/*Another quick, chill one then things are going to get intense. Thanks for reading!*/

-O-Ren—

That night, Mako returned to his attic of a home with a stabbing pain in his head. He thought he had taken a beating from a group of people, but all he could remember was the mad fiend. His memory was fuzzy. He remembered there was a bright flash and he was thrown on the ground. He was almost positive no one intervened in the brawl. It was just him there, and the fiend. But why didn't it seem like that was true? Why did he feel like someone else was there too?

Mako noticed a small cut on his arm. The size was not big, but it was rather deep. He didn't notice it until he got home . It must have been some kind of blade, but it wasn't smooth at all. He felt like the cut had made him sick, like the blade had been infected. He hoped that he didn't get infected with Clasma.

He didn't know any new bending, but he found firebending was more difficult than usual. He attributed this to his weakened state. He was tired.

Mako hadn't seen O-Ren since the day after the incident at Central Station. Mako had explained what the man said, that the stuff, Clasma, gives people the power to bend, but it also drives people crazy. That was all Mako told O-Ren, but he knew there was more, and he knew it had to do with Graft. Mako had seen the word, Clasma, written in a file during his time at Graft's office. The word was a hybrid of Chi and plasma, since the liquid substance took on a plasma state of matter.

Mako didn't want to tell O-Ren this because he wasn't sure if Mako's omission of revealing this information earlier was a mistake. He was ashamed with himself. O-Ren was always honest with Mako. O-Ren never felt ashamed about his past, about his struggling family and drinking problem. About his origins.

O-Ren was raised by a foster family because he was given up at birth. His foster dad was an engineer at the Cabbage Corp. and worked tirelessly to support his wife and O-Ren. O-Ren admitted his failures to Mako. He was a bad seed. He was always causing trouble. He loved his parents and respected them, but he spent his days robbing, drinking, drugging, shooting, and vandalizing. Much of this was made easier due to the fact that O-Ren quickly learned to metalbend. He left behind his old name and adopted O-Ren. Although he loved his father, he knew it wasn't his real one. He was just an important person to O-Ren. He felt he had no paternal guide.

In addition to this, O-Ren has had a bipolar disorder since the day he was born. He expressed erratic changes in his personality when he was younger. Apparently, drugs helped neutralize this and he has been very stable since his childhood. O-Ren eventually came across Lin's path while she was still Chief of Police, and she discovered O-Ren's mastery in metalbending. She had him trained rigorously and he shaped up over time. Desiring to redeem himself, O-Ren joined the police force. He admired Lin's leadership.

After Amon's war and Graft's arrival, O-Ren couldn't bear to continue his work. He began losing motivation and turned to his older ways when Qu became chief. He hated this the most. Qu's leadership. The way he shunned Lin. And, above all, O-Ren started to feel sick again. After years of improvement, his mind lost some of its stability and caused him to plunge until he was thrown on the street. O-Ren has hated Graft and Qu since their installment in Republic City. He attributes his mental instability issues to their corruption.

Mako wanted to find O-Ren. He hadn't seen him at the plant the few times Mako had gone in to work. Mako would have to bus to his place, but he really didn't feel like moving.

He didn't have to. Mako heard his door open and close. O-Ren stood before him with his sleepless-looking face. "Been a while," he said.

"Yeah," Mako said. "How've you been?"

"You all right, man? Things going okay and all? You seemed upset last time we talked."

"Yeah, I guess I'm just a little disturbed with the things going on. Like this whole Clasma thing, man…"

O-Ren picked up some ornaments laying around Mako's room and examined them. "Blue Moon Festival. That is where these are from?"

"Yeah, uhm, I got them for this girl I was seeing a while back, but she stopped coming around so I never gave them to her. Just a random girl."

"You don't seem to have much luck with girls, Mako."

"I guess not. O-Ren what are you doing here? I'm just curious."

"Mako, you don't look good. What happened to you?"

"I got jumped today."

"Was it a psycho-fiend?"

"Yeah. I'll be fine."

"Mako, I wanted to ask about that place where you used to work. When you worked for Graft. Where was it?"

"Up in the mountains. I got a ride every day from this lady that worked there too or something I don't really remember."

"Do you know how you'd get there?"

"I don't remember. I was always asleep on the way there, plus I was a kid." Mako said. "Why?"

"I've been thinking. If we could find that place where you worked, maybe something is there. Like a forgotten file or something. Anything we can use to learn more about Graft."

"There isn't anything there."

O-Ren yelled and threw Mako's ornament on the ground, breaking it. Mako got pissed. "Look," O-Ren said, "Graft's just running this thing and what the hell are you doing? Just sitting here like a lazy bitch. No one is doing anything!"

"What do you want me to do, O-Ren? Vandalism? We going to write a few more threats on billboards? Or what, just roll up to Graft's office and kill him?"

"If we have to, then yes."

"You're crazy, O-Ren. What will that even prove? Graft hasn't killed anyone. It would look pretty bad on us if we killed someone everyone believes is the savior, right?"

"Then that is why we need to go to his old lab, to get proof. Proof that he did something horrible. No one just comes to this city and gets permission to shut everything down. It isn't natural. He did something, made some kind of deal and got big. If we can expose him we can end this mess."

O-Ren was starting to make sense to Mako. Graft was shady business. The government was on a tight rope working with him, Mako knew it. He thought for sure if they looked hard enough, they would find something.

"Gah," O-Ren yelled. "You know what f #% it. Screw you, Mako. Enjoy your corrupted world. You know, it doesn't take some god to try and do what is right."

"O-Ren wait," Mako yelled. O-Ren had already shut the door.

"What in the hell, man," Mako said to himself. O-Ren was acting very diferent.

Mako decided that the next day he would do some research as well as try to remember how to get to Graft's old lab. Mako didn't want to see O-Ren again until he was sure he could find the lab. He knew it was somewhere in the mountains that surrounded Republic City. He wrote down several landmarks he remembered seeing as a kid, and tried to get a general idea of which direction.

West...he thought. "Let's see, to the West. What are those mountains? We got Finn Mountain, Black Platypus Bear, and…Mount Ozai."