Some days, Bolin really hated his lifestyle. Every time he thought things were going right for once, the Universe decided to kick him the balls yet again.

He wished that he wasn't a part of Team Avatar anymore. That he was still a probender, relatively innocent from the horrors that seemed to accompany him everywhere he went: from his parents' brutal deaths, to the terror of Amon, to the Harmonic Convergence, and then to now, with the whole reign of the Abdicator, where he'd discovered his newest Power of willing spontaneous combustion—the Power to blow things up with his mind. Like he needed to add that to his Freak List of having visions, and seeing ghosts.

Fucking Universe.

After the Abdicator's demise three weeks ago, he had tried to use his Power once, to see if he still could do it. He'd stuck out into the dead of night, into a vacant part of town with only a lone Spirit or two passing. The rusted trash bins that had littered the alley hadn't seemed particularly sentimental to anybody, and, after looking through them for any salvageable scraps of food that he knew would be a feast to some orphan kid somewhere, he'd tested it out.

He must have stood in that alleyway for hours, just glaring at those smelly things, snapping his hands at them like a lunatic. He'd glared at them; he'd closed his eyes, and slammed his freaky-glowing hands onto of their metal surface until he was sure he'd woken up the whole damn neighborhood.

He screamed and punched a hole in the wall with his bending; not sure what he felt at all, and feeling so many emotions at once. Surely one less freaky power was a good thing? Bolin told himself that the bastard Abdicator was wrong; his creepy light show and chanting, followed by the monster getting blown to bits, was a one-time thing.

But the paranoia clawed at his insides. It told him that the evil still bubbled inside him. It told him to take a knife and end it all. Just as it whispered that the Abdicator was watching him from the shadows, his tangible form ready to pop out any moment and get inside his head.

The Abdicator's bloodstained flesh flashed across his vision, and he swore he was back in that hell hole once more. Bolin spun around as he heard a clambering noise, and his heart nearly dropped out of his stomach as he saw the trash bins shaking like leafs. They had to be floating about a foot off the ground, their metal covers banging against each other.

Spontaneous Combustion! The Abdicator snapped, That changes things. You c-can't be aloud to live.

"NO!" Bolin screamed, and the bins fell to the ground with a huge thud, dust flying everywhere. A few cat-owls screeched. Somewhere, half a block away, a window opened, and a angry yell to Keep it down out there! Do you have any idea what time it is?! echoed into the night.

Bolin felt his body shake; his hands were on fire, as the burning glow dimmed away from his palms. He stuffed his hands in is armpits, and leaned against the wall to catch his breath.

"What's wrong with me?" he tilted his head to the sky, "Mom...Dad...I wish you were here. I need you. No one understands me..." he closed his eyes, as the tears began to flow. "I feel so alone."

He slept in that alley all night, curled against the wall, begging for the nearly forgotten feeling of childish innocence.

He swore to never test his Power again.

It would seem, he came to realize, that his Power would only present itself if his adrenaline level shot up to skyscraper heights, or if he was in mortal danger. His friends tried to get his mind off of killing The Abdicator and all the deaths, by proposing a road trip. (You gotta go outside, Bo, you haven't left your apartment in a week, and C'mon, Team Avatar needs a serious vacation, what do you say? and We miss you.)

The idea was something that, after much hemming and hawing, Bolin agreed to, if a bit reluctantly. (Even he had to admit that he was becoming a bit of a recluse, hiding in his apartment) But, after all, maybe this would take his mind off of things, and would get everyone in the street to stop either sending him death glares and vengeful elements his way, or ( because he didn't know which was worse) stop rushing up to him and shaking his hand and praising him for something that he truly had had no hand in: if Nyla and Kuzon hadn't been there to help him, he wouldn't have had the strength to kill that son of a bitch. That, he was sure of.

