-Advent—

The clouds swirled around, alternating from blue to pink to blue to pink…

As if nothing had changed. The breeze blew lightly and quietly. The trees, blue with the crystal fruit reflecting all colors, swaying with it. The grass beneath her depressed by her body, molding to her shape and hugging the contours of her body with its cool arms.

The silence, the peace and calm around her contrasting the war of identities going on in her mind, the battle for the correct memories, the victories and usurpations of alternating personalities. The power, too intense for Asami's body to handle, pulsating through her veins.

In the midst of this rampage within her mind, Asami looked up at the clouds, desperately seeking peace, seeking sanctuary. The clouds spoke to her. Its words received by her like never before with this saturated cosmic energy within her, acting as sensitive nerves to the voices of the Spirit World. Asami could not understand what it was telling her, but she knew it was coming from the sky. She knew there was something up there, something good, something that reassured her that she was going to be okay. Even if Asami did not remember Asami, or Korra, or where she was, or what she was. Lost and scared in her own body, this girl, the collection of various people and souls, was somehow connected to someone else by looking at this sky. Someone who cared whether or not she existed.

The Spirits had slowly crept past Daya's tower and directed themselves toward the nearest portal to the physical world, the boundary dissolved thanks to Daya herself and the power returned to the Spirit World from the SPORE. These Spirits, the army of this world, towering over the trees and emitting raw power, ready to tear apart what was left of the physical world and rebuild it better.

Asami had abandoned the tower after Korra had ascended, but she could not make it far before her legs gave out. The power coursing through her too powerful for her body, shaking its foundation. Pumping her heart faster and faster to the point where it would explode. Everything around her set off her heightened senses and awareness. She could not handle it and, once far away from Daya's tower, found no other option but to stare at the sky, the closest source of inactivity and nothingness, to calm her senses. For the sky emitted this gentle voice among the screaming and violent voices in her head. A gentle voice that spoke only to her, to who she really was, and she knew it, even if she could not remember who that girl was:

It is okay. You are not forgotten. I am with you. We are always together because I love you.

Asami did not remember Asami, but this voice, it allowed her to see this girl she could not recall. The young, black-haired little girl, and the mother beside her, the one who first spoke these calming words.

Asami felt what this girl felt. She felt the warmth from resting her young head against her mother's chest. The happiness and safety of hearing her mother speak to her, telling her to be true to herself, and that she loved her so much.

Her mother was here. Beside her again. Speaking to her. Telling to hold on. To be strong and remember who she really is. Even if that means remembering a single memory from her true life, to grasp it as tightly as possible.

Asami grasped it, and held it tightly, against the force of the opposing memories and identities. The memory of something she felt so strongly. The memory of love, for someone, a girl? A guy? She could not remember but she knew that someone was real, fighting for her, calming her just like her mother was. Someone who returned this feeling,

Holding on to this same feeling, this same love, connecting the two, forever.

There was silence where Korra was. The clouds this high up no longer maintained their blue and pink color, but rather were a static gray. Like thick fog. Obstructing the view of what rested beneath her. There was only one way to go from this point. Stairs led up to a platform she could not see.

Korra climbed the steps, and as she did, it was as if some sort of light source began to shine on the clouds as they slowly became saturated with color. Saturated with a gentle pink and blue but also green like grass and purple like flowers. Yellow like a sun. Just as Korra felt that distribution of color resembled a bed of flowers, she reached the top of the steps to find herself standing at the threshold of a field of flowers, blowing calmly in the wind. The platform on which she was standing looked as if it was layered, small bodies of water flowing from one layer down to the next in soft waterfalls. The water glowing with all the colors of the flowers before her.

Korra had been here before. The color was different. The feel of the air and sounds of the waters was different. But the sky above her was the same, filled with clusters of sparkling lights resembling stars. A glowing band across this sky, Korra realizing it to be a stream of cosmic energy. Its power harnessed by the Spirit living within the statue planted at the center of this celestial meadow.

