Having Mako tell her that he loved her was everything Korra thought she wanted, but it tasted like ashes in her mouth.

She didn't know what she could do. What she would do without her bending. Korra had spent over a decade mastering three elements and learning how to be an Avatar. For that matter, she hadn't even seen much of the world until she snuck off to Republic City, just read about it in books and listened to stories. She knew that other people in the Water Tribes did things like fished and grew seaweed and built boats and traded goods all over the world, but she didn't know the first thing about how to do any of those things. She didn't even learn how to drive a satomobile until Asami taught her. Mako and Bolin had had jobs other than being pro-benders… which was another thing she couldn't do, since there weren't any rules for airbenders to play.

Without her powers, what use was she to anyone? This was worse than being unable to airbend or meditate or connect to her past lives, worse than being afraid of Amon or defeated by Tarrlok. There she could at least pretend that eventually she'd fix the problems. This… if Master Katara said it was hopeless, it was. An Avatar might be able to fix it, but they were a little short on Avatars right now, weren't they?

Korra buried her head in her hands. She just… she didn't want to think about this now, but couldn't see how later would be any different. She'd read all the stories about what the Avatar should do, what past Avatars had done, but she wasn't sure how she could be that person when she was just Korra the mediocre beginning airbender, not Avatar Korra.

She didn't even know who Korra was when she wasn't Avatar Korra, she realized. Even goofing off with Bolin and Mako had been based on her bending. Was that all there was to her? It couldn't be it. She… she was something other than Avatar Korra, even if she didn't know who that was yet, and she was scared that it was someone she wouldn't want to be. She wanted someone who understood, who really understood.

She caught a flash of saffron and orange fabric out of the corner of her eye. "Go away, Tenzin. I just want to be left alone."

"But you called me here."

The voice was familiar, but it took Korra a moment to place it because she'd never heard it from the outside before. She stood up. "Aang."

"You have finally connected with your spiritual self."

Korra thought she'd just been feeling miserable. She somehow assumed there would be more to it than that. "How?"

"When we hit our lowest point, we are open to the greatest change."

Behind him, she saw other figures - other Avatars - appear. Roku and Kyoshi appeared distinct, but as they stretched further back, she couldn't make out all of them. She'd seen the records of Avatars, and read far too many dry history texts assigned by her White Lotus teachers, but suddenly she didn't feel alone. There were all these people who had the same powers she had been born with, and they had their own trials, and she could just reach into herself and ask for them.

Aang reached for her shoulder, and placed a hand on her forehead. Unlike Amon, his touch was warm and gentle, and Korra felt something…

… a rush of thought that it felt like she suddenly remembered, like seeing the Pole again. What the Avatar was was more than being a powerful bender, or the only one to master all the elements. More than the Avatar State and energybending and being unique. It was doing things like standing up for the non-benders of Republic City against Tarrlok, chasing down Amon even though he scared her more than anything… trying to fix problems even though that didn't take any special powers.

Those were things Korra could do. She'd never be the kind of diplomat Aang was, but Aang wasn't the same Avatar as Roku or Kyoshi either. She'd be Korra, a girl from the Southern Water Tribe who was born as the Avatar.

With that revelation, she almost didn't notice the return of her bending. Almost. For about two seconds.