-Graft's Enterprise—
The following day was dark. Menacing clouds passed over Republic City. The darkness seemed to turn gradually to grayness as Korra approached Pratt Street.
Korra had hard time getting there. She felt followed. She would hear steps as she ran, but turn around to find no one. At one point she thought she saw a blur of green.
Daya. Daya had not visited for several days. Korra knew she was almost there. She almost had this figured out. At least, she hoped that she did.
She arrived at Animal's domain. Animal sat in her chair, looking down at the ground. Korra had always wondered how Animal got to this point. She never witnessed any signs of drug use. Come to think of it, Korra never really knew what kinds of drugs passed through these parts. Did anyone here even do them? Korra had been through Pratt Streets using various routes and not once did she witness a drug deal or drug use.
"Well, if it isn't my friend the great Oni." Animal looked up. Her eyes were demonic.
"Animal. I need to ask you something."
"Is this finally the right question, Oni?"
"Tell me about Graft."
"What makes you think I know anything?" Korra showed her Graft's paper with 'Animal' written all over it.
"His scratch paper."
"Where did you find such a wonderful document?"
"Graft has a file, but it told me very little. I think you can fill in those gaps."
Animal smiled, stood, and rubbed her head. "Hmm, let me see. Graft. Yes, I know a thing or two about Graft. What an interesting person, my good friend Graft. If you ever get the chance to meet him in person it truly is an experience. His mind is all over the place. There is one thing that is constant, though: his work. His work, his discovery, that is his life force. Nothing keeps him alive like his work. At one point in his life, I wouldn't believe that was true. But now, I see it is.
"Graft, believe it or not, had a friend. A very close friend that shared a passion for the work that Graft was doing. To learn the mysteries behind bending. Such a noble effort, and they worked tirelessly to solve these mysteries. Let me see if I can remember. They never worked in one place, but a very peculiar thing happened at their lab near the Si Wong Desert. Excavating, they found remains of some ancient species. Thousands of remains. Fossils. They determined these fossils to belong to a race that existed before humans. Some way or another they ended and a new one was placed on the planet.
"So our friends, Graft and Solomon, had discovered an ancient race. Our predecessors can tell us interesting things about ourselves, Oni. These fossils had long crystal-like structures protruding from them. But this isn't what killed the creature, these crystals were attached to the bone, part of the creature's structure itself. Some of them glowed green. Solomon extracted a green substance, and behold, we had Clasma.
"The crystals on these fossils could be used to draw Clasma from anything by impalement. It was tangible cosmic energy. Graft and Solomon knew very little about energy. The concept was for the spiritual. Little scientific research existed about it. They didn't know the danger in what they were doing. Simple animal testing told them that this substance had a range of effects, but nothing told them it had an effect on bending. Animals failed several memory tests and showed drastic differences in behavior.
"Graft was determined, and ethical boundaries were pushed when he brought in a human for testing. Fully willing, the human chose to be part of the experiment. A nonbender, they injected a sample of this Clasma. The effects were instantaneous. The human became an earthbender. Something changed in Graft when he saw this. Solomon changed as well, but it was for different reasons. The human test subject soon lost control of himself. His memories were replaced by others so he had forgotten who he was or how he'd gotten there. He saw everything as a threat, and began earthbending, trying to kill Solomon and Graft. Solomon was pained by what he saw, but Graft had no concern. He simply shot the subject and labeled the test as a failure. Graft believed he could fix it. He returned to the lab to see if he could render the substance.
"Graft wanted to bring this discovery to the city. Mass produce it. Give the population control over who bends. He arranged more tests. Gathered more human subjects and kept them in scattered labs. The substance made them forget how they got there so they wouldn't cause trouble. Graft saw a new era. He moved forward with the project behind Solomon's back. Graft knew he needed support, and so he released the Clasma in Republic City. It would serve both as human testing and to generate demand for his services. Only he knew the way to fix the problems that Clasma caused.
"Solomon reacted differently. After witnessing the death of the human test subject, Solomon was overcome with nightmares. Voices in the night speaking of awful things and showing him horrible scenes. Solomon realized that this substance was not meant for humans. This belonged to the Spirit World, and its existence in this world created instability. Solomon was not aware of Graft's actions until one day. He planned to end the experiment, completely silence all of the labs and destroy all the Clasma. But he was too late. The Clasma had already been unleashed.
"Graft saw Solomon as a threat. Graft envisioned a utopia. He believed that this discovery needed to be in the hands of the people. It was the only way to 'advance civilization'. To bring us into a new era. To give the people what they wanted most, above everything else. But Solomon opposed him. Graft's work became more important, and he murdered Solomon and came to Republic City."
"So," Korra said, "Solomon's dead, then. Graft killed his only friend."
"It is interesting isn't it?" Animal said. "I can hear him. Solomon. He cries for answers. He weeps over the state of our race, a race that would choose power over friendship. That embraces merciless advancement over any meaningful relationship. Solomon discovered Graft's plan, and simply waited for him to complete the deed. He didn't want to believe it was true. Solomon died in hatred, hatred for Graft, for himself, and for the whole human race."
Korra made several notes about this. Animal knew so much. "Animal, how do you know all of this?"
Animal laughed to herself. "Animal is not my name, you know? Animal was the name of an experiment. There were thousands of them. I was a test subject in one named Animal. It was a failed experiment, but now I can hear voices in the air and I have memories of things that I shouldn't have.
"All of Pratt Street is failed experiments. We are the test subjects of each installment of Clasma. Each new version, we get to be Graft's unwilling lab rats. You see people who can't walk, who don't remember their names, who take names like Reaper, Star, they are names of experiments. Graft has been unleashing his Clasma onto us for years each time he re-renders it differently. His latest batch was a success, though. Steel is proof of that. Pig was the antithesis, the failure, but people purposely blind themselves when it came to him. Many thought Steel was cured, but he had just adopted someone else's identity. People call us drug lords and fiends but we are just people who have lost their minds because of Graft's boundless mission to create benders. To achieve power. We suffered because of it. We are shunned, but no one knows this, not even the subjects themselves. Graft is evil incarnate, and he must die, Oni."
Korra thought she was talking to Daya. Solomon had expressed similar beliefs about the human race. He lost all hope for it, but Korra hadn't. Her mind then went racing over what this all meant. She needed a simple goal now. She couldn't comprehend all of this.
"Mount Ozai. What is there?"
"Graft has a lab on Mount Ozai. What is contained within that lab is dangerous."
It was getting dark. Korra needed to meet Asami soon.
Mount Ozai was not far. Korra had to see what was there. Korra needed physical proof. She would go to Mount Ozai then make it back to meet with Asami.
Korra left Animal. Before going to Mount Ozai, she told Tenzin about what she heard and delivered the file, with her recent discoveries, to Lin with a note informing her to go to Mount Ozai as well.