-Qu's Journal—

They opened the folder to find various transcriptions, photos, reports, and journal entries. Some of them by Qu, and some by Graft himself.

"Where do we start with this?" Korra asked.

A few pictures showed two men, one with black hair and one with white hair. It was a little blurry.

"That is Graft on the left," Asami pointed out. "The guy with the black hair. I've met him. I don't know who that guy on the right is."

So that was Graft. "They look like friends or something," Korra said.

"I find it hard to believe Graft has friends for some reason. He is so isolated."

They looked through more photos. One was a lab, nothing unusual. One was a mountain, maybe where one of the labs was located. "Mount Ozai. That really steep one outside the city that no one ever wants to drive on. That isn't far from here."

An interesting document was a police report with Graft's name on it. "What is this for?" Korra asked. It didn't specifically state what he did, just that he had committed a crime.

They dug deeper. Eventually the pictures and records weren't helping because no labels were associated with them, so they decided to go through the journal entries. Graft's entries were a mess of chicken scratch and illegible equations and handwriting. Things were written horizontally, then overwritten sideways so there was documentation in all directions. Korra and Asami tried to decipher it for some time. They made out some of his equations, the word "Clasma" was there somewhere they thought, "fossil" was definitely in there, and the name "Solomon." On one page there were several paragraphs that they could read, but only a few facts about a human's blood composition. They wanted to give up.

"Ugh, what is with this guy? He just chicken scratches everything! I can't make out a single thing," Asami yelled.

"It looks like he knows what Clasma is. It says it here a couple of times. It looks urgent."

"What about the things you stole from Qu? You think we'll be able to trust it?"

"Not sure, he is a man of lies. I wouldn't be so quick to believe what he writes, but it can't hurt to read it. Maybe it will point us in some kind of direction."

Below is a summary of the entries they perused.

Chief Qu:

'The light of the world. The bringer of peace. The one who will set the path to a new era.

Graft.

I think it is necessary to document how this whole project started.

Graft got to where he is because of sabotage. Abandoning his past, destroying relationships, burning any connection to anything but his work. That is what makes a genius, a man who brings change. What kind of change?

I believe it is a good change. No one may stand by me when I say that people like Graft can move the world forward. People who forsake everything they have for the things they do. I know no one would support me, but they don't know what I have to deal with. If they don't know, I can bring them a better society, but we can only do it if they leave us alone.

Graft's past isn't something I should make known to our citizens. It can be taken the wrong way. Graft was born in Ba Sing Sei to a poor family. He told me how fascinated he was by bending ever since he was a child and witnessed someone earthbending. He wanted to know its secrets.

Graft studied Biology, but it taught him nothing. What he wanted to know was what allowed the human body to form a telekinetic connection to an element. Which bodily processes or organs allowed a human to be able to create fire or lift a rock? Graft expressed his love for discovering the truth behind these mysterious abilities some humans have had for centuries.

Graft, like most humans, sought companionship in his quest, and also in his life. At a young age, Graft befriended a man named Solomon Haile. They shared a similar drive. Nothing could pull them away from their work. Like lovers, they spent every day together.

Graft's movement across the earth was very frequent and sporadic. He and Solomon didn't spend all of these travels together. Their work alternated between lab work and excavating ancient ruins. That is what Graft said. For years he just traveled the Earth until he made his breakthrough discovery: The Clasma.

He called it his discovery, but this seems unreliable. When he explained something to me, an explanation he had given me earlier, details would change. His stories were never consistent, so it is difficult to believe this man.

He informed me that Solomon did not have anything to do with this project. Solomon abandoned it, but Graft wanted to bring it to society. He knew it was the key to our utopia, and I believed him.

He told me that the Clasma was already in the hands of the public. The gangsters. The fiends. I was going to have him killed, but I decided against it, and here is why. Graft told me what this Clasma could do, but he needed further testing. Human testing. Worthless bodies and criminals could not have been better test subjects, Graft said. They would show him what Clasma was good and the Clasma that tore the mind apart.

