pretty close friends since his room was across from mines. He is like an older brother to me even though he came to this facility several years after me. That was probably about four years ago I guess but I've been here since I was seven? I'm not sure… I don't remember… however, Iroh once said that he was a General in the United Forces Army and was kidnapped during a mission. I don't know why they would kidnap such a high risk target but… they succeeded… my ears twitched when he let out a mumble but he wasn't quite awake yet.

"..." looking away from the thick glass window, I sat back down onto my flat bedding on the floor thinking to myself. "I've had enough. We need to end this…"

There is enough of us to take out this facility with ease. If we plan this right, we can destroy this place and kill and erase everything so people can't go through the same torture we've gone through. It was time we end this and that's why for the next several long weeks, we discreetly thought of a plan of attack.

We relayed the message to another secretly. "We all know that we shouldn't exist… this… let's end this together..." knowing the consequences, if we failed none of us would get out alive or have the freedom we've dreamed off. But our lives… what we are now, none of us would call that living. That's why we all agreed to the plan without a second thought and it was simple.

That drug… that serum was starting to lose its effect and if anything, it made our minds clearer. Of course, we'd be damned if they knew and this was our only advantage. So, during the course of the next full moon, we were gonna use our 'enhancements' to rebel. Now, even if the security was the "highest" during this experiment, it was dangerous but it also was the best time to strike. Everyone one would be there so we could get rid of them all in one go.

We waited patiently and it was finally time.

Being drugged and dragged into that room, we glanced at each other giving that look of confirmation. Before long, I grunted from the administration of the drug and started taking breathes, "Nnh..." bending down, I pretend to be lost in the pain I've grown accustomed to. Glancing around, once everyone was injected I waited for the perfect opportunity to make the move. "Now." I made the signal and we moved in unison pinning down the men, easily snapping their necks as some of us broke through the weak, thick steel door.

The lab was in complete chaos and turmoil.

Alarms were sounding off and different screams of terror were echoing in the white hallways that was being showered with red stains. "RAAAHHH" We were all ecstatic from the pleasure of ripping off the flesh of the people who turned us into monsters. Bones cracking, joints snapping. RIP, SLASH, CRASH. We slammed them against the walls and ripped out their guts just like they did to us. Their cries of agony sounded SO good to our ears. We did the same things they did to us and fuck… it felt so damn good. I felt a smile creeping on my face as I ran after the stragglers.

No one was going to escape.

It took only what felt like five minutes to complete our task. The only thing left now was to destroy the research and laboratory. The deed has been done and we all gathered up one last time to say our goodbyes. Our identities must be kept a secret as it would only create panic and chaos but no matter what happens, we will hunt down those men and end everything once and for all. Exchanging our last words and ways of contacting one another, we disappeared into the desert leaving behind the ruined buildings that were up in flames to burn to ashes.

This was only the beginning.

After cutting my hair and changing my appearance, I took on multiple aliases trying to follow the roots of my… my inner beast. Of course, this required me falling deep into the criminal syndicates and time after time again I managed to obliterate, or well, at the very least cripple many syndicates. Sadly though, most of the roots I followed usually ended being false leads and it was irritating. I didn't want to waste my time on these useless fools. Nonetheless, during my mission I managed to enjoy, learn and explore more of the world before eventually heading south.

Home.

I dreamed of hugging my mom and dad time and time again. They were the only thing that kept me running and I missed them. I was afraid that they might not recognize me but I had hope… However, when I got to the Southern Water Tribe… they were… gone. Tears that I thought dried up came back to me all at once and I broke down. I could no longer see them let alone hug them. I couldn't talk to them. I couldn't tell them that their daughter… that I was safe… that I was back.

This was around the time that I figured out that I was immune to alcohol or any poisons… of course after what I've been through it should've been obvious but I didn't care. I just needed some relief… I managed to get some when I fucked women but even that was… it was difficult to find someone who was compatible… it was always too much for them and I could never really have fun.

But, whatever.

I'll probably never find someone anyways so I was fine with threesomes or even foursomes. They were great. Anyways, over time I eventually made a name for myself. Raava, the jack of all trades. Who knew threatening people and fooling around in and outside of bed would make a name for myself. Not too bad if I say so… and well I eventually made some 'connections' and they 'kindly' told me some information that led me to Republic City.

I have no idea how much time passed since I left the laboratory but hey, all I know is that I became notorious pretty quickly. My name traveled around and it was easy to threaten- I mean convince people as Raava. Eventually, I became tired at how the RCPD was doing things, or well… they were doing a great job and all but it wasn't fast enough for my taste and I somehow became this so called vigilante known as the Avatar. It wasn't what I was expecting but hey, it got the job done. It was always just easier to threaten and kill criminals since they gave me information quicker. Besides. They were the trash of society so what does it matter if they die? I'm doing them a favor. There's no need to pointlessly have a bunch of trash in prison. It's already cluttered as it is…

AN: Ugh… I hope this chapter wasn't too bad or confusing!… I kinda rushed to edit this because I have work soon but wanted to post it before it's too late. I'll come back later to revise again, so sorry to the grammar nazis!