Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Makorra

Since the first time he had ever met Korra and then realized he liked her, there were three times when he had been really scared and worried—especially worried—for her well being.

The first time was watching her go after The Lieutenant, alone, and having to witness her falling through the glass roof of the arena. He remembered the sound of her scream as she fell filling his ears. Part of him wanted to suddenly become an Airbender or wanting to grow wings or something so that he could fly and stop her from meeting the ground that would break every bone in her body or...kill her. Every second she had been in that smoke, even after Chief Beifong rushed in there, had scared and worried him.

The second time was finding out that she was missing. That was the longest time he had ever been scared, even longer than when Bolin had been kidnapped. His mind had had a jumble of thoughts: anger at her for not listening to him when he had said he and Bolin and Asami would be okay; fear at knowing she wasn't where he had thought she would be, locked in an Equalist cell underground or scrambling around to escape or even worse; rage at knowing that Tarrlock was behind it all, that he had taken her away from him and there was nothing he could do—he couldn't burn him or punch him, scorch that smug look off the politician's face, just crumple to the ground as he felt his body be manipulated without his control. Her lying prone on Naga's back scared him too, but it had been washed away by the relief he felt at seeing her turn to face and having her in his arms, at her sleeping beside him.

This was the third time.

It was raining.

The plan she had had to sneak up on Amon, to disarm him directly had failed before it had even begun. For all of Korra's strength and skill, she had been put on the defensive before she had even made her second move. He didn't know exactly how she had kicked him away from her, but he knew how she had been overcome when the other Equalists started attacking.

She had been knocked to her knees, arms bound by two other Equalists.

"Korra! KORRA!" He struggled against the men that held him down as well, trying to move away to where he was safer, where he could bend and people weren't kicking his ribs. He felt a boot connect to his jaw and the taste of his blood fill his mouth. It dribbled out.

He could see his future in the next five minutes. It be more of this, more fighting, more beating like he was a dog. With a swollen eye and lip, he'd be face-to-face with Amon. He'd think about the time he saw Lightening Bolt Zolt lose his bending in front of his eyes, he'd think of Korra retelling when she had overheard Tarrlock lose his.

When Amon made his way to him and took away his firebending, it would be gone. There'd be nothing he could do to fight it.

But he knew he was a weak link; his bending would only be taken only for the sake of a philosophy that stressed no compromises, no prisoners, no impurities.

Korra's would be taken first. He'd witness part of Korra—not the most important part of her, but the part that mattered most to her—be removed from her.

And then, he'd probably see her be taken away from him, in the way similar to the one that haunted his memories of being eight and jolted him awake at night sometimes with tears in the corner of his eyes. He'd witness the death of someone he cared for again. And this time, eleven years wouldn't stop him from knowing how it happened with clarity, not like how it was with his parents, fuzzy images of burnt skin and the memory of heaviness, the weight of his father's head in his arms, and the tightness of his chest, pained at yelling and crying.

It'd be the sight of her body crumpled and her blue eyes dead to the world forever that he'd remember this time.

And there'd be nothing he could do about it.

He fought against the hand that pushed his face to the floor, to turn to her, to look at her. He had already told her to get free, to run back to camp and Tenzin, that if she got free, she shouldn't come to get him.

But he doubted that all of that was going to happen. He knew how stubborn she was; she wouldn't her back on him.

And he knew the two of them were trapped.

She was kicking and fighting, trying to push herself forward and being brought back down to her knees again and again. Her chest was heaving, quick inhales and exhales. She was hyperventilating, maybe close to passing out. And her jaw was clenched, fighting to the tooth to squirm hard enough to free herself. He expected that somebody would put a lightning rod to her to keep her still, to make Amon's victory easier.

What happened was much worse.

His blood ran cold as he watched Amon make his way to the stage, back towards her and unaffected by the rain falling on him. He didn't rush, he didn't change his speed; his hands were folded behind his back. His look of discipline; his look of victory; his look of cockiness. He walked up the stairs and then unto the stage and Mako felt every footstep and his own heart beating in his chest. "KORRA!"

"So you thought you could win against me, Avatar. You tried to face me again, to be a savior to other Benders—to stop my revolution, to stop the dawning of the new world where you are no longer better than anyone else."

"I never said I was better than anyone else, Amon! And I am not only protecting Benders—I'm protecting everyone, Benders and Non-benders—everyone that would suffer under you." Her eyes were focused on the ground.

He saw her breathing hitch in her chest as he neared her. He wanted to tear the arm off of the one that dared pulled her wolftail back, that made her face him. Tears were falling out the corner of her eyes.

"Very bold words. What makes you think I would hurt my fellow Non-benders, my sisters and brothers."

She didn't speak at first. "Because it's not just Benders fighting you out there."

"Ah yes...there are the deluded standing with you as well. I consider them to be those who stand against the progress of themselves and their kind. But I wouldn't hurt them; hurting them would make me an oppressor, a dictator. I am none of those things."

She spat at him, the glob of spit smacking unto his mask. "Oh, aren't you? Or do you think you're a peacemaker with the way you've destroyed everything?"

He heard the thud of the punch the Equalist leader landed in her stomach. She cried out.

"Korra!"

