-Siren—
Solomon found Graft's cane and walked through the abandoned halls of Solomon Solutions Headquarters. On the speakers, a classical piano played eloquently as he strolled.

"I'm thinking the next world should embrace music more than this one did. This really is a nice piece. Always been one of my favorites.
Nakajima's Fifth Symphony in D Minor." Solomon began to sway with the piano as it played. "Hmph, so off-key there. The next race must be masters of this art. I would like that." He smiled.

Solomon heard a crashing noise behind him. He saw shadows move across the wall. He walked into a lab and found a fiend tearing the place apart. Looking for Clasma. Solomon smiled and twirled his cane in his hand.

"May I help you with something?" he asked.

The fiend looked up. He wore a tie. Blood stained it and his untucked button down shirt. He had lost most of his teeth and smelled of vomit. "I thought all you lot hit the road."

"No. You'd be wrong on that one, my good man," Solomon said politely. "I can see you have no regard for the things I own here. That is my name after all," Solomon indicated the name of the company written on the wall.

"Well," the fiend said, "maybe you can tell me where I can get some Clasma," he pulled out a knife.

"How predictable. No concern for your neighbor, only for your own gain."

"If you looking to blame someone, blame the ones who made us this way. We didn't choose this life, but now choice is no longer an ability we have."

Solomon approached the man. "The only ones who made you this way was yourself," Solomon quickly grabbed the fiend's wrist and twisted it. The knife fell. "This world is doomed. Let me make it easier for you, and provide you with your end sooner." Solomon began to repeatedly beat the fiend with his cane, not a single expression but a small smile on his face as he watched the fiend slowly die. The radio sounded, in the lab, and in the streets as well. Bits and pieces of Qu's voice could be heard, no connected sentences. Some kind of interference. A few words-safe, Metro, war-could be made out, but the transmission was once again interrupted by the deeper voice of ONI:

Nations. Republic City is in trouble. The people of ONI are aware. We are working as hard as we can to save it. We admit that the government has aided us by quarantining the city, but they are fools in their mission to destroy it and annihilate the life that remains there, which is their plan. Recently, they fired several missiles toward the city in an attempt to silence the whole situation. These missiles that Qu sent for the city contained a biological chemical, one that would spread and kill off any survivors of the massive explosion. We have prevented Qu's missile from reaching the city. Our counter missile attack has stopped it. We are working to create a remedy for those infected individuals, poisoned by Qu. We believe the cure is possible. And whatever it takes, we will find it. The people will be healed. There is no sacrifice too large for this endeavor.

We are ONI, and we fight for the prosperous future of humanity. We fight against all that oppose it.

Join us

"Ya hear the nooze?" the man asked his co-worker. Two fiends stood in front of a door at the end of a dark alley. The wooden door was to a large building, miles away from Solomon Solutions. One of the fiends was extremely pale and boney, the other tall, dark-skinned, tattooed. The pale one switched off the radio. "They ain't gon be bombing us anymore."

"They fools to try n finda a cure. Only cure is more Clasma, heh," the darker one said.

"Yeh, and with Siren, we getting that shit lef and right. She is amazin. I dun think we've had a bettuh bizzness leader than she. "

"Heh, hey, whattya reckon we got here?"

Out of the darkness in the alley, a figure appeared, walking quickly toward the two bouncers for the building in front of which they stood. Atop the door the word 'Siren' was crudely written on a sign.

"Excuse me, lil lady. Can't be going beyond this point less you got permission from the boss."

"I'm here to have a word with this 'boss'," the woman said as she walked toward them.

"Gonna have to order ya to stop right there or else things are gonna get real ugly."

Korra looked up at the men as she stood before them. "Then let it."

The fiends smiled. The pale man swung a crowbar at her as the other man uplifted a piece of cement with earthbending and encased his right fist in the hard rock. Korra blocked the pale man's attack and subdued him. As the darker man threw his cement punch, Korra moved the pale one in the way so that he received the crunching blow that was meant for her. She flexed her leg around the darker man and kicked him in the back of the head, knocking him unconscious.

Korra walked through the door and down a staircase until she was in a large room with crates stacked up like walls. She heard the sound of people talking. Yelling sounds of fiends cheering on what sounded like a fight. Other fiends were working. Moving and opening boxes that they filled with vials.

"Fiends on the west side tryna meet us at Fleet this afternoon," a fiend standing on top of a crate yelled. The room was massive, and there was so much going on. Korra passed a room which was blaring loud music. She saw several fiends, some without their shirts, kissing and rubbing against each other. It looked like that part of the building was some kind of a nightclub. Written everywhere, the words "East Side". It seemed that the fiends had formed their own gangs, one being on the west side and one on the east. They apparently did business with each other. Trading Clasma. This was the East Side's warehouse. Their inventory.

