-Animal—

Bolin's hand was in pain that day. He flexed his fingers around trying to dissipate the pain but it didn't really do anything.

Bolin had a new mission. His boss's word was law. Even if Lin had become insignificant to the police department, Bolin still respected her authority more than anyone else's. He was standing in Lin's living room when she briefed him. Before he arrived, Lin was fiddling with the vial of Clasma. It told her nothing. She would turn it upside down and watch it slowly flow from one end to the other.

Oni was able to get these vials. She needed to find Oni. Oni was behind this somehow.

"I need you to switch tracks, Bolin. I need you to look into something else now, something more important," Lin had said. Bolin was confused, but knowing Lin, this had to be some extension of the mission he had been given previously. She continued. "The few people we have been able to apprehend, the gangsters involved in these illegal exchanges and violent warfare, have apparently told our metalbenders nothing useful. I am going to try and speak with them since I haven't gotten the chance to, but apparently there's not a single helpful lead to direct us to the source of this chaos. Maybe we need to try something else, okay?"

"Anything you want, chief."

Lin didn't feel right being called chief by Bolin, but at the same time she felt flattered. She knew he was doing it to make her feel important. She respected Bolin for doing this. It made her feel like her old self again. However, she decided it was not necessary to tell him about the sample she had been given. She needed to find out more, and if she controlled the situation and those who knew about what she had in her possession, everything would go a lot more smoothly. "I need you to find out some information about an assassin. She thinks she is some kind of vigilante but she is just causing problems. She goes by the alias Oni, and she has been involved in massacring several gang meetings. Bolin, I want this to coincide with your current investigation. They go hand in hand. Whatever you can bring me about either case, that would be the most helpful."

"You got it. So are you saying this is all connected in some way?" Bolin asked. He started shaking his hand again. It was acting up.

"I believe so. This assassin Oni has something to do with whatever the mobs are after. Whatever drug the fiends have been trying to get their hands on as well. She may know something."

"Did you have some kind of run-in with her?" Bolin asked.

"We crossed paths. I've heard about her. She isn't just doing this for fun. She has reasons. I want to find out those reasons."

"It'll be no problem, Chief. I know just the source to speak with." He began to leave.

"Bolin, what is wrong with your hand?" Lin asked.

"Just cramped I guess. I was practicing my metalbending again. Not really much luck, but my hand started hurting really quickly this time. So that's something right?" Bolin asked optimistically.

"That is something, but that's not good, nor is it normal," Lin sighed. "Maybe you should hold off on the metalbending just until this case is out of the way."

"Nah, not happening. I almost got it! You'll see," he said, smiled, and left.

Bolin's car gave a loud thud as it screeched to a halt on Pratt Street. The two men were out front of the corner store as usual, and they gave Bolin dirty looks as he walked by. One of them had developed nasty sores on his face. The gray sky reached down toward Bolin with its foggy hands. He briskly walked to the old warehouse and found Animal lying flat on her desk, looking straight up.

"What a pleasant surprise, the boy who sought the Elixer," she said. She turned her head toward Bolin.

"Hello, uhm, Animal, ma'am."

Animal sat up. She looked as if she could have been high. Her eyes were barely open. Bolin thought she would fall asleep. She lazily fixed her attention on him. Despite her appearance, Bolin did not see any evidence of drug abuse in the huge warehouse room. No pipes, no bongs, no drugs. Maybe this was just the way this girl was? Was she just here because of the way she acted? She was some kind of goddess above the drugs and among the fiends? That was her place. Guidance for these lost souls.

"Hmph, I've seen his face, you know. He looks mad. He is mad at everything. The whole world. I think he is going to come back soon. You want to know a secret? I think he will return."

"Who?" asked Bolin.

"He may as well be an avatar. His anger will control him. He will become a different person. I do not know his name. Not at the moment, but give me a second and I may summon the memory. Right now, I only see his face. So I cannot tell you who he is, but he is mad…"

Bolin had no time for this crazy girl's delusions. "I am looking for Oni."

"Aren't we all," Animal replied. "The mother seeks her as well. She might as well be dead."

"No I've seen her. She is in Republic City!"

"Oni has evolved. She has become a different body. Many think this new body is the bringer of death. Oni, her original form brought peace. Balance. The new Oni, they think she is changing things. Throwing us into imbalance. But I believe differently. I believe this Oni will finally end what should have ended centuries ago heh, haha." Animal began to laugh hysterically. Bolin rolled his eyes. This was beginning to sound like Avatar stuff.

"Come on, Animal. I know you know something, can't you stop your crazy bantering and just tell me so I can do something about it?"

"What is the point, human?" Animal sounded possessed now. The second voice overlaid over hers again. "You can't do anything. You can't! Anything you do will mean nothing! The world has been given its fate. If Oni cannot stop it there is nothing anyone like you can do about it. It is all up to her!"

"Then tell me how I can find her so I will make sure she knows!"

"Oh…she knows, my friend. She knows full and well." Two voices speaking at the same time, but he only heard it for a second. "Whether she will do something to stop it isn't up to you. If you want to find out the gravity of this situation, I suggest you visit an old friend of mine. What you are dealing with goes beyond this physical world. He will show you what I mean. He will answer all your questions. He resides in a room. Alone. Waiting. The room 1407. 1271. Decatur. Visit him if you want the answers, and get out of my hair, please," Animal smiled.

Bolin realized he wasn't getting anything more out of Animal. She had lost her mind. Whatever drugs she was hiding, they may have been ruining her. But Bolin thought this could have been the work of something other than drugs. Some higher power working its way into this room. It could very well be that Animal was like an antenna for spiritual activity. He wrote down the address.

"He will know about Oni?"

"The one who calls herself Oni has been pressed with the burden of this planet, but in reality, we all have Oni within us. Oni guides us. Oni is the only way we can survive. Our savior."

Bolin refused to listen to this girl's crazy babbling any longer. He returned to his car and was happy when his door remained attached as he opened it. He sat in the driver's seat and took a breath. He knew there was something at the address Animal had given him. He knew there was some truth hidden in this crazy talk.

Oni, a concept. A concept of some value. Someone in the city was just taking on the alias, trying to show others what this value was? Someone named Oni existed, and was some kind of savior. Something has caused her to flee to the shadows.

He looked at his notes. Bolin did not want to visit this address written. Not yet. He wanted to make sure he wasn't walking to his own death when he got kind of research needed to be done. Whatever waited for him in that room, he didn't know if he was ready to face it.