Cross posted to my DA. Open link in new page to fullview.
Their bodies are found drifting to shore two days later. The tattered scraps of clothing clinging to their charred corpses is the only indication of their identity. The Council places their bodies back into the sea; a Water Tribe burial, the final gesture of respect for two men who tried to tear a city apart in different directions.
Korra wishes she could have talked to both brothers, if only just once.
She wishes she could have apologised to Tarrlok. After all, he had apologised to her, when really, she had been the one who pushed him to extremes. She wishes she had said sorry to him before leaving him in the attic on the island.
As for Amon…she isn’t sure. A part of her feels that she owes him - for her airbending, for her connection to her spiritual side. He had symbolised fear and she’d learnt to overcome that fear. In a way, that made him her teacher. She wishes she had said thank you to him before tearing down his image.
No one in the city remembers them, or wants to.
So Korra takes it upon herself to carry their memories inside of her. She is the Avatar; she will transcend lifetimes. These memories will endure for all of eternity. She builds a memorial for them in a small cave by Mo Ce Beach. She hides two portraits of them in that cave.
Every year, on the anniversary of their death, she visits their empty graves in secret and lights two incense sticks. Then she sits down in front of the two solemn, staring portraits, and tells them about herself. She tells them about her husband, about her children. She lives for them, and through her, they have a family.
Then the day ends, and she must leave. She will get up and walk back to the cave mouth, always turning around one last time. Silhouetted by the moon, she apologises to the portrait of the younger brother, and thanks the older one.
The cycle continues.
