A/N: This part involves canon, but I made a few adjustments. So this is basically a combination of what was shown, and I threw in bits of what I wanted to be shown. (I think my version does a better job of showing character interactions; the series seemed very rushed to me.) And, of course, near the end, there are some major deviations from canon. You'll know when you get there. (If I don't mention a particular scene before moving on to a following scene, then the scene I skipped still happened; it just remained intact.)

I tried to make the beginning a bit more lighthearted than the end of Chapter 1. I hope I succeeded. We can't make it ALL about angst, can we?

(I am, of course, not serious. We certainly can.)

The Lost Things

Chapter 2: Reason

Water was really quite lovely, Korra thought. It surrounded them, protecting them in their cocoon as they walked the floor of the bay toward Air Temple Island. What little light filtered from the surface danced across the walls of their little air bubble, and Korra felt giddiness clench in her chest. The fear was still there, of course, pulsing through her veins, but her happiness stamped it down, if only for a little while. She tried not to tremble as she felt Mako's hand on the small of her back, comforting and distracting all at once. She looked back at him over her shoulder, and caught his grin. She swallowed. Not now, Korra, she berated herself. But she couldn't stop the answering smile from consuming her face.

ooo

The trip was more difficult than she had anticipated. Not only was her mind wandering off to the pleasant memory of mere minutes ago, but their original "plan," or lack thereof, was proving tricky. It turned out the problem didn't lie in getting to Air Temple Island. Korra's waterbending made it easy enough to get from one shore to the other without being spotted. Rather, the problem seemed to lie in…well, lying.

"What're you two doing here?"

Korra and Mako, both wearing the masked uniforms of the Equalists, swiveled toward the voice before freezing. There, staring at them with an expression that seemed to encompass both suspicion and disapproval, stood Amon's second-in-command, his body turned slightly away, as though prepared to sink into a defensive stance.

Mako spoke before she could think of something to say. "Uh, we were just transferred."

Korra tensed. I love him, but seriously: who taught him how to lie?

She had to restrain herself from becoming giddy at that. It wouldn't do to start daydreaming when one false move could mean ending up on the business end of this man's electrified nightsticks. She snapped her attention back to the conversation at hand…which didn't seem to be going very smoothly.

"Well, you're getting transferred again. Amon wants extra security at the arena today."

Korra knew Mako would open his mouth before she heard his voice, and she winced. Shutupshutupshutupshutup.

"The arena. For what?"

She fought the impulse to slap her palm against her forehead.

"The rally." His brow furrowed, and Korra watched his eyes run over them again. "You should've been briefed about this."

Korra eyed his lightning sticks nervously. Without her gaze leaving his weapons, she bowed. "We'll be there, sir."

She felt Mako bow with her, and thanked whatever spirits could hear her that he was following her lead.

Seeming satisfied, the lieutenant turned on his heel and walked away.

Korra did not punch Mako in the arm, but nudged him. "I know another way in," she murmured, and the two of them sidled from sight.

ooo

It took less than two minutes to find the secret entrance. On silent feet, she led Mako around two stone corners of the Temple and up a ravine before diving behind some bushes. He followed, and she was grateful he did not ask where she was leading him. It was so much easier just to show him.

She knelt, and, with deft fingers, found the seam to a piece of wood paneling that perfectly matched the stone wall surrounding it. She lifted from the bottom, and the door swung up and open.

Korra, smirking, looked up to find Mako's mask tilted slightly. His stance gave her the impression that he was gaping. He lifted a lone finger and pointed. "How did you—?"

"Sometimes," she said, smiling though he couldn't see it, "meditation gets really boring."

Mako straightened. "Meditation isn't boring," he said, crossing his arms. "It's an ancient and noble practice, with a long and glorious—"

Korra cut him off with a wave of her hand. "Right, right," she said, gesturing to the passage. "Less talking, more thwarting."

He huffed slightly and moved forward, muttering about impatient Avatars, but Korra knew him well enough to know he was holding back a smile. She grinned herself, and followed him into the blackness.

ooo

Korra and Mako sprinted through corridor after corridor, Korra's ears still ringing and mind buzzing with everything that had been confessed.

Defeat him. Put an end to this sad story.

Tarlokk's words haunted Korra like a vengeful spirit, a malevolent wisp that hovered over her when she stopped for breath, and followed her when they resumed running. The tone of his voice and the look on his face floated before her eyes, and she could not banish it. His anger and bitterness and betrayal was incredibly real to her then, tangible, and that alone made his words seem darker than before. Did he mean…?

Korra hadn't thought of the other way Amon could be stopped, could be punished, until those words had fallen from Tarlokk's lips. No, she thought, her hands shaking as she crept along the wall, hearing the roar of an Equalist crowd just on the other side. He doesn't deserve that. She was the Avatar, a keeper of peace. A death would not only stain her public image, but her hands. To do something so extreme and horrible was unthinkable.

A thorough asskicking should do it, she thought, and was relieved to finally be sounding like herself again. She was jerked out of her thoughts by Mako's hand on hers. They had come to a stop directly outside of the doors leading to the balcony that overlooked the arena.

His other hand found hers, and his grip made her smile and tremble. "Hey," he said, finding the edge of his mask and pulling it up, revealing his eyes, rimmed with concern. "Are you ready?"