It was eventually decided that on this ordinary road trip to the Earth Kingdom, that Asami was going to show several high-ranking Omashu bigwigs her newest model of 'Jet Plane A12C90T, the fastest one on the market!', Mako and Korra were going to go to Ba Sing Se and see the Cave of Two Lovers—and Bolin thinks that Mako may want to ask Korra a certain special question down there, and maybe give their relationship another chance—while Bolin would go sightseeing in Omashu and maybe—if he was lucky—try to pick up a girl or two. They'd each have the entire weekend to themselves and would meet up back at the train station before heading back to Republic City by Monday morning.

Alas, Asami's Satomobile had run out of gas about fifty miles to Ba Sing Se.

Did he say it before? We'll, he'd say it again. Fucking Universe.

Cursing and spluttering, the Krew had to drag her car to the nearest service stop—which was a mile away. Korra and Bolin tried to make it a bit easier, but neither of them knew how to metalbend at all, and they couldn't exactly bend up the road without the police stopping them. (Bolin sincerely regretted not accepting Lin's offer of tutelage nearly a year ago at this point). Nearly two hours later, they made it to the service stop, each nearly passing out from relief.

"Can I help you folks?" asked an old man with a head full of white hair and a few missing teeth. His entire body (minus his head) was smeared in soot and stank of gasoline. Next to him was a younger man, who was probably his son, who was wearing a relatively clean uniform with his name—Jinn—sewn onto it.

Asami nodded in exhaustion. "Two gallons of... gasoline, please..." She gave him a stack of yuans, and Jinn and the older man immediately got the gallons of gas and began to fill up their car.

Bolin wiped the sweat off of his forehead. "Spirits," Bolin stated to Mako and Korra, who were leaning against the car, sweat soaking through their clothes. "Bro, I think that's the hardest I've ever been worked."

"Even the time when you were twelve and Shin made you overturn that full prison van that was on the way to jail?" Mako asked, fanning himself with one hand.

"Even then," Bolin confirmed.

"Pffft." Korra said to them in between gasping breaths. "I…was…pushed way…harder than that…during my Avatar…training."

Bolin tried not to snicker at Korra's attempt to sound more macho than them. Asami didn't even bother to make an attempt at sounding macho—after the car was filled up, she slid down onto the concrete and sat there with her chin in her hands.

"Uh huh," Bolin said with a smirk.

"Guys, I know we're mostly Fire Nation," Asami whipped her forehead, "but it is hot out. We gotta get some leechi juice, or I'm gonna kneel over."

Before anyone else could agree, a big, black van covered in scratches pulled up to the gas station.

Jinn gulped as he eyed them. "Father, get inside," he ordered the older man, who immediately shook his head.

"Jinn—"

"Go!" Jinn demanded, and the older man walked into the service stop just as four burly men exited the vehicle.

"What's the matter?" Korra asked the young man, slipping instantly from tired-teenager-mode to I-am-the-Avatar-tremble-before-me mode.

"These guys come around once a month complaining about the same thing," Jinn whispered, coming over to wipe a rag on the hood of the Satomobile. Asami stood up and leaned closer to hear, as did Bolin and Mako.

"Never happy about what we do. Their car got into this accident because my father messed up their carburetor and it went 'boom' in the middle of the highway and-" Jin gasped as they came closer. Everyone fell silent.

"Hey!" one of them shouted. He had muscles the size of Mako's head, and a menacing expression on his face. Even Korra looked a bit intimidated. Either Jinn had the best poker face on the planet, or wasn't afraid of these punks. He calmly turned towards them, shoving the rag in his pocket.

"Can I help you?" he asked calmly.

"Yeah," said Muscles, (the tattoo on his arm clearly stated his name) crossed his arms over his chest. "Your pops got my car totaled!"

"Looks fine to me," was Jinn's simple response. "Aside from a few scratches, it doesn't look too bad."

"Carburetor blew up halfway down the interstate," growled another hulk of man. "Jonno's still in the hospital."

"Well, phooey for Jonno," said Jinn nonchalantly. "If you wanted me or my father to do a nicer job, maybe you could've paid us the correct amount of yuans, and not have ransacked our shop!"

