Dehydrated and sore from a plethora of different aches, mainly her grumbling stomach, she waited for hours upon days for anything. Cramped in the tiny coffin, she was beginning to wonder if they had forgotten her, or buried her alive. Thankfully, no maggots or dirt seeped in through the cracks.

If there was any bright side, it was in the relief of being able to obtain a few hours of sleep. While in the cage, she had listlessly slumbered, only to awaken startled, by the thumping of shuffling feet ringing above her, beyond her vision.

In the dark, she had all the time to ponder, muse about how she got in her situation. But, she did not pay it one thought. It would only lead to her sobbing about her losses, old and new.

The weakness of her own preservation caught her by a sickening surprise. When did she ever give up? This wasn't her. What was happening to the Korra she thought she was, that all of her family and friends knew her to be?

So tired…she whined, and it was positively true.

Even if they let her out and pointed her in the direction of freedom, she wasn't sure she could make it three steps without collapsing. Maybe she had caught some awful disease that would eventually claim her. Maybe the dreams were connected to it, and all she needed was a dose of medication to return to normalcy.

But, in this horrid place, she knew that if it was a sickness, she would easily die here.

She prayed to the Spirits that it would snatch her in sleep.

"Avatar."

Clear as Armageddon, a grotesquely slick voice pierced through the layer that separated them. Fear bubbled in a new surge, and even all the morbid thoughts in the world couldn't keep her apathetic in his presence.

Her breath hitched in panic, but she lowered it, sucked in gulps, tried to slow the drumming of her wild heart.

Don't show fear, don't show fear…

Longing, she couldn't believe it when a crack of light opened. The lid was lifting, the shining of a makeshift beam glittered like an oasis. Mindlessly, she raised a hand to grab it, tug it back. A toddler struggling to stroke a favored toy, he smirked devilishly at her condition.

All of the sparkling was destroyed by the hollowness in his eyes. Tainted steel, it snuffed all life around it like an infection. Her first instinct was to curl up and block out his stare, but she astonished him, instead.

Fast as any animal he ever encountered, she leapt hurriedly from the metal coated box they had entrapped her in. Although her body screamed in agony, too much movement much too fast, she ignored it and fisted a flame from her bloody knuckles.

Off balance and tired as he knew she was, he managed to dodge but was blown away by another massive bend of fire that she unleashed madly. His cockroaches swarmed after they saw him fall, and she was quickly knocked back down, a circle of gas-masked chi-blockers hitting any and every muscle they saw fit.

They finally had her in control on the cool ground, but she did manage to give a few of them burn marks.

Brushing himself off, Amon casually strode up to the defeated girl as he picked at a few cuts in his uniform, he frowned.

"Quite the show, Avatar," he applauded satirically. "But, really, did you think you would escape that easily?"

Snarling, she lunged. If his followers hadn't been holding her, she would have ripped right through his throat. Still, they all grunted by the massive force she carried with her. Even after two days within an impenetrable cage and a flurry of chi-blocks, she still fought with the tenacity of a powerful warrior.

This only enhanced the plan in action, and he bit down on his scabbed lips in anticipation.

"I swear to the Spirits if you don't let me go…" she snapped, seeps of tangled hair covering her vicious eyes.

He ignored her petty threats, and simply motioned for his fanatics to stand aside. Immediately, they crawled back into the shadows like the roaches they were. Almost as fast, she lurched forward, springing from her position.

Her wobbly knee came forward, but he deftly pushed her aside in mid air- her muscles numb from the first round. Miscalculated, she underestimated her weakness, and his brute strength- it was well hidden by his tall, lean figure. His hands dug into her shoulders as he plucked certain nerves with his fingers, clotting any chi flow.

She cried out not in pain, but frustration. Using an emotional advantage, he took that opportunity to snap his nails into her abdomen, blocking another leak of bending.

Oxygen escaped her with the last blow, and she dropped at his feet.

This was where she belonged, he noted, at his mercy, kissing the ground he walked on like the servant she was.

Or would become.

Again, with the swirl of schemes floating deliciously in his mind, he tugged with his canines another patch of loose skin and pulled, ripping it away violently. Too aggressive, he felt a droplet of blood drip onto his chin behind the mask. A small stream, it became a potent stench when mixed with the sweat coating his face.

His father always adored the scent of blood, his son was no different.

Getting over his lust for bodily fluids, he took a glance at the weakened bender before him. Limp as a doll, he crouched to her level. Pushing away hairs that stuck to her mouth, he wiped her skin clear as her undaunted eyes followed his every move.

Awkwardly quiet, he did not hiss any threats into her ear, or make any kind of forceful declaration but simply stared through her. Paralyzed in more ways than one, she saw the churning of dastardly cogs in his murky pupils.

If she could just move, bend, do something, she knew that she would win. Her confidence was her strength, and greatest folly. He knew it absolutely destroyed her being so helpless when fresh meat hung just beyond her reach.

Goading the girl any further would only overdo the effect.

Finally, he creaked upward to a stance, and signaled for a few men to his side. A small boy and his trusted lieutenant sauntered strangely over. Korra never saw such soulless people.

They shuffled like the undead, made no sounds of recognition or understanding; however, she immediately sensed the rage within them. Her eyes pleaded to the obvious boy, his over-sized helmet betrayed his age- maybe he had a conscience.

When he spotted her massive, teal eyes looking helpless, she thought he would relax. Unfortunately, he did just the opposite- he stiffened to a grotesque level – far too straight for one so young. He peered down, and she saw empty, vindictive eyes.

