/* Okay, this part of the story might get complicated. I am trying to explain my theory on the Spirit World, Avatar, and the spirits in this chapter and the succeeding ones, so it might be a little difficult to understand at first. But maybe not. I tried to explain it the best I could, and as the plot continues it will all make sense :)

Your reviews are awesome. They keep me writing (hopefully well lol), but my updates may be less frequent, being in my last semester of college and all.*/

-The Wastelands—

Korra's eyes widened. She had been lying on this rock for hours now. She occasionally thought she heard the water splashing as if someone was walking through it. She concluded it was just her imagination, but now she was hearing both splashing and talking. She was hungry, she was in pain, lost and disoriented. She was hallucinating or something.

But still, Korra felt something coming toward her.

She wanted to run from it. She tried desperately to move up the rock. The splashing behind her became louder, like something was running toward her. She couldn't turn her head to look.

Guh, no, can't go in the water. But then what?

"Just going to give up like that?" she heard. The voice sounded right next to her. It was a man. She tried to move still, but the pain was too much, and she passed out as she felt someone grab the back of her shirt and lift her up.

When she awoke, Korra was in a harness, her torso suspended from the ground, her legs lying on the ground which was the large platform she had seen from a distance. On this platform, several pillars still managed to stand. It looked like a ruined temple. From the tops of these pillars her harness was tied. She wondered how it got there. In her line of sight, a boy with dark skin and a hood covering his face popped into frame.

"…You," Korra managed to say.

"Shh, don't strain yourself. You are in a severe condition. Solomon did you in pretty well. Your back is broken, but it is healing, and this harness will help. We've removed the crystals from your arm, too, but the contents still run through your veins."

"Then, am I hallucinating this?"

"No. This is not a vision. Although, we cannot say what will happen in the future after you've been exposed to the Clasma for long."

"We?"

"Shoogar," said a voice out of Korra's line of sight, "how is she doing?"

The boy, Shoogar, went to the source of this voice. "Looks good to me, sir. The Clasma seems to be healing her. What will happen to her memories, though?"

"Do not worry, she will keep them. Before it is too late, she will be able to rid herself of the poison. First we must wait for it to catalyze the healing process, then we teach her to drain."

Korra heard steps coming toward her from a larger man. He walked in front of her. Her vision blurred then brought into focus the old man's face. At first she thought it was Tarlokk, but he was older, his hair was whiter.

"Rest now, Korra."

The man was Tomkin.

l-l

Korra was feeling better. There were no days in this place. It was always lit, always gray. Time escaped her, as it always seemed to do when she was around Tomkin. When she was able to rotate her head, she looked around at her surroundings. Just a circular platform, steps around it leading into the deep water, isolated pillars in the sea surrounding the platform. They actually did stretch into the infinite ocean. She looked down into it. The water was gray, but she could see, and it went forever.

The strange thing was that she never saw Tomkin around. It was like he disappeared for a long time, then the fog materialized to make his body. He would appear out of nowhere. Out of nothing.

Korra was looking into the ocean, suspended on her harness still, when she heard his voice, "The Spirit World."

She turned her head.

"You are wondering what lies deep within the ocean? Well ,it should be the Spirit World, but it is not really there anymore, that is why it is just abyss. An infinite void. The Spirit World is moving. Out of instability, it has transformed. Where we are is all that is left of it. How are you feeling?"

Korra didn't know how to answer. It was Tomkin, sure, and she knew and loved him, but him being here in this place made everything seem…not right. She wasn't sure if she could trust him, but then again he had been her caretaker while she was here. Her back felt significantly better. She could move her limbs.

"Good," he said. She hadn't even answered him, but he began to cut her down from the harness. She dropped to the ground and several stabs of pain shot through her. "Oh, sorry about that, it is still going to hurt. You probably are not 100% better, but we don't really have much time. We need to get started." He took the harness and walked across the platform.

Korra tried to stand up straight. She did it quickly to shorten the amount of time she would feel pain. Her legs wobbled. It hurt, but she knew it was much less of a pain than when she first arrived here. "Ow. Are you sure I'll be okay?"

"You'll survive. If you don't resume now you might completely lose everything."

"Resume what?"

Tomkin walked back to her and smiled, "Your training. You see, it wasn't until recently that I came across an enormous amount of knowledge. More knowledge about the Spirit World. About the cosmic energy and about the spirits themselves. I know what has been haunting you all this time. It is more serious than I thought. I had felt it, too, when you were training with me. Agitation in the Spirit World just from the Cosmic Energy. I knew there was trouble in Republic City, and I believed you could stop it. This situation, however, involves much more than just that. What was placed upon you was a truly dark destiny that has been the fate of this world. But one thing has not changed, Korra, and that is that I believe you can end this cycle."

Korra didn't know what Tomkin was saying. He was explaining so much, as usual, and didn't realize that someone not as experienced like Korra needed to spend time understanding these things. She wanted to start small.

"Uncle, I cannot stop anything! I have failed. I don't even know where we are!"

"You have not failed, Korra! You are alive and you are safe."

"But I don't even know where I am. Where are we, Tomkin? How did you get here?"

Tomkin breathed deeply. "I guess we will start there. I will need you to calm down, Korra. The things I am about to tell you are very sensitive. The past has a way of catching up to the present and potentially destroying the future."

Korra slowly sat on the ground carefully so as not to aggravate her still injured body. She was sweating. A cool breeze came from the ocean and was picking up gradually into a slight wind. Tomkin looked over the sea with dread. The he returned to Korra.

