Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, or Legend of Korra

TRIGGER ALERT: Please note, the following story contains mature themes, some of which may be considered triggers for past traumas. Please heed this warning and read at your own discretion.

SPOILER WARNING: For everyone who has not seen the newest Korra trailer, please direct yourself to my profile where I have provided a link and watch it. This new trailer has revealed a major characterization of the series' villan, Amon, a characterization which I have selected to include in this fic. If you'd rather not know, then please click your backspace icon, I will take no offense. I will have more to say about Amon and this new development in the Author's Notes at the end of this story.

Seeking Solace

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"There you are. Do you know how worried everyone's been?" Mako asked, jogging up to Korra. She was sitting in the middle of the pro-bending arena, legs pulled up to her chest and her chin resting on her knees. She didn't acknowledge Mako's presence. "Hey, what's wrong?" he asked.

Silence.

More worried than he had been before he found her, Mako sat beside his friend and moved to place an arm around her shoulders, but stopped.

She flinched.

That was the second time in the last twenty-four hours that she had shied away from him, and it bothered Mako. They were friends, teammates, and sometimes when they caught each other's eye while stretching before their pro-bending matches, Mako thought they might even be more. Now, Korra was acting cold, skittish, like his touch would burn her, and he was insulted. She had to know by now that he would never hurt her. In fact, he had been frantic when Tenzin called just after dawn saying her bed hadn't been slept in and Naga was still snoring away in the stables on Air Temple Island. A heavy, leaden feeling had plunged low in Mako's belly at the news and he was out of bed, barely dressed and joining Tenzin in the search.

If he was honest with himself, the young firebender was panicked, wracked with worry over Korra. It was how he had felt the day before when she had been fighting Amon…

"Which way did they go?" Bolin asked, stepping over the unconscious body of a masked Equalist combatant. They were in the warehouse district of Republic City when they had been ambushed. Amon and the Equalists had an effective tactic, divide and conquer. They tried to break up the trio, overpower them as single fighters rather than a huddled unit. Knowing this, Korra, Bolin and Mako had stuck together, taking down Equalists one by one, but then Amon began to retreat, and Korra, being the impetuous Avatar she was, left the brothers to take chase.

Dispatching the few Equalists quickly, and thankfully only earning a few scrapes and bruises themselves, Mako and Bolin surveyed the quiet, pre-dawn district.

"This way," Mako said, pointing towards a warehouse that was half dilapidated. "I think they went this way."

The brothers charged towards the building, heedless of the structure's unsound condition, frantic to find their friend. But it was dark in the old warehouse, and even the flames Mako generated to illuminate the area granted the pair little sight.

"Where is she?" Bolin asked, his panic tensing his body.

"NO!"

The scream was close, and it was definitely Korra's, but the word echoed off the concrete walls, making it sound like a thousand voices overlapping as one.

"This way!" Bolin instructed, rushing further into the blackness. Mako followed, focusing his chi, ready to firebend the smirk off Amon's mask the moment they found him.

The scene was unsettling.

Korra was strung up with wire shackles, her toes dangling a few inches off the ground. Amon was a few feet away from her, the scorch mark on his mask and the pungent smell of smoke indicating that Korra had used firebending to attack her captor, but something was wrong. She was just hanging there, her chin drooping on her chest, like all of her energy had been spent…like she was submitting. A chill ran up Mako's spine and he rushed to free Korra from her bonds.

Not noticing the brothers, Amon began to advance on Korra, but Bolin earthbended a block of concrete to jut out of the floor and hit the masked man.

"I don't think so," Bolin growled, sending a barrage of crudely bended concrete projectiles at Amon. The man didn't stay and fight and Bolin didn't take chase. Getting Korra out of the trap was more important.

"Just hold on," Mako assured, cutting his fingers on the metal restraints as he rushed to free her. Korra didn't say a word. She didn't even bark at the boys to follow Amon. She just hung there, exhausted. Able to release one of her arms, Mako surveyed her body quickly as he hurried to untie the other. Physically she looked fine. There were no cuts or large bruises or even blood, but something was terribly, terribly wrong. "There," he said, concerned when she wobbled on her knees under the strain of her own weight. "Korra? Are you OK?"

