I went to the swamp first. I don't know; it just seemed like the thing to do, you know? Maybe it was fate or the gods, as Ling said, or something else pulled me towards it.

In any case, as I entered, I immediately began feeling strange, as if…something was watching me. Still, I pressed forward, determined to find Korra. Suddenly, I heard laughing.

I whirled around, expecting the source to be behind me, but it wasn't; it seemed to come from every direction. I attempted to ignore it as I continued walking and yet I also tried to identify it. It seemed so familiar and yet I had this nagging feeling like I didn't want to know who it belonged to.

Soon, as I began going slightly uphill, I felt lightheaded, as if the swamp itself was clouding my mind. As I reached the top of the hill, I finally identified the constant laughter, and simultaneously did I see where it came from. "Mei?" I questioned, seeing her standing about thirty feet or so in front of me.

She simply stared, laughing.

"Mei? Is that really you?" I took a step forward, momentarily forgetting what I was doing here. As I took the step, Mei turned and ran off. "Wait!" I called, starting to chase after her.

As I followed, with her seemingly leading me somewhere, I lost sight of her as she passed through some branches, and when I passed through them as well, I saw her as I last remember seeing her; a crooked smile on her face, her eyes blank with insanity, and her limbs chained to, in this case, the trunk of a large tree.

The sight brought tears to my eyes; being reminded once again of what had happened and how I could've stopped it. Seeing it in dreams, sure, but here…right in front of me and not knowing whether or not I was going to wake up to Kanon's…I mean…someone's real presence, was disconcerting to say the least.

I dropped to my knees. "Mei, you aren't…" I reached out to her, but as I did, a flash that only lasted a millisecond appeared in my vision, and when it was gone, Korra was hanging from chains, in an X-shaped fashion, exactly as she had been on that day; writhing in pain from poison, her eyes slowly changing to that horrifying white…the only thing missing was the shadow; I could only assume that I was the shadow now.

Maybe the swamp was trying to tell me something; that I, somehow, had come to hurt Korra as Zaheer had.

"Please…" I muttered, my voice rising to a yell. "Please, just stop! I've seen enough!" I lowered my head, pressing my palms to my temples. "I know I could've saved them! I know, alright?!"

Out of nowhere, a wave of mud pushed me aside. I recovered quickly, standing and taking a defensive stance. "Quit your whining!" my attacker ordered. "It makes you sound like a spineless lemur!"

The voice alone brought me back to reality, but the woman herself was more than enough as well. Clad in simple Earth Kingdom…sorry, Empire clothing, I was standing before a woman who looked to be in her mid-to-late eighties, who just bent mud at me.

"Um…who're you?" I asked.

"Depends; who's ruining my afternoon with his yelling?" she countered.

I raised an eyebrow. "The name's Yuuto," I said as I took a step forward. "I'm look for my friend, Kor-ah!" I was once again tossed aside with this woman's mud.

"Well I don't like you; leave this swamp; now."

"Wait, I just want to talk. I don't want to fight an old woman and hurt her, so-" I was once again interrupted as she planted a foot firmly in the ground and sent me into the air. I stayed there and waited for her to attack again, but she simply looked around, confused. "Um…"

"There you are!" she bent another rock toward me. I dodged it and landed, shooting a blast of air at her, but she dodged it as if it were nothing before proceeding to stand up a little straighter, though still slumped over, and relax her muscles. "…What do you want anyway?"

"What? You're giving up? After you started the fight?"

"Why bother fighting when you'll beat me? You're that flying guy after all, and I can't see you in the air."

"What do you mean? Of course you can…" I trailed off, getting a good look at her eyes, seeing them blank; she was blind. "Oh…so you can use Seismic Sense?"

"Use it? Ha! I was the one who made it popular, pal! Come on," she said as she started walking away, with me following close behind. "Not to mention I was the original metalbender of the world."

"You still haven't told me your name, miss 'original metalbender'."

"The name's Toph; Toph Beifong. It's a pleasure."

"Beifong? So you're, like, Suyin and Lin's mom?"

"The one and only."

"That's cool! They don't talk about you much."

"From what I've heard, Su isn't talking to you at all," she said nonchalantly.

"How do you know? And how'd you know I can fly?"

