Tenzin, Jinora, and Zero were rushing down the street trying to get to Mako's and Bolin's apartment building as fast as possible, "why didn't the monster come after Zero?" Jinora asked as she ran through the street. Is was odd, Zero hasn't seen anything out of the ordinary since that dream, like the creature wanted to keep Zero busy, but what for?
When coming up to a corner the three saw that the crowd was still out on the sidewalk, "where's Korra?" Jinora asked searching the crowd, "the Avatar and her friends went inside," one of the apartment residence said. Tenzin, Jinora, and Zero looked up to the building wondering what was going on, "how long have they been gone?" Tenzin asked the residence, "they've been in there a couple of hours already," one of them answered, "hours? that's it I'm going in there," Tenzin proclaimed and reached out for the door. However the crowd tried to stop him for when Tenzin opened the door he was met with with a terrifying wall of fire and what looked like a horned monster trying pull him in.
Tenzin screamed from the top of his lungs, but then the crowd pulled him away from the door and slammed it shut, "WHAT WAS THAT!?" Tenzin asked still screaming, "we don't know it's been like that for a while now," a woman answered. Jinora pulled Zero away from the crowd so she can talk to him, "Zero do you think you can make a portal to wherever Korra and the others went?" Zero shrugged his shoulders, he never really made a portal. On purpose anyway. "Well you have to try because something going on. Zero? I saw Charlie," Zero's eyes widen when he heard the name of his clone and Zero put one and two together.
"I'll go distract the crowd while you work on the door," Jinora told him and ran and got the crowds' attention, "excuse me everyone, can you all be kind and turn your sights over here." As Jinora was keeping the crowd busy Zero silently ran up to the door and focused all of his efforts on where Korra and the others might be. Zero concentrated for a about a second before giving the door a try, he pulled the door open and was met with a woman's bathroom with her just barely putting on a towel. Zero quickly shuts the door before the lady freaked out and gave the door another go, "focus," he told himself and then he finally got it right.
The door lead him to the familiar sight of the ran down halls of the science facility, Zero then slowly closes the door so no one can see when he called out to Jinora, "excuse me everyone I'll be right back, just keep looking at this direction," Jinora instructed. Jinora and Tenzin rejoined Zero and then quietly descend into the dark halls, "never thought I'll be back here again," Jinora said to herself. There they stood in the empty halls of the facility and to god knows what lurks in the dark.
Zero coughed some more holding his hand to cover his mouth, "Zero are you alright?" Jinora asked seeing him bent over, Zero nodded his head and moved on.
Korra, Mako, Asami, and Bolin wandered further into the unknown so far they came up to an L-shaped counter with the food that someone left behind rotting away and documents scattered all over. They looked over the counter and saw a trail of blood leading away from the counter and going down into another hallway. There was three ways they could go, they can go back the way they came from, they can go straight ahead, or they can go to the right where the blood trail was leading.
As they were about to make their decision Mako heard a low breathing sound coming from the next hall, "wait, you guys hear that?" Mako asked as he approached the blooded trail, "hear what?" Asami asked not really picking up on the noise. When Mako entered the new hall he saw that the blood trail ended in a bathroom where the sounds were coming from, "it sounds like someone's hurt," he thought out loud. Korra and the others didn't have a good feeling about this, but Mako pressed on.
He slowly turned the handle to open the door, "is anyone there?" the was someone there, but it has no clothes, its hair was falling off like it's rotting away, and its lips and eyelids looked as if they were cut off showing its pure piercing white teeth and eyes. It felt like it was staring right into his soul, even without lips it gave that horrid smile that a skull naturally have. The monster lunged at Mako grabbing hold of him, Mako cried out trying fight off the creature as it tried to bite at him, but Bolin punched the creature in the face sending it back to the floor, and Korra set the whole room on fire.
The wretched creature wailed out in pain as it set a blaze, it tried to run out, but Korra and the others slammed the door shut letting the agonizing cries of the monster go silent. Mako breathed rapidly as how close he was for the monster to take a bite out of his face, "let's not go that way," Korra suggested and went down the hall straight ahead.