He reached out to touch her shoulder but she flinched away, wrapping her arms around herself. For a moment, Mako thought he had seen terror lace through her eyes, but before he could investigate further she was walking determinedly out of the warehouse.

Mako and Bolin had to run just to keep up with her…

"So, why'd you run away?" Mako asked, keeping his hands to himself as he sat beside his friend, waiting.

"I wanted…" she began, her voice hoarse, like she had been crying for hours. "I wanted to be somewhere I felt…strong."

This surprised the firebender. Since the moment he had met her, Korra had been brash, confident, skilled, and even a bit obnoxious. She was one of the strongest people he knew, never giving in to fear or worry…and that was not the girl he was sitting beside.

Something had happened to Korra for her to act so introverted, so unlike herself.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" he broached carefully, not sure if she would launch into a litany of insults on how he should respect her privacy, or if she would just shut down and continue staring blankly at the arena floor.

He didn't expect her to begin whispering her story.

"Remember how I ran after Amon, at the warehouse?"

"Yes."

"He trapped me."

"I remember," Mako said. "It was some sort of snare, it left you strung up by your arms."

"Yeah," she sighed, rubbing one of her wrists, a welt from the restraint winking mockingly at the two teenagers. "Metal cords. If he'd used rope I would have used firebending to burn the fibers and escape before he could block my chi, but he knows I can't metalbend, so he used wire."

She gulped heavily, her chin trembling. Mako was about to tell her that she didn't need to go on, that she could forget he even asked her to tell him anything and that they could go back to Air Temple Island where she could rest. But there was a hard glint struggling against the haunted look in Korra's blue eyes, and Mako understood.

She was where she felt the strongest. No matter what opponent was before her, in the pro-bending arena, Korra faced the challenger head on, leaving any doubts behind. This was the place to confront her memories, where she could lay them before her, beaten and defeated…

"Amon you viper-rat! Let me go and fight with some honor!" Korra hissed. "Ah!"

"Now isn't that the pot calling the kettle black?" Amon admonished snidely, coming up behind her and pinching the nerve in her shoulder that would block the chi flowing through her left arm. "If I tried to duel you in a fair fight, you'd just use your bending to overpower me, like that!"

She'd tried to kick out at him as he spoke, a flame bursting forth from her heel, but as half of her chi was already disabled, the flame was weak. The Equalist leader easily sidestepped the fire and with the heel of his palm jabbed at both her hips and knees, blocking the chi to her legs. Korra slumped in her restraints, the metal cords cutting uncomfortably into her skin.

"There. We are on even ground now," Amon said silkily, coming to stand before her.

"You call this even?" Korra roared, straining against the cords.

"I call it justice!" Amon roared back, one large hand roughly cupping the back of Korra's head and pulling her close. Despite the mask he wore, Korra could see wrath blazing in the man's clear eyes like its own cyclone of insanity.

It scared her.

"So now what?" she dared, trying to be brave. There was a twinkle in Amon's eyes, something callous and disquieting. She felt like a spider-fly about to have her wings torn off.

"Don't you know?" Amon purred, raising a long, smooth finger to trace up her cheek and dance to the centre of her brow. Korra's breath hitched and she struggled, trying to pull her face away from Amon's touch. The Equalist leader laguhed darkly at her futile attempts and grasped her chin roughly, forcing her to look him in the eye. "I can do anything I want to you."

She thought he might slap her, or snap her neck, or even do the unthinkable and use his spirit bending on her.

She never expected him to grab her roughly by the hips and pull her flush against his body.

"What? Wha-what are you –"

Her question died in her throat when she felt Amon's hands move to cup her backside, squeezing her like she was a ripe melon to be harvested. He then started to caress her legs, his long fingers biting into her flesh before moving to stroke her inner thighs.

"Stop it! Get off me! Stop!" she screamed, panic and bile rising in her throat as she squirmed, trying to get away. But the restraints held tight and Amon held tighter.

