Trust(2)

"Why do you think you aren't a good person Ethan?"

"There are a few things... One of them is because I find it hard to trust people and that leads to doing things behind their back in their favor, for example, I knew that Hasook wasn't going to show up for the game and I keep my mouth shut because I knew that you were going to come to the game. While Bolin and Mako might have found a good replacement if I told them, I decided against it. I knew that you wanted to play and I know that you are a great bender so I thought that what I was doing was the right thing for them. In the end, it all worked out. But I didn't feel like a good person, I lied and manipulated to help them and that is not what a good person does. That's why I'm more inclined to think I'm a bad one."

"Ethan you aren't a bad person, you are just a little confused, you want to do good but you are afraid that people wouldn't think that if you told them what you wanted to do so you keep it to yourself. You are a good person in fact. Why would a bad person put his life in danger to save someone else's? They wouldn't."

Korra looked at me and stretched out her hand.

"I trust you know. So please trust me when I tell you that you are not alone in wanting to help people."

I shake her hand and I thank her. I don't know why but something that she said resonated with me.

"Since the cat is out of the bag now, I wanted to ask you something."

"Sure ask away?"

"Can you tell me more about how you trained with the Equalists? I need to find a way to fight against Amon's angels."

"Sure, I can do you one better, I can train you to be able to combat them."

We talked for a little more and then we said that we would talk again in the morning about when and where we would train.

I got home and told Nya about my discussion with Korra.

"I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing for us right now."

"It's definitely a good thing. Sooner or later Korra would have found out. The fact that she found out now is for the better. I showed her that I trust her by telling her that I learned chi bending from the Equalists."

"It's becoming more dangerous by the day, are you sure you can still handle it?"

"I'm sure! All I'm asking you is to have a little faith."

In the following days, I meet with Korra and taught her how to fight against chi blocking. While we were taking a break Korra asked me.

"How did you become part of the Equalists?"

I look at her and stay silent for a while thinking whatever to say the truth or not.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I was just curious, you don't seem like the type that hates benders, you seem so mature, so level-headed, I just can't see the way that Amon convinced you to join him."

"I trust you Korra, but I want you to promise me that you will not tell anyone what I'm about to tell you. You need to keep why I entered and why I left a secret, can you promise me that?"

"I promise you."

"Alright... I think I should start by telling you something about myself. I was raised by an elderly woman named Naomi, she was my only family till I meet Nya and the other. Naomi was old and she didn't have a lot of money, but she tried her best to give me the best life possible. I could see her struggling every day so I did my best to help her around the shop and I tried my hardest to make her life as easy as possible.

She meant the world to me, so you can imagine how I felt when I saw the triads extorting money from her. It made my blood boil when I hear them mocking her just because she wasn't a bender. This made me want to change things, this made me want to punish the people that did this to her.

In the end, this lead me to the Equalists. In the beginning, it was all well and good, it was all about changing the status quo, all about helping the people that couldn't defend themselves. It was all about helping people like grandma. This made me train as hard as I could, it made me want to do as much as I could. I became one of the best chi blockers out there.

I was recruited by Amon and I started to do missions for him. I started to clear out triads, beat thugs, and things like this. All was well and good till grandma died. At first, I couldn't believe it, I refused to believe it then when things started to sink in I started to feel anger for the bender that killed her, for the system, for all the benders. I was one step away from becoming somebody like Amon, somebody that hates benders."

"What stopped you?"

"She did. She always told me that people are good no matter if they can bend or not, and I had people as examples: Mako, Bolin, Tenzin. All of them were good people. This made me question Amon's decisions even harder. In the end, I saw who he truly was. A man fuel by hate nothing more and I refuse that a man such as he reshapes the world in his image. This is the reason I need you Korra, I need you to make a better world for benders and non-benders alike."

"Ethan... I promise you that I will make your dream a reality."