And as her fingers were heated through the fabric of both of their hands, as she stared into the face of the one who had come all this way with her, she realized that she was. She lifted her mask, to let him see her, and she nodded. He gave her a small, sad smile then, and it became too much. She leaned forward, and kissed him.

What their first kiss was, this was not. The tingling she had experienced during their first had transformed into burning, a fire that crept from her chest to her stomach, because this may be a final kiss, before one of them lost everything, before they would both be changed for good. This kiss was a heated whisper before discovery, a searing look before destruction, and it was terrible and wonderful and made her hurt.

They broke apart, panting slightly, and Mako pecked her one last time, ever so sweetly, chastely, before releasing her hands, yanking his mask back on. With one final look at her, he turned and silently pushed open the double doors to the balcony.

Korra, slipping her mask back in place, took a long, deep breath, and strode forward.

ooo

Korra didn't think her heart had ever beaten so quickly in her life.

Amon's footsteps echoed just beyond their hiding place. Korra wanted desperately to peek beneath the green tablecloth, but she didn't want to risk Amon hearing her movement. She wondered where Mako was, if he was even breathing, he was so silent.

Suddenly, Amon's footsteps ceased. Korra felt a bead of sweat run down her temple, and she stopped mid-inhale.

After what seemed like an eternity of silence, she heard footsteps again, and relaxed slightly. But something was bothering her. What—

And then it occurred to her. Amon was a bloodbender, the most powerful one the world had ever seen. Which meant—

He can sense blood.

Her terrible revelation came half a second before she found herself dragged bodily out from under the table, a sensation she had only felt once before thrumming through her. She could not control her own movements.

Her joints cracked and her muscles moaned as her body contorted in ways they were never meant to. She groaned and struggled, but continued to rise until she was hovering off the ground, Amon getting closer, closer—

A sudden rush of heat and light filled the storage room. "Let her go!"

Mako…

But Amon was ready. He dodged Mako's furious attack, and reached out his arm. Mako was lifted off the ground, and Korra could hear his bones rubbing together. Rage coursed through her, and she fought harder against her confinement.

Monster…

She felt her body convulse, and she was thrown to the ground, pain shooting its way up her arm and hip where it made contact with the cold stone floor.

And as suddenly as she was thrown down, she was lifted up, till her knees rested on the ground, and her face turned toward the ceiling, toward Amon's masked face. She felt a strong, controlling hand gripping the back of her neck. "No!"

"Korra!" Mako's yell was lost to her as she watched, helpless, as Amon's hand descended, time slowing, until his thumb met the spot between her eyes. His hands were cool, dry, and unhesitating. An unearthly fear filled her as she looked into his shaded eyes, his motionless mask.

She closed her eyes, because this couldn't, should not be real, but it was, this moment was happening, and she had never felt so powerless in her life. She felt vessels in her blood constrict, close off, and it was over. Done. Gone.

Korra collapsed, her body rolling forward to meet the ground that she could no longer sense, could no longer feel. I can't feel anything.

Before, the elements were on the edge of her senses: present, and available, if only she called to them. But now, it was like they had disappeared. No earth, no fire, no water. Nothing.

"I told you I would destroy you."

ooo

Korra felt herself being jostled, and she opened her eyes to Mako's terrified face, bobbing in and out of view. She was confused for a moment, before her awareness spread to Mako's warm arms beneath her back and under her knees. He was running.

"Mako…" she said, feeling shame and weakness creeping up her limbs. "My bending…"

"Everything will be all right," he panted, his brow furrowed, the words coming out louder than he probably meant them to. "We just need to get out of here."

Mako stopped suddenly, too suddenly, and Korra felt herself fly through the air, her momentum carrying her farther down the corridor before she was slammed into the ground once again. Her breath left her, a combination of the fall and the sight she was greeted with upon looking up.

Mako was on his knees, unable to move, in the exact stance Korra had been forced into when her bending was taken. Behind him stood Amon, but his thumb was not centered on Mako's forehead; instead, his entire hand encircled Mako's throat, not quite touching, but bending.

"I'm impressed, Avatar, with this firebender you chose to accompany you," he said, his deep, lilting voice making her blood freeze in her veins. "No one has ever managed to break my hold."

He flexed his hand in demonstration, and Mako's chin rose higher, in obvious agony.

Korra had heard the term "seeing red," but until that moment, she had not known it was so literal. Scarlet flooded her vision, and she struggled against Amon's hold on her.

Hang on, Mako, hang on, I'm coming.

But she was not moving.

"I swore that I would destroy you," Amon went on, seemingly oblivious to her continued resistance and murderous fury. "So I took your bending." He titled his head, calmly scrutinizing her. "But there's still some defiance, a measure of will that I have not yet stomped out of you."

His head straightened, and his voice became lower, quieter. "It is time we were equal, Avatar."

And with one flick of his wrist, Mako's head snapped to the side. And he fell, with an ethereal grace, to the floor, and did not move, his eyes wide and unseeing. And that was when the screaming started.

ooo

A/N 2: I bled for this, you guys. Actual bleeding would have been easier.

The chapters and sections will be a lot smoother from here on out. I've had to tiptoe around canon for these first two chapters, but no longer. So get ready for some original story.

Trust me: I wanted so badly to narrate Iroh's badassness with the planes. But his badassery will just have to come into play later. It would have been boring for you to read the transcription of his awesome moves when you could just watch the finale. Especially since I'm so bad at action sequences.