"How much did you pay?" Asami suddenly asked. The Hulk and Muscles turned to Asami and looked at her like she'd evolved from pond scum.

"What's it to you, sweetheart?" the Hulk inquired with a cocked eyebrow.

"Well..." The heiress began, "Standard price for a fixed carburetor is a hundred and fifty yuans. That, plus the standard price of gasoline, is maybe one-sixty plus tax. I'm assuming you got a paint job too, so that brings up the final number to one-eighty eight," explained Asami with the air of someone explaining that two and two made four. "How much did you pay Jinn?"

Bolin, Mako, Korra and Jinn's mouths dropped to the pavement. The Hulk looked at Asami with a whole new level of interest.

"How'd a pretty broad like you get to know so much about cars?"

"When you're the CEO of New Future Industries, you kinda have to," replied Asami. The Hulk's jaw crashed to the pavement next.

"How much did you pay him?" she repeated for the third time. Muscles exchanged a look with another brawny guy, who was obviously the leader of the gang.

"Asami..." Bolin whispered nervously, "Cool it." Musles eyed him with a growl.

"One hundred and twenty-five yuans," said the leader, "which is more than he deserves."

Asami rolled her eyes. "That's not even the full price for a used carburetor, let alone to fix one."

"Shut up, bitch," shouted the leader, and Asami took a step back before crashing against the Satomobile. The gang of thugs didn't notice.

"Where's your Poppa, Jinny-boy?" asked the leader.

"That's Mister Jinny-boy to you," retorted Jinn. "And he's not here. Went to town to get a shipment of used parts. You can buy one, if you want, for seventy-five yuans. Half off."

What happened next, would set off a horrible chain of events that not one of them would be able to forget. Especially Bolin.

Muscles punched Jinn in the face, and Jinn flew backwards over the hood of the car.

"Jin!" He didn't get up again. Asami ran over to check on him, but the leader grabbed her.

"Uh, uh, uh…" he stated with a terrifying leer. "Not happ'ning, sweetheart."

"Let. Me. Go," Asami growled, thrashing in his grip.

Korra stepped forward. "Let her go right now," said Korra, "and I'll let you guys go without missing most of your vital organs and large intestines."

"Who the hell do you think you are?" asked Muscles.

The Hulk elbowed him. "That's the Avatar, you imbecile," the Hulk muttered under his breath.

The leader looked interested, and Muscles took a step back. "Is that so?" the leader asked Asami. "Is she really the Avatar, sweetheart?" he trailed a finger down her face. Asami responded by kicking him in the groin and trying to run away, but the leader immediately earthbent a hole in the ground, and Asami fell face first into it. She tried to right herself, but was frozen in place and started to sink. Mako, Korra and Bolin tried to move forward and help her, but Muscles bent a six-foot wall of mud between them and the heiress.

"Help me!" she screamed, and Korra and Bolin eradicated the wall in one fell swoop.

Once the wall crumbled to dust, however, Asami was nowhere to be found.

"No!" Mako yelled.

Bolin saw red instanly. "You bitch!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, and suddenly his voice sounded much deeper, but he didn't care. Asami Sato, heiress, badass driver, CEO, his best friend, was dead.

And they'd killed her.

He felt his whole body tremble. "YOU KILLED HER!" His eyes suddenly blazed green. He felt a huge headache coming on, but ignored it as his rage came out. He screamed a jumble of chants in a voice that didn't sound like his own, and the Hulk collapsed to the ground, blood leaking out of his nose, ears, and mouth while screaming bloody murder.

Vaguely, Bolin heard someone yell behind him, but didn't care as he took a step closer to the now trembling thugs.

"P-please, stop...!" they whimpered.

"You fucking murderous sons of bitches!" he roared, and snapped his glowing hands at them, tossing them into the wall of the service stop. The wind began to howl, and sand swirled around the remaining two thugs. The Hulk lay dead on the ground.