I was skeptical, but it soon made sense. Graft said he would take responsibility for anything that went wrong, because he knew nothing would go wrong. Anything that seemed bad could only help the power of those in charge. The Clasma would produce massacres, and the city's benefactors would be looked to, depended on, loved, when these benefactors offered their citizens protection. I would say we were putting out the fire we started, but I didn't start this. The city was already going to shit, who would tell its citizens the poison that has been released?

Graft promised me he would stop it, but he needed resources, he needed Clasma, he needed people. He told me the benefactors could take it. The state that this city was heading toward, the people would give up everything for people who made them believe they could save it. Graft's crisis that he brought about gave me the opportunity to lead this city into the new world.'

Korra put is journal down. She looked at the last document. The paper had scribbles all over it. Graft's scribbles. It was legible, a single word, written over and over.

Animal.

"So Graft caused this mess? The Clasma was released because of him?" Asami asked.

"He was using these people to see how it worked on humans. Unethical boundaries, and Qu let it happen. Graft set the city on fire, and all Qu saw was an opportunity to make himself a king by saying he could save everyone." Korra picked up the picture of Graft and the unknown man. Based on Qu's account, she inferred the other man with white hair to be Solomon. "And Solomon, why does everything have his "S" on it? Qu said he didn't believe Graft when he told him the Clasma was his discovery. This guy, Solomon, had something to do with it as well. I wonder what happened to him."

"We need to find him. He can tell us everything about Graft. Everything we need to know so we can get him," Asami said sinisterly.

Korra looked at her. "Asami, what are you thinking about?"

"Graft is evil, and he is the one in control of our city. No one else is going to try and stop this because no one knows what is happening. Graft needs to go down."

Korra knew Asami was right. Graft was bad news, and she even thought he had something to do with the anger in the Spirit World. Things were all connected. But she needed more. She had to know about Solomon, about where he is and what happened to him.

Animal. Korra knew Animal would know. Korra needed to see her. "Asami, you're right. We need to do something about this. There is something I need to do first. Someone I need to see. Give me 24 hours, okay? I'll meet you at your house in 24 hours and we can come up with…something."

"Okay, what are you going to do?"

"I'm not sure, but it can only help us now. It might be dangerous. Please just do this for me."

Asami nodded in agreement and stood to leave.

"Thanks, Asami." Asami smiled, and Korra returned it. They stared awkwardly at each other for a few seconds. Korra tried as hard as she could to stop any blood from rushing to her face.

Asami didn't speak, but she didn't want to. She wanted to be closer to Korra. She wanted Korra's warmth as she believed it would heal everything. As if it would shine light on the darkness. Asami's mind produced a storm of clashing emotions: a confusion over her strong feelings to be embraced and kissed by Korra. She recognized this feeling. She never felt this for any friend, it always for someone who was more than that.

At that moment, Asami wanted nothing more than to lean forward and erase the gap between her and Korra's lips, but she didn't. Something bad was happening and the times might soon get dark. The city needed Korra, and they needed her at her best. Asami didn't want to jeopardize any of that by doing something impulsive.

She had never known that something like this could exist between two…women.

"Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow night then," Asami said, smiled, and turned around to leave.

"Asami…how did you find me here?"

Asami didn't answer right away. She looked confused. "I thought you told me you lived here."

"I don't think I ever told you that."

Asami tried to remember and realized Korra had never told her, at least not in person. Asami heard Korra's voice that day, calling to her, as if it were through the wind or something. She felt it, and she followed it to Korra.

Korra didn't know what she was feeling, whether or not she was glad nothing happened between them that evening. Asami said she wasn't sure how she knew, and proceeded to leave. Korra got together all of her stuff, which wasn't very much, and said goodbye to her trashed room to visit Animal.

She wouldn't return here, and in the span of 24 hours between that night and the next, a lot was going to happen.