Walking down the hall they started to notice these strange brass cylinders littering all over the floor, there were even these strange small holes on the walls and floor. They then came up to a fork in their path and what looked like a man impaled to the wall, along with a woman laying dead on the floor. They were both dressed in white coats and they both looked like they were dead for quite a while, the woman laying on the floor was in the fetal position, seeming she died from blood loss judging from the pool of blood surrounding her, but they gang noticed that there was another recorder in her hand.
Korra picked the device out of the corp's hand and pressed play, "This is Dr. Roslyn: I knew he was touble from the start. The guard that shot himself wasn't the first, we've been told to keep quiet by the higher ups as to not cause panic amoungst the staff. A few staff had already fell victim to Subject: Charlie's mind tricks, about twelve, including the guard, and they all had some sorta connection with the subject. I always figured that Subject: Charlie was the apple that didn't fell far from the tree, just like the Subject: zero he instantly has trouble calming down. I tried to ask questions for his psych evaluation, but at times will give me vague answers, or give me one worded answers, until he became completely silent."
She then took a moment to draw in a quick breath and then continued speaking, "I then became impatient and tried to get Charlie to respond, and that's where I made a critical error. I shouted at him and slammed my fist on the table, I must of've agitated him because he threw me to the wall. With his hands. Subject: Charlie is surprising strong, I received a few broken ribs and a fractured arm just by being thrown to the wall. I-"
She was then interrupted by the familiar sound of sirens going off in the back ground, "What? what's going on?" she asked growing on edge and then another voice was heard to answer her, propbably the man who was impaled to the wall. "Subject: zero's lose Dr! He's killing everyone!" he said in a panic, "WHAT?! no it that can't happen. There's no way- AAAHH!" she cried before she can finish, "oh god I'm bleeding, John?- oh no John." She cried seeing that the one of her colleagues was dead with a piece of a pipe going through his chest, she cried and cried until she finally fell silent.
The recorders seemed to becoming more and more gruesome as they were about to choose a new path that started to noticed that it became increasingly harder to see as the dark made itself more and more present. They've decided to go down right walking down further and further, the hall behind them disappeared in the shadow, they started to feel more wind blowing like the walls were beginning to open up, the floor started to feel softer for some reason along with the walls, and there was a foul odor in the air.
The stench grew stronger as they proceeded deeper and the ground started become moist, "what's up with this floor?" Bolin complained and Korra and Mako snapped there fingers to make a torch from their hands and what they saw made them want to hurl. Nearly covering every surface around them was human flesh and skin. Both the sight and smell was completely grotesque as fleshy tendrils slowly grew grabbing hold of anything it came across and before the gang knew it they were in a large cavern with walls that were made out of materials that used to be human.
They soon heard grunting and smashing sounds coming not too far where they're were at, they looked out in the distance and soon they finally saw Charlie trying to fight of the monster from earlier. Charlie ducked and dodged avoiding the giant's powerful arms until it grabbed hold of him by his foot and threw him across the room. Crashing into a wall that is yet to be covered Charlie fell back down to the floor and didn't get back up, Korra noticed that Charlie is in a fight for his life, and he was losing.
Korra without a second thought launched herself forward by bending the ground to throw her into the air and kicked the creature in the face sending it to the ground. Before it could get back up Bolin slammed a large boulder on top of the monster smashing it, the monster quickly threw the rock off itself and obviously mad, "ENOUGH!.." it roared then shot right towards the group. Before Bolin could react he was slammed into the wall of flesh, Mako jumped at the monster trying land a punch, but it got out of the way with lighting reflects.
Bolin got back up and tried to put the monster off balance by slamming into his left leg, but the creature kicked him away, Mako flew at the giant with a flaming fist however it stopped Mako in midair by grabbing his fist with its own hand. The monster then dangled Mako in the air and punched him across the room, Bolin then launched himself punching the monster in the face several times before it stopped Bolin in the air and slammed him to the floor.
The creature stood over Bolin who was now immobile, he was about to stomp on him until he was hit in the head by a small rock, unfazed by the pethetic attempt to hurt him the monster looked down and saw Asami holding another rock in her hand. It then grabbed hold of her and pressed her against the wall and was soon stuck before it can move on he was struck with a lighting bolt by Mako. The monster was starting to get annoyed so it pulled in Mako towards him at high speeds and stuck its fist out where Mako's face impacted.