"Bring her back up!" screamed the leader to Muscles, who immediately stomped his foot on the ground and brought a coughing and gasping, dirt-covered Asami Sato, who was curled in the fetal position, and was very much alive. Bolin's skin was doused in sweat, like he'd been running a marathon. He saw perfectly well that Asami was still alive, and he tried so hard, so, so hard to stop-and couldn't. Is this what it's like for Korra in the Avatar State? Bolin wondered, the only conscious part of him remaining.

He didn't care. He screamed in fury once more; his mind-grip on the thugs making their eyes blaze green as well, as the crimson kept pooling out of their ears and mouths.

"Ahhh-AHHHH! P-p-please..."

Bolin smiled a crooked grin and leered over them. Her raised his palms over their heads-

"Bo!" Mako. His big brother screaming from fifty feet away. Bolin froze. He turned around slowly, as if in slow motion, and saw through his green-tinted vision, his brother gripping the hood of the Satomobile, squinting at him through the sand blowing ferociously in the wind.

"Snap out of it, Bolin! Come on!" Damnit, his voice even cracked a little.

"Bolin!" Korra called.

I must look like hell now, Bolin thought hysterically. Bolin opened his mouth to say he couldn't stop, and what came out instead was, "Kil-na-gi-poh", and Mako collapsed to the ground with a horrible, heart wrenching scream.

Both Bolin and Korra yelled at the same time. "MAKO!"

Bolin snapped out of his trance as quickly as if someone had flicked a switch. He sunk to his knees in exhaustion. The sand and wind stopped turning, and the glowing faded from his eyes. He suddenly saw everything around him as if for the first time: the Hulk dead on the ground, the leader and Muscles whimpering and sobbing like little girls with blood staining their ears and noise. Asami curled up in the fetal position, an unconscious Jinn behind the Satomobile, and a whimpering Korra kneeling next to Mako.

He suddenly felt overwhelmed by memories, remembering Mako and himself kneeling next to his parents' dead bodies. He dry heaved, before staggering over to them.

"M-Mako?" Bolin pleaded, begging the Spirits for his big brother to answer.

He took a step forward and Korra snarled, gripping Mako's body. "Monster!" she yelled. Bolin took a step back as if he'd been shot.

Korra looked shocked at herself. "Oh…Bo—I…I didn't…Bolin…" her stammers had no effect on him whatsoever. He knew she was right.

He was a monster.

"Bo?" Korra whispered. "I didn't mean it, I d-didn't, I swear I didn't…I'm sorry!"

Bolin sighed. This was neither the right time nor place for this conversation. He forced himself to grin, but it came out as a pained grimace.

"'S fine," he lied unconvincingly, because how could he tell Korra that she may as well have stabbed him in the heart with a rusty dagger? Her words had the same effect.

"M-Mako?" he asked.

Korra sighed. "He has a pulse," she said, and instantly Bolin felt as if a thousand tons of despair and grief were dropped off of his shoulders."We need to get him to a healer."

Bolin touched Mako's shoulder, and instantly was lost in a swarm of memories:

M-Mako, why aren't they waking up? Wake up! Mommy, daddy! Wake up! Please!

Welcome to the Triads, boys!

Here, Bo, Mako wrapped the scarf around his small shoulders, looking at him with sad eyes as he griped the fabric tightly, take care of Dad for me, until I get back, okay?

BOLIN!

Round two goes to the Tigerdillos!

Momma? Poppa? Please, you have to wake up, please, Mako begs his parents, tears streaming down his face. You can't leave me…please, please, please wake up. I'll do anything. Anything…Spirits, wake up…"

You will rule them all, Number Twelve. You are their Master.

"Bo?" Korra put her hand on his shoulder, and he was back.

He blinked and realized tears were streaming down his face. "I really am a monster," he whispered.

Then he shot up, and sprinted away.

"Bolin!" Korra screamed, "Wait! Come back!"

But he couldn't. Nothing was okay anymore.