Wherever Asami was, she was the one in charge. Korra knew it. Somehow she had risen quickly to a managerial level and showed that she could effectively lead this group of fiends, the fiends on the east, to power. The fiends threatened to turn people over to Asami if they messed up. Korra concluded that she was feared. Well, whatever person she had become, Korra hoped the old Asami still existed.

"Hey! Boss ain't gonna be happy if you don't get those shipments by midnight!" one of the fiends was yelling. The man he yelled at started shaking with fear.

"Siren will snuff out any disloyalty, you peasants," another fiend yelled at a group of manual laborers.

Two fiends spoke with each other quietly behind a large cargo container, "I don't know what it is. She is inspirational, but also terrifying…"
Korra passed several fiends who gave her strange looks. They wore gasmasks, shirtless with scars and tattoos, mountainous muscles. They lifted crates over their shoulders and double-took at Korra as she walked toward the office in which she was sure Asami awaited.

As Korra reached the stairs to the boss's office, she realized that she had generated a small following of fiends. Fiends who wondered what she was doing. Where she came from. If she was dangerous. The following increased as Korra got closer to the stairs, and she knew this was indeed the right direction. A screech sounded over the PA system.

"Good morning everyone. I hope you are having a wonderful day," Asami's voice said. "I would like to introduce you to our guest. She is wearing a dark blue hood over her face and is carrying a dangerous looking katana. Her name is Korra. Can we please escort our guest to my large office? I would love to have a word with her." Asami hung up.

Korra stood before the door to Asami's room. They were large swinging doors on the second floor. She felt the breath of the fiends behind her, ready to pounce if anything happened. The stench of bacteria and waste and human flesh rotting. Korra entered through the doors.

The office was barren. A large room with large windows looking out to a courtyard. Paint peeled off the walls. A desk was overturned in the corner. The bookshelf was empty save for several torn up pages. The light was dim. Across the room, Asami sat on a pillow on the ground. Her eyes developed dark circles around them. Her skin was pale. She looked like she had gotten no sleep in days. Her hair frizzled in all directions. Many would think she hailed from Pratt Street. Just another hopeless, drugged out fiend. But Korra still saw Asami. She still saw a beautiful woman, whose soul was trapped in a jail within her, guarded by these new identities that were tricking her mind.

Asami smiled and stood. "Welcome, Korra. It is good to see you." Asami stumbled as she walked toward Korra like she was drunk. Korra didn't know the right chance to perform her cleansing of Asami. With all these fiends right on her, she would not have even a second to perform the act. And she needed her concentration. So many enemies like this, always watching her, would make it impossible. Asami wasn't saturated with Clasma like drones were.

But she felt it. She felt Asami's energy. Foreign Clasma swirling around the room. And Asami's was one of those. Infecting her friend. Korra tried to drain it right then, but the Clasma in all the people behind her was distracting. She would have to get Asami alone somehow, and to make it easier, she would have to make contact with Asami's body. That was one way to ease the draining process.

"So our beloved Avatar has finally decided to step up and take responsibility. Well, how unfortunate that you're too late."

"Asami…"

"Your friend, Asami, is no longer with us. You can call me Siren, the leader of these fiends. Their glorious savior. Whatever decentralized leadership they had before proved to be their ultimate downfall. These people need someone to tell them what to do. And with me in charge, we will never experience a shortage of Clasma. We will truly live in a beautiful world." Asami turned to look out the window. Instead of the chaotic, dark and dilapidating city that was there, Asami saw a wonderland. Pink skies and fluffy clouds with a smiling sun. Skyscraping palaces with beautiful princesses and noblemen who treated each other with respect. Happy families who received everything they asked for. They all looked up to her, the Queen, Siren, on her balcony, above her kingdom. She smiled. Her minions, the fiends, they chanted her name, called her beautiful, the great one. Only in the distance did she see all of her enemies burning in a beautiful flame, yelling to her for mercy. But they were weak. They don't deserve what she was giving. Her regime would be the greatest of all societies, and those that did not believe the same believed in death. "I am your great Queen. Bow before Siren, and I will give you peace. You want to end that peace, Korra. You seek bring down my world. You seek to betray me like you always have."

"You don't know what you are saying, Asami," Korra said, but it was no use. Asami was buried underneath Siren's delusional state. Buried underneath the personality of the former princess of the Fire Nation. Korra looked away. She couldn't bear to see the person she now held most important to her fall into madness brought on by the Clasma. Korra needed to save her. She would not let Asami go on like this. She made a promise.

A promise that she would do anything to save Asami's life, no matter what, because she loved her.
Korra felt the fiend behind her place his hand on her shoulder, and she immediately turned to kick him and the other standing around him. A brawl ensued as the horde of fiends was upon her. She held them off. Untouched. They ran at her and only saw the underside of her foot or felt the hard blows of her fists. Korra kicked their guns and blades out of their hands. As the horde grew, Korra became overwhelmed, the fiends were piling on her, but she saw Asami, she saw her backing to the window. The window outside.

That's it!