He spoke. "Korra, where we are now is a remnant left behind by the moving Spirit World. This place is called the Wastelands. It is gray, bleak, ruined. The water you see around you is what remains of the Sea of Souls. I say 'remains' because it is now just the Infinitas—an infinite, lifeless sea. No vitality in it at all. It is difficult to explain, but the Wastelands are impossible to get to except under very specific circumstances."

"Then how are we here?" Korra asked.

"We are here because the Spirit World does not exist anymore the way it usually does. The Spirit World is a dimension of boundless cosmic energy. The Spirits that created this world have a source of cosmic energy called the Sea of Souls. When we die, our souls return to this sea in the Spirit World. It is the energy of the Spirit World. It is cosmic energy. But, things have been changing. I don't expect you to understand this right away, but the Spirit World has changed form. It has extracted all the energy from the sea of souls, collected all the Spirits, and has encased itself in a vessel that is moving. Think of someone reaching a hand and picking out all of the significant content in the Spirit World, putting it in an envelope, and sending it off. What you see around you is the by-product of this process. The content left behind after the picking—the part of the Spirit World left behind after its transformation. The energy from the Sea of Souls is in this vessel—this envelope- and so the water around us is lifeless. It is the 'Infinitas' because since the Spirit World no longer exists, the water is bottomless. Usually the Spirit World would surround us right now, but that world has changed form into a moving vessel, and several of its more rebellious members like myself have fallen out of that world and into this remnant one. We are on the brink of the physical dimension and the Spiritual one. Solomon planned to take you to a prison within the altered Spirit World, but I intercepted you, and brought you here, and implanted those crystals within your arm."

Korra looked at her arm. There were marks where the Clasma-filled crystals stuck out. They were gone now, but she knew the Clasma was still inside her. "You? You put that in me? Do you know how dangerous that is!? I can die!"

"I know, Korra. I didn't want to, but it was the only way. Clasma is a product of the Spirit World that is used to contain the energy of people. Within people cosmic energy flows in different ways, and certain patterns can form a connection between its host and the Spirit World. When humans die, their energy flows into the Sea of Souls in the Spirit World. Everyone is connected to the Spirit World, but not everyone can use its power while they are alive. Several people have more direct connections to the Sea of Souls depending on their cosmic energy patterns while they live, and these people are called benders. The Clasma of benders is embedded with a certain connection to the entities in the Spirit World that allow people to hone god-like abilities. I will get to that soon, but what is important is that this can also mean Clasma can contain healing abilities, like the ones I implanted into you, given its connection to the Spirit World. As you can see, you have healed much faster than you would have without them. Yes, you will most likely experience the same side effects as every other human. Your body will conflict with the influx of foreign chi. But that is why I am here, to train you to perform a method called 'Draining' so that you may rid yourself of the substance and, perhaps, others as well. It is an intense experience. You will need all of your concentration to do it, and it will sever certain connections to the Spirit World, and if done correctly, it will filter out everything but you and only you."

"Sever my connection? Is that what Amon did?"

"Amon's method of severing one's connection to the Spirit World was similar and used waterbending which had the desired consequence of removing one's bending, but in essence its idea is the same. Amon's bloodbending agitated blood flow and if the chi in the blood oscillates at a certain freq…you know, it's not important. All you need to know is that Amon took away your bending through a loophole in the human body. You will do the same except you are interacting with energy directly, unlike his indirect waterbending method. It is something you are able to do, Korra. One can only stop certain patterns in a human body, they cannot create them. Ergo, you will not be able to obtain the ability to bend on your own. It doesn't matter, though. All that is important is that you can rid yourself and others of foreign Clasma. Are you getting any of this, Korra?"

Korra looked confused, but was slowly starting to understand what Tomkin was saying. "Yeah, I think so. You tried to save me with this," she looked at her arm, "and now I have to learn how to get rid of it. So that I can eject the energy of the person this Clasma belongs to, and I can return to the physical world and…do what?"

"After you learn the technique of draining yourself of foreign Clasma, there are things that I need to explain to you about your origins. This will prove to be the most important part of your training, Korra. In order to know what you must do, you must know where you came from. I will stress that as much as I can. But first, we must learn draining.

"Tomkin, how did you suddenly learn all of this?"

"I died, and I visited the Spirit World for myself. And I learned everything."

Korra suddenly remembered that Solomon admitted to killing Tomkin. The act which allowed Solomon to become a physical being in exchange for Tomkin's existence.

"But, your children…"

"Ahna and Akna will be okay. I made sure of that. Naga proved to be a great guardian, and is currently taking them away. I knew the day Solomon came that I would die. I didn't want to spend my time running. Naga is taking the girls somewhere safe." Tomkin smiled.

"I hope she does. Why…why did you have to die?"

"Solomon was a student of mine for a very short time when he was alive. At one point, he asked if any nonbender could learn to bend an element. He told me he once was a researcher looking to make that possibility a reality. I told him he was a fool for seeking such a thing. It was a waste of time, not only because it was impossible, but because it was meaningless. My teachings bring one at peace with the earth. Understand the earth. My teachings are to be passed down so that when the world was threatened like it is now, there would be those who would know how to save it. I thought he only wanted power, so I turned him away. Now I see what he truly is. He was haunted by the things Graft did, and tried to stop it. At the time of his death, he wasn't a bad person like I had thought, but he died in hatred, and swore he would get his revenge. He shares the same outlook as the rest of the Spirit World in that the human race must end, and in taking my life he was able to return. I told him, even as I was dying, that I had not given up the possibility that someone could stop all of this. This time, the Spirits would not succeed in ending the physical world."