"This feels so strange."
Patting the Equalists' folded uniforms, Asami flattens each bundle at the feet of the unconscious women. "It's how we found them."
"But why?"
Asami sets their masks neatly atop the uniforms. "I don't know, Korra."
"What's happened, has happened."
Straightening up, Asami turned to her. "I know you don't like it -"
"My choices being made for me, by some unknown force? Destiny?" Korra interjects. "Not really, no."
"You can still decide," Asami says. "You still have the power to choose not to act."
Korra chews on the inside of her cheek. "And what happens then?"
"What happened after you reverted in the basement?"
"I…" Korra starts, but then frowns. "I tried to get back to the VIP lounge before the attack started. My plan was to confront you & I, tell you what was about to happen and convince you to help stop it."
"But?"
"I got there too late. We were already running away from the Equalists. You tripped and they attacked us."
"And then?"
"I jumped in, took out one of them. Then you shocked me. When I came to, it was when…"
Asami bites her tongue, watching Korra's eyes widen.
"I told you to stop me," she says, looking at her. "That's why you pulled me off the Equalist! Because the Equalist was me. And if I hadn't warned you…"
Asami puts her hands together, then spreads them apart. "Annihilation."
"You knew this whole time," Korra says. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"I trusted you."
Korra laughs after a long moment, closing her eyes. "Alright."
She lifts her hands, curling them into fists. The earth heeds the Avatar's call, wrapping a trio of unmasked Equalists in concrete bondage. She turns to Asami afterwards.
"I trust you."
Asami draws Korra into her arms and holds her close.
"What happens next?" she asks when they part.
Asami moves to the bag of flares sitting against the wall. "You need answers. I know the woman who will give them to you."
Korra tilts her head and frowns.
"You know her," Asami says, taking out a handful of flares and holding them out. "Wears her scars with pride and is rarely parted from her work."
Korra takes pause, along with some flares. "You're kidding."
Asami shakes her head. "She'll want to question them," she says, gesturing to the Equalists. "But in particular, she will want to see that."
"The turnstile?" Korra says, following Asami's pointing finger.
She nods, striking a flare to life against the chamber wall. "Let's light the way."
They reach the entrance of the museum when the Arena explodes.
The shockwave blasts over the surface of Yue Bay. Both women flinch as an orange fireball shoots up into the night sky.
"Is there really nothing we can do?" Korra murmurs after finding her feet.
Asami bites her tongue.
"Don't you dare say it," Korra tells her.
Instead, Asami points down to a lone motorboat tied up against the pier.
"Let's find Lin."
The Chief looks between the two young women, soaked through to the bone and wrapped in towels.
"There was a second explosion," she tells them, "under the Arena."
Asami tilts her head. "Under it?"
"There is a gym – Korra would be familiar with it, I imagine," Lin says. "You trained here once, didn't you?"
The Avatar frowns. "Yes, but what -"
"According to plans of the building," Lin interjects, "there is a basement underneath that gym. Figure out what happened and why."
"Chief Beifong!"
Lin turns at the sound of her name. An officer waves frantically from across the plaza. Her eyes narrow. The man has a radio in hand.
Pivoting on her heel, the Chief takes her leave of the present discussion.
"I said I don't understand!" Korra shouts after her.
Lin marches over to the officer. "What is it?"
He presses the radio into her hands. Then, he interlocks his.
She looks at them for a long moment, then up at the man's eyes. His face is sombre.
Lin presses a button on the radio. "Beifong."
"We live in a twilight world."
Lin's eyes widen – and narrow almost in the same instant. She spins around. The two young women are arguing behind the police truck.
"Asami?" Lin hisses.
The voice is insistent. "We live in a twilight world."
She shoos away the officer. "There are no friends at dusk."
"Lin, the Equalists escaped by inverting."
Her nostrils flare. "How? Where?"
"They built turnstiles in the Arena's basement. They rigged it with explosives, then jumped into the past."
Lin puts a hand to her brow and exhales. "Spirits…"
"We couldn't stop it."
"I understand," she says. "What's happened, has happened."
"Oh, not you too!"
Lin blinks, staring down at the radio. "Korra?"
There is nothing but white noise for a long moment. Lin looks back over at the police truck in the meantime. The two young women have vanished.
"It's Asami again. Sorry about that, Lin."