"Are you scared, little Avatar?" he chuckled darkly, pressing his masked face against her cheek. He moved his hands up her torso, stopping when his thumbs rested just under her breasts. "Do you want to know my plan?"

Gulping for air like she was drowning, Korra couldn't make words. It was too hard trying to stop herself from crying to even think.

"I'll tell you," Amon purred, raising one hand to rub along her jaw line, putting pressure on her neck so that she would involuntarily groan, arching against him so that he could loop his other arm around her like an iron bar. "I'm going to destroy you, piece by piece. First the earthbender," he pressed his thumb into her side, making her yelp like an injured sky bison, "then the firebender," he pulled roughly on her hair, straining her neck, "then the airbender and his children. I'll bend the elements right out of them, leaving them as husks of what they once were. You won't be able to stop me." He spoke to her in whispers, like they were lovers laid out before each other, naked and vulnerable.

Korra couldn't stop herself from crying.

He raised both hands to her face, his thumbs gently wiping away her tears.

"I'll make you watch, let you see how truly powerless you are, mighty Avatar. Your bending won't save anyone. My followers will double, triple, and then we'll take the city, overthrow that useless police chief, and create a utopia where everyone's equal because no one bends…not even the Avatar."

His voice went so cold that it was like being dropped in the middle of the ocean. Korra couldn't catch her breath as Amon stared at her. She couldn't look away.

"I'm saving you for last. You'll be locked away and I'll force you to watch as I channel the bending out of every bender in the United Republic. And when you're begging me to corrupt your spirit in place of all the others, I won't." He had settled himself between her legs, rubbing against her in perverse excitement as he unveiled his vision. "You'll come to me like a pet," he promised, one finger tracing the flesh between her eyes, "like your loyal polar bear-dog, and I will break you."

"Stop!" she pleaded, uncaring of the desperation in her voice. She wriggled in his grasp, tried to escape, but her struggle only encouraged him.

"Your destruction will be my greatest triumph."

He was too close, moving as if he had just declared his utter devotion to her and was seeking a kiss for his confession. Even though it was a mask, even though his lips would not really touch hers, Korra wouldn't allow it. Letting Amon kiss her would be just as good as giving in.

"NO!" she screamed, feeling the voices of a thousand lifetimes fill her. Her vision went white, just for a second, and a violent, excruciating, painful power surged through her body like electricity. She swept her leg up and kicked, a furious fire bending from her foot and scorching Amon's mask as he pulled away.

"What? How?" the masked man demanded, completely stunned by the Avatar's display of raw power. A power so strong, it had cancelled out his chi-blocking attacks. She was more dangerous than she appeared.

Korra fell limp in the wire cords, her body exhausted from the ancient energy that had forced her chi paths open. She saw Amon coming towards her when suddenly a block of concrete jutted out of the ground and hit him in the chest. She thought she heard Bolin and Mako, but the echo of past lives still rang in her ears, roaring like the ocean back at the South Pole…

"I've never felt that way before. It was like I was a toy to him," Korra confessed, wiping her tears away. "I didn't know what to do. I was trapped and he could have…"

Mako watched his friend suffer, his own thoughts filled with rage. The bastard had dared to touch Korra, to make her feel like something less than she was.

Korra might have been the Avatar, all powerful being, most elite bender in the world, and mortal link between the spiritual and physical planes, but that was just an accident of circumstance. Avatar or not, Korra was still a person, and no one deserved to be treated as anything less.

"I'm sorry," Mako grunted, his fists shuddering with anger.

"What?" Korra asked.

"I'm sorry I let that happen to you," he said sincerely.

Confused, Korra wrapped a hand around her friend's trembling fist.

"You didn't let anything happen to me, Mako," she assured.

"I should have followed you when you left," he argued.

"You're not my babysitter. You spend all your energy worrying about Bolin, you don't need to exhaust yourself worrying over me too."

"I want to worry about you," he confessed. "And I want to make sure that never happens to you ever again."

