-The Avatars-
"Asami…" Korra whispered.
"It's him," Asami said quietly, she repeated it again, her voice rising, "It's him. He's here now. He killed him!"
At that moment, Graft began to levitate. The gang saw that someone stood behind him and was holding him up in the air. The man who had murdered Graft moved Graft's corpse aside to reveal his pale white face and white hair. Graft was put on the ground.
The murderer cracked his neck several times, then looked at Korra and the gang.
"Hello," he said calmly, slyly smiling. Asami sounded like she was panicking. Sydney ran from Bolin to Asami, attempting to calm her. The murderer watched them, then bent down to fold Graft's hands over his chest. Just like Sen's.
"Oh," he spoke, "I am terribly sorry for your friend. As you can see, Graft will no longer be a problem to any of you. I've made sure of that. As for Asami, well, she will probably lose whatever memory of herself she ever had unless the Clasma he injected in her is drained. It is useless at this point, though. Now that I am here."
Lin stepped forward and drew her sword. "Who are you!"
"So quick for answers are we? I would have liked a thank you. You came here to do what I have just done for you, correct? Do you plan to arrest me? Because if so, then you would have to arrest yourself. Never mind. You can just think of me as your liberator."
Korra felt the strong wave of cosmic energy in this room. It surrounded this man.
The man wore a long white coat. The handle of a sword barely showed itself from within his coat. His bright white hair was slicked back. He looked down at Graft. "My poor friend. Lost in your quest for power, just like the rest of this world. I always asked myself how you fell to this level. But then I discovered that everyone is on that level. Everyone believes the same things as you. It was I who was different in believing that killing for the sake of advancing was wrong. I was the anomaly. I needed to die for, you see, someone like me who had morals cannot live in a world of corruption and violence, a world with people who would give up everything for their bending, for their power. You did belong, and I admit that. But this world is not yours. It does not belong to these people, no matter how much power they have. You've been reckoning with higher powers that have finally come to take back what is theirs." He looked up and Korra saw the green tint in his eyes.
"That is what mother has told us," he said to Korra. She suddenly recognized him.
"Solomon." She saw the scar across his face where he had been shot.
"In the flesh!"
"How is that possible? You were killed by Graft." Mako asked.
"That remains true. I was killed by my former friend. This poor lifeless body. My friend who one day sunk to the level of the rest of the human race and decided our friendship was not as important as his work. His work that threatened to throw everything off-balance. But that didn't matter to him, as long as he became the world's savior. The world's hero. A god. Graft was the sadly true embodiment of the evil present in this human race. Don't take it from me, though. When I died, I found myself in the Spirit World, and the corruption that goes on in this world directly affects the Spirit World as well. Normally it is not noticeable, but the discovery of Clasma has affected it worse than anything in history. Why this is: Clasma exists in everyone and is the connection of each person with the Spirit World. So when you mingle with it, you are directly contaminating the channel of energy between the physical world and the other world." Solomon's hands clenched. "I died drowned in hatred for my own friend who was beyond driven to the point where he would murder his own friend. He did not deserve happiness. I thought it was only him, but a spirit showed me it was all of humanity. Man is born and strives to achieve power no matter the cost. This is all that is important to them. They have forgotten the importance of life. The importance of human relationships, and they have lost their respect for the planet and the Spirits. Their own creators. A failed civilization. This Spirit reconstructed me, and has sent me back here, and so here I am: here to complete what you have failed to do."
Everyone looked at Korra. She knew what he was referring to, but she had never told anyone the dark destiny that Daya had set for her.
"That is right, Korra. You thought you could just ignore it? And nothing would happen, then? Our mother would just forget…well, as you can see you thought wrong. And clearly, killing Graft would have meant nothing to her. I did this out of my own enjoyment. It needed to be done. She allowed me to do this if I were to do her will. A simple act of revenge the man had coming, but what I have been sent here to do is not out of revenge at all. It is salvation. It is freedom from your misery. I am here to be the savior for the human race by ending your existence."
"You plan to do this yourself?" Tenzin asked. The group prepared themselves for battle.
"Not entirely. I am the ambassador for the Spirit World. You would call this being the Avatar. I guess I am the new one, since the old one has failed. My plan is already in effect. Once the Spirit World has transformed into its vessel, CHAOS, we can begin the revival of the SPORE. The Spirit World will swallow this world completely, ending your pitiful race. It will be fantastic!" he threw his hands in the air.
Korra took a few steps back as the group approached him. She was preoccupied by a grave mistake she may have made in ignoring Daya.
"Oh, but I insist," Solomon said, "Do all you can to stop me."
Lin and Tenzin were the first upon him. Lin slashed her sword while Tenzin tried to throw him off his feet with his airbending. Bolin yelled at Sydney to stay back, and he, O-Ren and Mako joined the fight. Bolin and O-Ren were able to use the cinderblock in the walls while Mako shot rounds of fireballs. Korra stayed back and watched in horror. Solomon barely had to move to avoid every attack. He managed to seamlessly dodge the blows of his five attackers all at once. His face never changed from the cool, sly smile. Lin tried to cut him down, but Solomon twisted her wrist around and hit her in the back, knocking her on the floor just as Mako shot a fireball. Solomon rose and the flame split in half and soared right past him, hitting Bolin. He fell to the ground. From Solomon's left, gusts of air came from Tenzin. Solomon put both hands to meet the gusts, and they were thrown off track and instead blew Mako off his feet and into the wall. Solomon kicked the ground and several cinderblocks flew from the wall and hit Tenzin off of his air wheel.