"No, because being those things would make me a Bender. A rat. And I can only attempt to think like a rat, try to understand what they would do when they are trapped; I cannot be the rat itself. And why would I stoop so low?"

Amon's hand moved from his back.

She didn't flinch when Amon flung her spit back on her, that same thick glob landing in her hair.

"You foolish little girl. I told you once that I would spare you to keep you from being a martyr. But now that I have you back after you slipped out of my grasp the last time, why should I let you and this opportunity go. The battle you have provoked from me, you have manipulated me into beginning and placing me against my brethren. The violence your kind have put against me since as far back as I can remember—and my memory is as sharp as an elephant-mouse's."

His fingers lifted her chin up once more. Mako could only imagine what he was seeing, what she looked like because he could only see tears from where he was. "Oh, those won't save you." Amon's hand placed itself on her forehead.

"This is the end."

"Korra!" He tried moving up again and it felt like hell. "Korra! Do something!"

She screamed.

"Goodbye, Avatar Korra."

"KORRA! KORRA! DO SOMETHING! BREAK FREE!"

The scream that ripped through her throat pierced his heart and then died out, like a candle. Silence hung in the air.

"KORRRRRRAAAAAAAAAA!"

It was the worse come true. His world felt like it was already falling apart.

And then the world really began falling apart...or least, the ground underneath him was.

A scream came forth and at the heart of it was Korra's, but it was different now. There were layers, other voices, to it. And there were flames.

The Equalists that held him, the pressure he had felt on his body, was gone. His head lifted and he felt the hell in his bones again. His ribs had to be cracked if no broken.

And then he saw the hell before him.

Korra... He thought her name and then he said it.

She didn't hear him. She didn't even look at him.

She stood completely still in the rain, except for her arms that were moving, bending. Fire. Flames more powerful than he remembered ever seeing from her, plumed and bloomed in the air, uncaring about the rain that at any other time could put them out, and unaffected by the Equalists that had dared to contain their maker and bender again. Mako saw them fall away at the colors and heat that came at them, and run into the forest for sanctuary.

He watched her see Amon step to her, arms poised in attack, and her twist her arm in coils and the stream of air that met him.

...Air...

She blew him off the stage and unto the ground with a thud. And she walked after him, stepping off the stage and floating in the air. More arm movements, more coils and Amon was being tossed into the air and flung to the ground once more like he was a rag doll. Mako swore he heard him yell in pain.

Mako's lips had moved, to wonder aloud at what she was doing, and he had begun moving before he could stop himself, feeling the pain in his sides and fear for her again.

She turned her head to the rest around her.

Her left arm lifted and the water, rainwater, that had fallen to the ground rose to her call. Her right lifted and chunks of earth and splintered wood from the stag and frozen snow broke apart and did the same, rising above her head. He could only watch as her arms moved them at her guidance, sending everything crashing down on them. He could hear the screams of the Equalists that were either hit with the water or ran at the pieces of ground that were dropping on top of them.

"You can't stop us, Avatar!" An Equalist yelled at her, acting as a shield as The Lieutenant scooped up Amon from the ground. Amon wasn't moving. "You think going into the Avatar State will stop us?"

She answered him with a yell and another burst of flames issued from her mouth.

He was saying her name again, biting against the pain that licked at him and trying to walk across the turned earth below him. The fear he had ever felt for her before didn't compare to now.

He wasn't exactly aware of how he had reached her, and how the air and water and earth hadn't knocked him away too, but all his footfalls and gotten him close to her. "Korra!"

She didn't turn to face him, but all of a sudden, she stopped bending. The water and earth were still above their heads and there was yelling far away and sounds of the earth moving. Tenzin and Repbulic City's forces were coming towards them. The Lieutenant and Amon and all the other Equalists were gone and most of them had to have been caught. He knew deep down Amon wasn't, but others were.

But they didn't matter for now.

"Korra!" He stepped closer. "Korra!" His hand touched her shoulder to turn her around. "Korra, stop!"

...She did. Her arm fell. The water fell like a snake without its head; the earth shook the ground beneath him as it fell and broke apart.

She stared at him and he finally saw the power in her face—her clenched jaw and her clouded eyes. Her fury. Her power, her full power in all its glory and fight.

One armed, he forced her to face him fully. His hand moved to touch her face, every curve. "It's Mako...Korra, it's okay. You can stop now. Amon's gone. I'm fine. You're fine. You saved us. So you can stop." He neared her, pressing his forehead on hers.

She was so still, so immobile. "Korra, please."

Her hand lifted to mirror his movements: His forehead, his cheek, his lips.

And he stared into the eyes that blurred the blue of her eyes. Korra's eyes.

And the tears that were beginning to fall from them.

Still more tears fell and he began to wipe them.

All of a sudden, the power in her eyes was gone. They were hers again. "Mako. I was so worried." She crumpled unto herself like a paper doll and he caught her fall, setting them down on the wet grass. He could feel her tears on his neck despite the cold rainwater that ran down his body.

She cried like a little kid. Big gulping breaths and screams and shudders that wracked her body.

"It's okay. You drove them away. We're fine."

But he was still so worried.

Worry

I wanted them to kiss in the last scene, but in the end, I changed my mind.