"Because I can see everything from here, dipstick!" she said as she stopped and turned. "Take a look."

I looked around, soon finding that we were underneath a gigantic tree, easily the size of a large building. "Wow…" I awed at the size of it before shaking my head. "Anyway…gods, I have so many questions! How come the swamp didn't drive you crazy?"

"Kid, when you get to be my age, you're probably crazier than the swamp'll ever make you. Not to mention that it doesn't drive people crazy unless they're almost there already."

"Wow, thanks, Toph…and have you seen Avatar Korra? I'm her friend and I'm looking for her."

"Hm…can't say that I have. Well, actually…I think I recall some of the swampbenders talking about this one girl in the nearby town. Maybe that's your little Avatar."

I nodded. "Thank you so much; I'll tell your daughters you said 'hi'!" I called back as I flew off and to the town. My initial thoughts were something along the lines of this:

Man, Gaoling really went down the crap-chute since that wealthy family left, just as Kuvira had said. Everywhere I turned, famine, indifference to robbery, and violence occurred, but I couldn't be bothered. I began asking around, but no one knew anything about Korra's whereabouts…until I went to the Earth Rumble Arena right after its match for the night was over. I approached the owner as he was leaving. "Excuse me," I called, making him stop walking away and turn to me. "Yeah, hey, was I was wondering if you saw anyone who looked…like the Avatar?"

"Avatar?" he questioned.

"Yeah, you know; tan skin, brown hair, bright blue eyes, the works."

"Actually, I just asked this one girl if she was the Avatar, matched your description perfectly. You just missed her. She just took her winnings and left. You can probably still catch her, actually."

My heart began to race. "Which way did she go?"

The man pointed and I made a break for the exit. But as I rounded a corner, I stopped, actually starting to think this through. Korra had been the one to leave me; shouldn't it be her that comes back to me and the world? I had literally given her my life, and she just abandoned me.

The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. I felt…betrayed.

What would I say when I found her? "Hey, found you, now let's just act like nothing ever happened!"? No way! I was pissed, the more I thought about it.

I shook my head. This wasn't just about me; the world needed its Avatar; I knew that much. I continued heading towards where the man pointed me, and soon caught up. I saw her from a mile away, but I couldn't…make sure that it was her. Her hair was cut extremely short if it was Korra, and she was wearing raggy Earth Empire clothing.

"Korra!" I called, causing the girl to hesitate and turn to me, revealing two beautiful blue eyes; the ones I remember, though one was swollen and blackened. "Korra…"

As soon as she saw me, her eyes widened in fear and took a defensive stance, her expression soon turning to one of determination. "You again," I heard her mutter, her voice low and threatening.

"Korra, it's me; Yuuto, remember?" I questioned, taking a step forward. She only responded with a swift bending of fire towards my face. I instinctively dodged it and sent a retaliation blast of air towards her, knocking her away and to the ground. I silently cursed myself before approaching her, getting rather close as she recovered, holding her head. I held my hand out. "Come on; we need to get back to Republic City so you can help us work out this mess."

When she saw how close I was, she immediately bent a large wave of fire at me. My first instinct was to fly up and hide, and that's exactly what I did. A small group of people gathered around her and asked if she needed help, but she simply respond with a quick "no thanks" before running off.

I followed her, eventually finding her stopped at a mirror, and she was holding her hand up to her black eye. I watched a small dog seemingly appear before her and she greeted it happily. I landed on the steps in front of them.

Korra looked at me for a moment, her gaze turning to a glower as the dog jumped to her aid, growling and barking at me. "You can see it too, huh?" she questioned to the dog. "Then maybe I'm not going crazy," she said as she took another stance.

Not wanting to fight her, not yet, I took action and bent a wave of fog to envelop me, allowing me to fly away unnoticed.

I continued tailing her as the dog led her to the swamp, and then turned into a spirit, as the swamp, technically, was a Spirit Wild like they had in Republic City, and thus spiritual energy was abundant here.

"You…You guided me here?" Korra questioned it as it snuggled up close to her. "Wait…I met you at the Tree of Time! Why didn't you tell me that it was you?" she questioned.

"If I did, would you have followed me?"

"Alright, I get your point, but why did you bring me here? What do you want me to find here?"