Entranced by his glare, she did not catch Amon's mumbling.

"Take her to the Eastern Wing," he growled to the kali-stick-wielding man. "Lock her in."

Nodding mindlessly, he immediately picked the girl up, dragging her by the torso like a cadaver. The boy hauled her legs, but Korra shifted to get one last peek of Amon, who calmly looked on. When their eyes met, she curled a lip, or at least tried to.

The smile entrenched in his mask for once reflected the man beneath, he couldn't stop grinning.

"Let me out!" she yelled against the steel door, banging her bruised, beaten hands on its frame. "You can't keep me in here forever, coward!"

Panting in the larger but ultimately more stifling room, she had been there for hours.

A small plate of food awaited her along with other sanitary necessities when the two threw her in, and she immediately took full advantage. A cramped bed, if you could call it that, stood patiently in the corner, tempting her to curl up in its rough sheets and slumber.

It may not have been a palace, but it beat being a corpse in a choking coffin. She knew that the Equalist leader would be there at any given moment, that he would show up when she least expected it, like he always did.

Wrenching her eyes open was becoming especially hard as the night hours ticked by.

She gave up on the cries for help, her windpipes protesting in dehydrated pain after the first ten minutes. So, she resigned to sitting in the middle of the steel room, trying to find her center and will her body to stay alert. Closing her eyes, she pulled in her hands to her chest and began meditating.

"C'mon, Korra," she murmured. "You can do this, just a few more hours. Then, you'll be free, and be back in the pro-bending ring by tomorrow, and Tenzin will be fine. You'll be forgiven and welcomed back with open arms."

Even she knew that it would never happen, but if it gave her the strength to keep pushing her guilt down and stay conscious, she would do whatever she had to.

"Is that so?"

Startled by the sudden sound, she flinched and snapped her eyes open to their full size. Just like a nightmare, his mask sat in wait just before her with its still, ghastly eyes accompanied by the stain of a red dot, all encompassed by the fake but monstrous facade. It was too much, too fast, and she felt her vision haze in a fragile swoon.

She saw him in triple, millions of Amons taunting her like demons.

Don't you even think about…! She screamed in her head.

But her body would not comply. It had much too little sleep to defend against a shock like this. Failing, she slumped backward, her face a new level of calm as she took a freefall into unconsciousness. Her head hit the metal ground hard, and her bones fell feebly behind.

A crunch seemed to break her fall, and Amon crept forward from his seated position right before her. Sneaking in at the perfect moment, he had managed to slip in while she attempted a pathetic meditation.

Before she came to, for he imagined she would wake in the next couple of minutes, her stubborn pride would certainly not allow her comatose, he knelt right next to her, getting a good spot. Raising his bony fingers right above her stomach, he reached in with a bend, feeling out her body.

A strong, athletic heart with oversized muscles to match. He plucked at a few brain impulses, felt each artery collapse and open in their usual rhythm. His blackened eyes rolled to the back of his skull as he roamed her.

More exhilarating than any pleasure he could think of, he listlessly popped every cartilage in his hand as he bent. It felt so magnificent to swim inside of her, he had never experienced such power.

A rush of the most addicting drug, he realized he must have her.

The original plan was only to drive her right into his hands, and then he would simply keep her out of mind and sight, controlling her untamed spirit while he finished off the rest of the city. He thought he had prepared adequately, reigning in his taste for control in his right hand man and even a boy close to her age.

They had nothing; they were nothing, compared to her. Aching, throbbing, pumping blood that swirled in magnificent pools all through her- he could almost see the red, the oozing burgundy. He almost forgot himself inside.

If anyone had been anywhere near the prison, they would have heard his chokes of ecstasy echoing loudly through the hall. The two puppets ruthlessly guarded the door, kept everyone out of the area as he had instructed them.

So potent was the bend, the bended, he felt the escalation of his power in the boy and lieutenant. They all coalesced when he went into her, and everything amplified.

The dummies outside stood still, not breathing, moving, or even blinking- the strength crushing their wills into dust which was then thrown into flames, they had not an inkling.

Plunging deeper, he felt the elements of the Earth circling one another harmoniously. He intruded on their balance, and they stopped. Sitting still now, he reached for one of them. He supposed it was water, for it flowed and soothed him as he allowed its presence to fill him.

He wanted it for himself, and he tugged on it, thief. Sensing danger, the fickle element shocked him out of Korra, and he was sent reeling from her body. He had not even done what he wanted to, had not carried out his mission.

This was so unlike him. But, the sensation still lingered, its handprint was permanently etched into his DNA, and it screamed for Korra. He almost went in again, unable to resist the pull of her blood tide. He stopped himself, and sat back on his sore legs- he must had been inside for at least an hour.

The pain in his knuckles came next, and he cradled them together into his stomach, rocking on his feet. It was the longest bend he had ever carried out.

Nonetheless, she was still completely asleep, not even noticing the disease of Amon inside her. Flinches of fear played on her face, and he realized that his powers had also escalated her dream state. The nightmare must have been unbearable.

A flicker of empathy surged through him, and he left, deciding that she had been through enough for the night.

His hands shook as he reached for the knob, barely able to squeeze it. He took a look back at the perplexing young bender, and his body hungered to enter the bloodstream again. He resisted, however, and rushed out the door the second he had an inch of self control.

He would need to rethink his strategy.