As Kay stormed out of the cell, Korra stared at Raven, smiling. Both women were evil. Twisted. Raven had enjoyed watching Kay torture the victim; she had relished in her suffering, while she suspected that Korra took pleasure in Kay's emotional torment.
Raven returned Korra's gaze but refused to speak. For a moment their eyes locked, and then the cloaked assassin turned away with an air of indifference, as if Korra was beneath her notice. Korra continued to stare at her back as Raven followed in Kay's wake, leaving her alone with the prisoner.
At first a part of her had actually wondered if Valeska deserved what was being done to her. After all, she was a Sith. She knew from Emperor Palpatine and his lackey Darth Vader, that the Sith were monsters. Ruthless and cruel, they cared nothing for the soldiers who followed them. Sometimes it even seemed they enjoyed the death and suffering inflicted on the enlisted personnel under their command. Their mere presence inspired terror in the ranks.
During the interrogation, she had listened with growing horror to the words coming from the prisoner's mouth. It was clear Valeska had embraced the teachings of the dark side in ways she could never have imagined— in ways that made Kay's mastery of the dark side seem little more than child's play.
Korra didn't feel pity for the Sith, nor did she have any for Valeska. Yet she did enjoy killing those she considered her enemies, a rival, or someone she had simply been hired to kill. But most of all, her hatred towards Kay had become more and more twisted as more time went by; it had festered and grown.
Kay had stormed off in anger, but Korra knew it was only a matter of time until she returned to subject Valeska to another round of torture.
A small pool of blood was forming on the floor, dripping from where Kay had sliced open Valeska's cheek.
You're not doing it for Valeska, Korra told herself, turning her attention to the colour-coded needles resting on the cart. She knew she wasn't powerful enough to kill Kay, but Valeska was. Sith or not, whatever happened to Valeska afterwards was of no consequence to her.
She had watched as Kay had administered the various drugs, pumping them directly into Valeska's system through the artery in her neck. She didn't fully understand what the compounds were or what they did, but she had seen enough to gain some understanding of each one's effects.
The black needle induced the spasms Kay had used to torture her victim; the yellow caused the convulsions to end. The green seemed to force Valeska back into her stupor. But the red needle— the one Kay had given Valeska at the start of the interrogation— had seemed to wake her up. It had to be some kind of stimulant or antidote, something to offset the drugs that kept her helpless and non-responsive.
Glancing over her shoulder to make sure nobody in the guard room just outside was watching, she picked up one of the red hypodermics.
She gently pushed the tip of the needle into Valeska's thigh, hoping the drugs would enter her system more slowly and less violently than when Kay had plunged them into her neck. She knew it was possible she might accidentally overdose her, but she wasn't doing this to save Valeska. If she did die, Kay was going to torture her until she was dead anyway.
Placing the needle back on the cart, she turned and quickly left the room. She didn't have time to wait around and watch the effects. She needed to leave. If the drug worked as she suspected, Valeska would quickly regain her faculties. And once she was able to call upon the terrible power of the dark side, no cell in the galaxy would be capable of holding her.
She made her way back into the guard room. The mercenaries had returned to their card game, oblivious of what she had done. Kay and Raven were nowhere in sight.
"Where did Raven go?" she demanded.
There was a long silence before one of the mercenaries grudgingly looked up from the hand and answered, "She didn't say. She just left."
"And did she go off alone?" Korra demanded angrily.
"The Jedi was with her so we just..." the man answered, his voice trailing off under her withering glare.
She realised they were mere hired guns. They didn't care for anything but the credits they'd been promised.
"Lock the cell door," Korra spat out. "If anything goes wrong, hit the alarm."
Two of the soldiers reluctantly got up and moved to obey her orders as Korra climbed the staircase to the hall above.
She didn't care that when Valeska broke free she'd slaughter the guards. These men and women weren't her friends or colleagues. She knew they'd kill her without a second thought if the price was right. They were mercenaries; their lives meant nothing to her.
But such wasn't the case with Raven; with Lama Sage. Friends for Korra were few and far between and not only did she care about Lama, she in turn was a loyal friend. When Valeska broke free, she knew she'd come looking for her niece. When the alarms went off warning of the prisoner's escape, Korra wanted to be as faraway from them as possible. And when she got away to safety, she hoped her friend would be there with her.