The Chief shakes her head, lifting the radio again. "Where are you both?"
"Where we just came from is more important. Lin, you need to put boots on the ground at Memorial Island A.S.A.P."
Her eyes narrow. "What have you done?"
"Secured a turnstile."
Korra paces around the office, lips pressed as tightly as her arms are folded. Asami looks up at her from a seat in front of a large, document-laden desk.
"Must you?"
"Yes," Korra fires back. "Where is she?"
The door swings open. The Avatar stops in her tracks. Lin arches her brow at her.
"I could feel you pounding the pavement from a mile away."
Korra rolls her eyes. "Well?"
The Chief turns her gaze onto Asami. "You were wearing a fine dress last I saw you."
She shrugs. "I had to leave it in the past."
Lin appraises the Equalist uniforms both of them are wearing, then looks at Korra. "Take a seat. I'd like you to meet someone."
The Chief rolls her eyes when Korra perches herself on the edge of her desk.
Moving aside, a middle-aged woman steps past Lin into the room. Her features are distinctly Fire Nation, sharp cheekbones and small, dark eyes. Her hair is pulled tightly back into a short tail, all but her dark roots dyed copper brown.
"Close the door," she says brusquely.
The woman, wearing a long white coat, walks straight up to the desk between Asami and Korra and sets a tray down on top of it.
On it are two golden coins and a pair of thick rubber gloves.
Korra opens and then closes her mouth, looking from the tray to its bearer and back again. "Um...Hi. I'm -"
The woman holds up her hand. "I know." She looks back at Lin. "Are you sure about this?"
The Chief nods, shutting her office door with a definite click.
"Who is she?" Korra mouths silently at Asami.
"A scientist," the woman answers, catching her.
"No name?"
"No small talk," the scientist says, picking up the rubber gloves.
She walks around to the opposite side of Lin's desk while fitting them on. Afterwards, the woman points to the tray.
"Do you know what these are?" she asks, looking at Korra.
"Yuans."
The woman pinches each coin between finger and thumb, picking both up. "One is moving forwards through time, as we are. The other, is moving backwards."
Korra stands up, unfolding her arms. "It's inverted?"
"Indeed. Can you tell which?"
She looks at Asami, then Lin – who stands at the latter's shoulder. The lines of their mouths are drawn thin. Korra turns back to the scientist.
"No."
The woman sets both coins back down on the tray. Then, she holds her hand over the left coin, cups it and turns her hand over.
The coin rattles, before jumping up into a closed fist.
Korra blinks. "How...how do I know you're not just metalbending?"
Asami holds out her hand to the scientist. The older woman strips off the rubber gloves. Asami slip her hands into them after rolling up her sleeves. Then, she puts a finger on the inverted coin, dragging it over to herself.
The coin jumps onto its edge when Asami lifts her finger. Korra leans back, eyes narrow.
Asami traps it between both index and pointer finger for a moment. When she releases it, the coin starts to spin. Faster and faster, travelling across the table surface as it rotates. It stops when Asami brings the thumb of one hand and forefinger of the other to the coin's edge.
It seems like she is about to make it spin.
"...but it already has," Korra whispers.
Lin sets a hand to her shoulder. "You're getting it."
Korra looks at Asami, who cups the coin in her hand.
"How can it move before you spin it?"
"Remember, what does it mean to be inverted?"
Pressing a fist to her chin, Korra feels the weight of three pairs of eyes on her. "I think you all understand it much better than I do."
"Then don't try and understand it," Lin tells her. "Feel it."
Asami hands her the gloves. "Your turn."
Korra eventually takes them. The snap of elastic as she pulls each one on punctuates the silence.
"You don't have to stare," she tells the three women.
"Sorry," Asami mutters. Opposite her, the scientist does not blink.
Korra sighs, holding her hand out over the tray.
"Don't bend," Asami tells her. "Just...feel it."
"Feel it, huh?"
"Imagine you're still chi-blocked."
The coin, however, remains perfectly still in the shadow of her cupped palm.
"It's inverted," the scientist speaks up. "What does it need to do in order to have fallen?"
"...I would have to drop it."
The older woman nods.
Korra flexes her fingers, nodding to herself.
"Okay..."
The yuan starts to rattle on the tabletop. Korra turns her wrist and closes her hand. The coin jumps into it.
"Whoa."
Asami smiles. "Well done."