Korra ran and picked up Charlie now seeing that his entire jacket has turned red, and now with a large wound starting at the corner of his left eye, through his eye brow, and traveling across his scalp to the back of his head. Korra tried to shake Charlie awake for if he passed out he will die, "Charlie don't fall asleep," Charlie stirred awake hearing her voice, "how do you know my name?" Charlie asked weakly. Korra noticed that the wound on his head wasn't healing on its own now realizing the real danger the monster possesses.
Korra lifted Charlie off the ground and tried to run off to rescue him, but the monster now stood in her way now that Mako and Bolin were unconscious and Asami now entwined to the wall, "KORRA GET OUT OF HERE!" she cried out struggling to free herself. However the monster was blocking the only exit, she had to fight.
Korra laid Charlie back down and faced off the creature, "I'm not letting hurt him!" Korra sternly addressed, but monster could care less so it charged onward and Korra charged towards him. Right when they were about to collide Korra bended the air pushing the monster back. However the monster with its long arms grabbed hold of Korra's arm dragging her with it, as it land on its back it flung Korra to the wall. Korra staggered as she tried to get back up, but before she can gather her bearings she was slammed to the ground without being touched.
Korra flew all over the room by monster's telekintic ability, smashing against every surface in the area until she all strength had left her. Her arms and legs fell limp, the monster just let her hover in the middle of the room, and decided to just off Korra. Korra began feeling presure around her neck and found it harder to breath now, the monster was strangling Korra just like how Zero did with the Equalist back at the pier.
Korra's vision began to fade from the lack of oxygen unable to travel to her brain and soon the monster's twisted face will be the last thing she sees, until. The monster was sent flying with great force and Korra was free from his grasp, Korra took in deep breaths and saw that Zero was the one to rescue her along with Tenzin and Jinora helping Charlie and the rest of the gang.
The monster for once was in a state of fear at the presences of Zero, it tried fighting back, but Zero is far powerful than it was. Zero sent the monster back against the wall, binding it to the fleshy surface, Zero looked over the disfigured abomination angry that it tried to harm one of his children, and for once everyone saw the dark energy the recorders talked about.
Zero reached out with one hand glowing a dark purple color, it electrified the air around it, seemingly killing the flesh on the walls, and Zero's hand made contact with the monster's upside down face it screamed in agony. The monster screamed from the top of its lungs the pain unbearable, but Zero whispered to it, "just let go. The pain is only in your head," Monster took heed of Zero's words and suddenly the pain vanished, "I forgive you and I am so sorry," Zero added and the monster repeated the words back to him, seemingly sorry for what it caused.
Soon the monster died and the reality of the world began to fade, everyone stood where they're at not sure whate to do as the room turned dark, but soon all of a sudden a bright light came from a far showing a way back. Without hesitation everyone followed the light, they didn't say a single word only the sounds of the footsteps filled the air. When they finally reached the end everyone was back to their reality, standing right outside of the entrance of the apartment building.
"We're finally back," Mako stated seeing the blue skys and building of the city he calls home, "I never thought I'll be glad to see this place again," Bolin spoke hugging the sidewalk. Everyone was relieved to be back home, but they almost forgot about the building's residences, "you're back, is it safe to go back in?" one lady in the crowd asked, "... yup, it's all safe now," Tenzin stated as the whole gang hid Charlie right behind their backs.
As the last person filed back inside the apartment complex Zero then came up to Charlie standing with his back straight while Charlie seemed like he was a bit skittish just like child getting in trouble or maybe perhaps it was the first time seeing the sun. However Zero wasn't angry, he was relieved that Charlie was alright, Zero looked at his wound seeing that the bleeding has stopped, "Charlie... What I am going to do with you," Zero spoke concernedly.
The group welcomed Charlie to Republic City and he was glad to breath the fresh air for once, "c'mon let's go hom-," Korra was about to say goodbye to her friends, but then Zero coughed one more time, but this time he coughed up blood. Zero crumbled to the ground unconscious, "ZERO!" Jinora cried out picking him up off the ground, "we have get him back to the temple, Korra get on Naga and don't stop," Tenzin ordered Korra and without question Korra rode off.