Touched by his oath, the intensity of his promise glowing in his tawny eyes, Korra shuffled closer to him, laying her head against his shoulder, rubbing her cheek along his scarf.

"You got me out of there," she reminded. "You saved me."

"You saved yourself," he corrected, relaxing against her, finally bringing an arm to tentatively rest against her shoulder. She didn't shy away from him this time, welcoming his natural warmth. "How did you –"

"I'm not really sure," Korra interrupted. "It was just like…like I wasn't in control of my own body anymore. I think it might have been the Avatar State."

Mako nodded, not really sure what Korra was talking about and making a mental note to ask Tenzin what an Avatar State was.

"When I went back to the air temple and I went to my room, it just felt so…I didn't want to sleep. I didn't want to let my guard down. My room felt too small. I wanted to be somewhere…just somewhere else."

"Somewhere you felt strong," Mako echoed.

"Somewhere I felt safe."

"You feel safe here?"

"When I'm in the ring, I know you and Bolin are watching my back. I'm never afraid when I'm with you."

She might not have meant her words to shake the firebender to his core, to have them bring a blush to the tips of his ears, to have him fall in love with her just a little bit more, but they did. Mako looked down at Korra. Her fingers were twisting in the loose fibers of his scarf, and the troubled look in her eyes was quickly fading, though the aqua blue irises were still watery.

"So," he began softly, "what do you want to do now?"

A long pause surrounded the teenagers before Korra answered.

"Do you think…I mean if you don't mind…could I maybe stay with you guys?" she asked shyly. "Just for a few days. Just until I sort all this out in my head."

"You can stay as long as you want," he told her. She smiled at him, wrapping both of her arms around his waist and nuzzling the crown of her head under his chin.

"Thank you."

They stayed like that for minutes, hours, it didn't matter. Mako let Korra lean on him, took on the burden of her troubles, and when she was finally ready to leave he walked beside her, a pillar she could rest on when she needed to.

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"Lean on me when you're not strong

And I'll be your friend

I'll help you carry on"

—Lean on Me

A/N: OK, before you read on, please go and check out the new Korra trailer (link provided in my profile) if you haven't already. The reason I ask this is because I think the trailer better communicates the intensity, implications and ramifications of Amon's revolution than I ever could.

Ladies and gentlemen, Amon is, quite possibly, a spirit bender.

If he is, that means he can invade a person's soul, reach into their spirit, and rip away their bending. Let me say that again 'HE CAN RIP AWAY BENDING'. This is terrifying. At first, I thought Amon was going to be an awesome villan, a fairly straightforward bad guy, but interesting and complex enough that I wouldn't mind his cliche 'Kill all the people I don't like' modivation. But this new revelation has completely shaken me. Amon is not out to kill the benders, he's out to eradicate them. After all, even if all the benders were dead, non-benders have been known to give birth to bending children in the Avatar universe (Katara is a prime example), so really, Amon and his Equalists can't really hope to kill ALL the benders...but they don't need to.

If he is a spirit bender, then Amon can use his power to take away that which he sees as unclean.

It's not killing people, it's breaking them. Imagine a person who had the ability to reach inside of you, unwelcome, uninvited, a complete invasion upon your humanity, and take away a part of your spirit, something that inherently makes you, you. This is what Amon's revolution is all about. Taking the bending away from the benders is very much like taking out the spark that makes them who they are.

This is brutal. This is systematic rape. This is ethnic cleansing.

This is HEAVY stuff and I am SO impressed with Bryan and Mike and Nickelodeon for not only green lighting a story with such a hardcore subtext, but also for creating, what I think, is probably the most complex villan in the Avatar world (I consider Zuko an anti-hero rather than a villan, and Azula is all about the bloodlust). I am shaken, and excited, and honestly feeling more than a little mixed up. Pardon the pun, but Legend of Korra is going to be legendary in the history of animated television programing.

We are at the threshold of something very special, fandom, so hold your breath and step forward.

And that's it for my gushing.

Thanks for reading, and I invite you to leave your reviews, and your thoughts on Korra in general.