"Speaking of," Korra says, opening her hand, "where did this even come from?"
Asami and Lin look at the scientist.
"Your call," the woman says to the latter.
The Chief taps her foot for a long moment. "Korra."
"Yes?"
"Everything you're about to see, everything you've heard and are about to hear...None of it leaves this room. Understand?"
Korra swallows and nods.
"Understand?" Lin says again.
"Yes. I do."
The Chief walks out from between her and Asami, approaching a row of filing cabinets standing against the wall. Extending both hands, Lin pushes aside the heavy cabinets with her bending and gestures towards the wall behind them. A seam appears, cracking the wall from floor to ceiling. Asami gets to her feet, and the scientist straightens up on the other side of the desk.
Korra eyes widen when Lin pulls open the wall like a pair of curtains. Behind it, there is a room.
Lin looks over her shoulder. "Come on."
Korra has no idea where to point her eyes. There are drawers, stacked almost to eye-level and lining opposite walls. A long table takes up the back wall, stretching from corner to corner. It is littered with objects, broken and whole.
"It's an archive," Asami tells her.
Korra turns through a full circle. "An archive for what?"
The scientist pulls open one of the drawers with some effort. "Remnants of the future."
Unlike the table at the back of the room, the contents laid out in front of her seems to be purposefully organised. Korra looks at her hand, still wearing the rubber glove. She hovers it over one of the objects.
It jumps up into her grip.
Korra takes a step back. "Is everything here inverted?"
Lin looks over her shoulder. "Once we knew what to look for, the more material we've found."
"Where are you looking? How did all this become inverted in the first place?"
"About that, we're not certain," the scientist answers. "We do know that these objects started appearing shortly after you stopped Kuvira's attack."
"When the spirit portal opened in the city?"
The scientist nods. "It may be spirit energy, shifting the direction an object flows through time in the future and streaming it into past. Or something else entirely. We don't know yet."
"This looks like Equalist equipment," Korra says, frowning as she glances at Asami. "It's like the grapple gun you had."
"Precisely."
Korra exhales, turning around. "With all due respect, I've been running around tonight with half the truth. If that. Asami said you had answers. What is going on here?"
"There is a war taking place in the future," Lin says. "As far as we can tell, the Equalists are winning."
"Why did you give me such a hard time about the boat?"
Korra looks across Lin's desk at the woman. Both Asami and the scientist have left the office at the Chief's request.
"I had to be certain," she replies.
"Of?"
"That what you were saying was real."
Korra leans back in her seat, arms folded. "The Equalists I told you about? The ones I chased onto the pier and had a fight with? That Equalist was me, Lin. I was this close to coming into contact with myself and wiping the Avatar out of existence."
"Nevertheless, here you are."
"Don't say it," Korra says, jabbing her finger across the desk.
The corners of Lin's mouth twitch. "Listen. I know that tonight doesn't make much sense to you. You're probably feeling overwhelmed by everything you've seen and heard."
"Pretty much."
"You will understand in time, I promise. Right now, just know that I'm very grateful for what you and Asami were able to pull off tonight. We have a turnstile, finally."
"Sounds like a big deal."
Lin sighs. "It is. Instead of blindly following the Equalists' breadcrumb trail, we can control when and how we engage. We can fight back."
Korra is silent for a long moment. "I want to help."
"One night of this madness isn't enough for you?" Lin asks, interlocking her fingers on the desk.
Korra mirrors her, leaning forward. "You're telling me that at some point in the future, the Equalists will harness a technology that threatens the fabric of our existence. I'm the Avatar."
"Yes, you are."
"What was tonight really about, Lin?" Korra says, tilting her head. "There's something you're not telling me."
The woman sits back. "It's going to sound crazy."
"I'm listening."
"You've seen things tonight your eyes probably still don't believe," Lin says. "Are you sure you're ready for one more?"
Korra takes a deep breath. "I am."
A large envelope is pushed in front of her. Korra picks it up, staring across at Lin.
"Open it."
She upends the envelope, shaking out the contents. An aged newspaper clipping falls onto the desk. Taking up most of its real estate is a black & white photograph of the Pro-bending Arena.
The Arena is on fire.
"Lin…?"
"What date does it have?" the woman asks.
Korra's eyes search for it. Then, her jaw goes slack. There it is, printed in solid black ink.
"Tomorrow."