"What is it, Korra? Just going to let your friends have all the fun?" The five of them started to rise in order to attempt to attack Solomon again. "I think it is my turn, now. Maybe this will entice you."
Solomon stuck out his hands and the light in the room was drained. From his fists, two purple beams of energy shot out and hit both Bolin and Mako in the chest, sending them to the walls. The beams continued to emit from his hands, pinning the two brothers, they were purple and appeared to Korra like vines, zig-zagging as they made their general path to Solomon's target. They were directly disrupting the flow of cosmic energy in Mako and Bolin.
Lin tried to stop it. She attacked from behind him, but another vine-like energy beam emitted from Solomon's back and into Lin's chest, forcing her to the ground in pain. Out of his stomach, two beams implanted itself into Tenzin and O-Ren. The beams gave off a loud crunching sound as they mangled their victims. They yelled in pain as Solomon laughed.
"Stop!" Korra yelled. She drew her swords. The beams disappeared. The five lied on the floor in pain. They would live, their energy was slowly returning to them.
"Finally. Any longer and they'd be dead. We wouldn't want that would we?" Solomon said sarcastically.
Korra screamed and ran at Solomon. She slashed at him, trying to cut him up into little pieces, trying to undo what was happening. Her last hope to put an end to this. He avoided her blows in a very familiar way. She knew that she would miss each time she attacked. He was anticipating everything she would do. He could feel her.
"You know of this style do you not?" He asked as he dodged her. "He told me about you. About how you came here. You should've trained longer with him, maybe you'd stand a chance," Solomon grabbed both of Korra's arms so that the blades were both facing down. He pushed her arms to the ground which forced to swords to dig into the floor. Solomon kicked Korra's face and she fell on her back. "You know I could use my sword, too? But that would just be too easy."
Sydney rose to fight, but Korra stopped her, indicating that she needed to stay with Asami. Korra turned again to face Solomon.
"You know…Tomkin?" Korra asked, her nose bleeding.
"Tomkin is very well-known in the Spirit World. He is one of the few who truly understands the cosmic energy's messages. He even knew something serious was happening while you were training with him. That is why he continued to train you. His downfall was his belief that you could save earth. That you would be the one to prove that this world could survive. He was so misguided. I wanted to save him. I cared for him, so I allowed him to become part of the mission to save humanity by ending it. In order for me to exist here, I needed to take a human life. I thought about Graft, but why make Graft a martyr? Why take his life for the purpose of saving humanity? I would not let Graft have such an opportunity, but I respected Tomkin. I knew he had lost his way when he put his faith in you, so I decided to help him. Because of him, I am here, and now I can save this world. I killed your master, and even in his death, he would not admit that there was absolutely nothing you could do. So I will prove it. Since you are here, now, as I expected.
"Korra, there is nothing you can do. I will succeed and you will not stop me. Instead, you will watch as the world you once loved diminishes. You will see the human race you've so passionately fought for and realize they are nothing more than what Graft was. Everyone is the same. Everyone is born in and tends to darkness. There is no point for such a race to continue that inevitably brings death."
"You're wrong," Korra uttered. "We are not all like that. You can't kill an entire population of people for the actions of a few."
"I wish that were true, but I have seen the corruption of your race. And it must end. I have a message for you, Avatar. From our dear mother. She has allowed you to live, in order to watch the world burn. But she has not said how close to death you may be. She did not mention that she wants you in full health. In that case, I have something for you, for you and all the Avatars before you who have failed to fulfill their roles." The purple energy beam extended from Solomon's fist into Korra's chest. He did not push her to the wall. He lifted her up before him.
She struggled against the power of the beam. Her insides became boiling hot as he disrupted her flow of chi. Then Solomon pulled his hand back and Korra was pulled toward him quickly. In Solomon's other hand, a purple glow surrounded his fist. It was pure cosmic energy compacted into a ball. He pulled Korra up to him and punched her with his energy-infused hand, slamming her into the ground. She felt the crunch of several bones breaking from the blow.
"Oh we've just gotten started." He continued to repeat this. With his energy beam like a lasso, he pulled Korra to him then blasted her with his energy fists. Korra had never felt such pain. Her friends, unable to move, watched in horror as Korra was brutally beaten. The sounds of blows echoed the crunching sound of bone. Her arms became twisted backwards and she felt her face swell up in bruises and bones becoming misplaced. Somehow, she knew this would happen. She knew she would be here, subjected to this pain.
Out of the one eye that Korra could still use, she saw Solomon's face. He pulled her toward him but did not hit her. He smiled. Her vision was blurry and gradually getting worse. "I hope the Avatars before you felt that one, Korra." Solomon let go and she fell to the ground. Landing on her back put in her in extreme pain as bones were split and pointing in all directions some impaling her organs. The pain made her mouth fill with blood and she started to pass out. Solomon grabbed her shirt and dragged her across the room.
"I'd recommend you all to leave, but it will mean nothing. For you see, there is nothing you can do. Once she is put away, you all simply will have to wait for your absolution."
Korra's eyes took one final picture before shutting down as she passed out. She saw Asami. Asami's scared, helpless face as the Clasma slowly overtook the woman that Korra had started to develop feelings for.
If she was ever in trouble, Korra would give her life to save her.
The lives of the innocent do not deserve to suffer for the acts of others.
Korra felt herself transported. She knew she wasn't in the physical world anymore. She felt water on her feet. She was laying against a cold surface. She didn' know where. She couldn't see. Her face had swollen over her eyes. Her foot was twisted backwards, as were her arms. She didn't dare move them. The water rose and fell.
A tear managed to form on her face. The world was in his hands now. She had failed.
The Avatar had fallen at the hands of the new one.