Whatever cosmic energy Korra felt flowing around her, in all its randomness, she grasped it as hard as she could. Twisting it like it was a ribbon. The cosmic energy that belonged to fiends. She heard a few fiends cry out, and she used this opportunity to burst through pile toward Asami. Asami drew a blade from her sleeve but was too late. Korra had rammed into her and the two went out of the window, falling from the third story out into the courtyard. Asami wrestled free of Korra's grasp, placed her feet on Korra's chest and pushed off. The two landed on opposite sides of the courtyard, facing each other.

It was raining and snowing at the same time. The sky was the dreary gray from the eternal overcast. Asami stared down Korra and got furious. Asami began to yell.

"Fine. You want to fight? You want to take away the last thing this poor girl ever had? At least with me, she has a purpose. A reason to keep going. But now you want to end this, and bring her back to the dark world that has rejected her!" Asami's fists emitted flames and it propelled her toward Korra like a jet. Korra dodged her fire attacks.

The two battled in the courtyard. One to save her friend and the woman she may have loved. The other, to kill.

Korra was out of breath. Asami had favored her firebending as it was of the prodigious level. Korra held back from hurting Asami, and the battle lasted longer than she had planned since she refused to attack her friend. She was tired. She needed to act soon. Asami's energy level was much higher than Korra's due to the external aid of Clasma.

Korra needed to deeply search. She concentrated as Asami taunted her.

"I would think the Avatar would be able to at least put up a fight. Slowly realizing this race wasn't worth it, Korra!?"

There. Asami had said the name. Asami had said the name 'Korra', and for an instant, she sensed a spike in Asami's chi. A significant spike. A memory. A feeling. Something that struck a chord and barely awakened the old Asami.

Korra grasped it.

"You're nothing, Korra," Asami said. Korra felt it again. Stronger. The old memories. She needed more.

"This city hates you because you turned your back on them and then suddenly you reappear trying to act like a hero?"

Just a little more.

"She needed you, and you abandoned her. She cared about you, rescued you, and you leave her, never to speak with her again, as her mind slowly rots. That is no world she will ever want to return to. You are no one she ever wants to be with. Prepare to die, Korra."

That was it. Asami charged up a lightning bolt but was stopped, the lightning shooting into the sky. Asami was motionless. She felt ill. The cosmic energy began swirling around her sporadically. She looked at Korra, whose hands were out straight.

"You…," she struggled to say, "What are you...doing?"

"Saving my friend." Korra slowly walked up to Asami, who was paralyzed. She placed her left hand on Asami's shoulder, and her right on her forehead.

Korra felt like Amon in that instant, the way he stood, the way he took away people's bending. She questioned his intentions. She questioned his morality as she began to perform the same procedure that he had done. The procedure which made him an enemy. Made him evil. Was she evil?

If there is any reason to save this race, make it her. If you ever forget why you're doing this, why you're trying to save this race, whenever you're confused about what is good or evil…

Think about Lin and Mako and Bolin and Tenzin. Think about your Uncle and Ahna and Akna. Think about Katara. Think about Asami.

Korra closed her eyes. She dove into the sea of interloping memories, sifting through thousands of faces of people whose cosmic energy composed the Clasma in Asami. She saw an Earthbending soldier fighting in the Great War. She passed him. She saw an Equalist man hiding his uniform and greeting his family. She passed him. She passed several other people and found what she thought was the most significant Clasma. It burned and emitted heat. Korra felt it. It was powerful. It was mean. It smiled a demonic smile and was the source of Asami's rage. Of Asami's insanity and delusion. This Clasma had left behind humanity, and would kill even her own family to ascend.

Blue fames and lightning surrounded this Clasma, but something more powerful rested behind it. Korra passed the flaming Clasma, and saw within this new one a young girl that burned as well. But it did not burn with the heat of hatred, of violence and power and death. It burned with the heat of something else…

You're the reason, Asami, that I continue on. Because of you, I know what I am doing is right.

And Korra saw it. Asami. Her memories. Her feelings. So significant but suppressed under the weight of the foreign Clasma. Of Azula's Clasma. She grasped it, and like rushing water she felt the remaining Clasma flow down the drain into the Spirit World.
Korra's legs wobbled and she fell to her kness, almost to the ground, but Asami caught her in an embrace. Asami cried on Korra's shoulder. She hugged her tightly. Korra got her breath, and felt the warmth emitting from Asami's body. It felt safe. She felt safe. It felt like a home to her.

Korra looked up, worried, hoping she had done it right. Hoping she hadn't drained more of the Clasma than she should have, or did not drain all the foreign substance. She still felt something around her. Some source of Clasma. She couldn't tell if it was coming from Asami. It confused her, but Asami was cured. Korra was sure of it. The embrace ensured her that Asami was saved.

"Korra," Asami said, nearly sobbing. "You came back. You came back for me."

"I promised you I would…I promised I would save you."

Asami said it, and Korra thought it at the same time:

Thank you.