"Not 'what', 'who'," it replied before flying off. I decided that that was a good a cue as any to show myself again. Maybe the swamp's spirituality would be enough to get through Korra's messed up brain.

"Wait! I don't know who you-"

"Korra!" I called, slightly ahead of her. She turned to me, and screamed, stumbling back a little.

"No! Get away from me!" she cried.

"Korra, stop," I said as I approached her, still in the air. "What are you afraid of?"

"No! I'm not afraid of you!"

So she understood me this time? Alright, that's a good first step, but who does she see me as? "Korra…I need you to come with me," I held out my hand.

"Get away from me!" she yelled as she bent a large rock near me. I quickly retreated behind a tree.

"Wait! Korra, I need you to come back to Republic City with me. Tenzin and the others are worried and we need your help!"

"Let Tenzin go!" she shot fire through the tree, forcing me to go into her view and dodge more of her sloppy attacks. "I won't let you hurt him again, Zaheer!"

She saw me as Zaheer in the swamp? Why? Because I was flying? Was she really this sick still?

I sighed. "Alright, I didn't want to do this, but you need help, and you're coming with me one way or another," I said as I flew towards her and landed right in front of her.

She screamed and stumbled back again, but I swept her off her feet before she could retaliate. I then pushed her back, making her head crash into a tree, before slamming her into the mud.

Now barely conscious, she looked at the mud she was laying in, and started panicking, soon falling into a light sleep.

I took a deep breath, slightly frustrated that she would leave the Southern Water Tribe when she couldn't even see straight. I picked her up, and was about to fly off to go to Republic City, but it soon dawned on me that she wouldn't stay unconscious for long, so I took her to the nearest person I could trust.

I approached the large tree and found Toph meditating there. "Toph!" I called, landing in front of her.

"Gah!" she cried her blank eyes were wide with shock. "What are you doing? Trying to give me a heart attack? And who're you carrying?"

"This is Korra. Listen, she's still hallucinating and now she sees me as Zaheer. I need you to help me make her better. I knocked her unconscious, but she won't stay like this long enough for me to get her to Republic City. Can she stay with you for a while? Can you help her?"

"Who do I look like, Katara?" she questioned.

"Katara already tried helping her, but she wasn't enough."

"Oh…wow…it's that bad, huh? Alright, bring her here."

She led me to a small cave where she bent a slab of rock to lay Korra on as we both sat on a stump, waiting for her to wake up.

Soon, she stirred. I immediately rushed to her side. I knelt next to her. "Korra, are you feeling any better?" She stared at me a moment, examining me before, without warning, she blasted me to the other side of the room with airbending. I landed and held my ribs in pain. "Oh…"

She was about to follow up, but Toph acted fast, making a rock-blindfold to cover her eyes, but that only made her shoot in random direction, so she lock her hands together and then covered her hands in the earth, soon doing the same to her feet, not letting her bend at all. "Ah! Let go of me!"

Toph walked over and pushed her back down onto the slab. "You dunderhead! What are you doing just flailing around like that? And in my home!"

"Why are you housing a criminal in your home?" Korra demanded.

"Look kid, I don't know who you're seein', but this boy isn't him."

"W-What? But-"

"Korra, it's me, Yuuto," I pleaded, placing a hand on her face. She yanked her head away.

"Don't touch me!"

I turned to Toph. "Can you help her?"

"…I'll see what I can do."

I nodded and stood. "Alright, I have to go. When she gets better, send her my way so we can go back together."

"Whatever you say, twinkle-toes-two."

I exited the cave and flew away, back to the train tracks, following the direction that they were heading, and soon realizing that there was a large number of prints leading off of the tracks, and I decided to follow them.

What I found was Zaofu, with an army of Earth Empire soldiers lined up in front of it. I could hear the loudspeaker from where I was. "Suyin Beifong; you and your Metal Clan are on official Earth Empire property. You are to surrender Zaofu and give yourselves up immediately," Kuvira's voice was loud and clear.

I looked on in horror. "Oh no…"

Author's Note:

Whoa! Thanks for three reviews in one chapter, guys! Wanna keep it up? Oh yeah, and Korra's back...kind of...but Korra's back!