She felt it. Felt her. Daya, as she stood face to face with the statue. The statue itself appeared to be the head and torso of an angel, her arms tied behind her back, large wings protruding from the back, but no feathers. It looked like bone. The skeleton of wings. A trapped God. Korra's creator, but more accurately, her. The very model used to create the Avatar. Korra's true form.

Together in this place again, the two were only one. Their power shared. Their minds shared. The same entity split into two. The only difference between them now being that Korra's death would have no effect on Daya, but Daya's death meant the end of Korra. The one condition that separated the two, that established master and slave. The only thing Daya had left.

The eyes on the angel glowed green. Alive. A voice spoke, but not out loud. Within Korra's head. Stopping her completely. Starting as nothing but a high-pitched screech, then slowly leveling out. The indistinguishable screeches becoming actual words.

Oni.

Korra couldn't move. Too hesitant to speak. Never having been face-to-face with her actual creator. Only visited by her in nightmares and visions. Beads of sweat trailed down the side of her face. She wanted this just to be over. She wanted to skip to the end and not have to endure this, or just turn around now and avoid it.

But she had come this far. She could not be scared.

The statue continued to speak in her head.

Do not be afraid. After all, it is you who has come here as the assassin. Isn't that correct? I should be the one who is scared.

Korra spoke out loud. "Daya…" but Korra's voice reverberated throughout the air. Caught and released by the packets of cosmic energy flowing around her. Spreading out and deforming. Her words became an indecipherable mess of hums. She could feel this energy in her fingertips. The Cosmos that flowed through this place. Through Daya. She knew she was not supposed to speak out loud here. There was no point. It was like talking to herself. Her words never had to leave her own mind.

You and I share a much deeper connection than you thought possible, apparently. You can feel the power that flows through here. My power, but yours as well, Oni. You and I are one and the same, only trapped in different bodies. Hailing from different worlds. And that world has changed you. Corrupted you into coming here to kill me.

Korra tried to communicate. You're wrong. I'm not here to kill you.

We both know that is not true. We both know that is the only way to get what you want.

Korra hesitated before speaking again, hoping Daya was wrong, but knowing deep down that she would have to kill her. But not in the way that Daya believed. Not out of hatred or vengeance. Not against the Spirit's will.

I don't want that to happen, Daya. I've not come here as an assassin. I've come here as a messenger for the human race.

And what is this message?

A request. For separation. For independence. Freedom from their bonds with this world. That is all we ask. That is all we desire. We do not want war with this world. We do not want violence. We only seek peace. You will have this world, and we will have ours.

Korra stopped speaking. She waited for Daya to answer. Hoping she would see the truth in what Korra said. Hoping it would all be over.

We may be the same, Oni, but your conscious is broken. Spread out throughout many bodies throughout time. Mine is continuous. You have not seen the horrors that I have witnessed among your people. These people you say want peace. You do not see the good in humans, you only choose to look away from the evil. From the inevitable truth about the human species. That they are a failed race. That every idea which comes into their minds and every inch of power that is handed to them immediately sets of the chain reaction of terror and hatred and destruction of their own selves. An idea, it leads to conflict, but power, power arms the conflict. It fuels and strengthens even the most corrupted ideas and ultimately pulls the bearers of such things, no matter how good they believe they are, into the darkest depths of evil. Humans cannot understand power. It merely twists them into a horrible monster. A massive flaw in their existence.

You're wrong. We are not all corrupted by power.

Oh, then why do you seek to erase bending from your world if it is not for the reason that the human race is corrupted by power?

Korra began getting angry. She did not respond immediately.

There it is. A belief proven wrong. But you have power, and you will use that power to make that belief right. By making me believe it as well. By disproving it, I have made you question your own goals. I have confused your own morals, but you have power, and that power turns that confusion to anger, which leads to hatred and corruption of your own self. And who else to express your hatred on but me? Just as you came here to, knowing that your only reason for being here was to kill me because you knew I would not see the world the way you see it.

Daya…I have not come here to end bending. I have come here to separate our worlds. If bending must end as a consequence, then so be it. The human race is prepared to lose that. It is nothing more to us now than a hand to hold, but it is not that we cannot handle this power that we are willing to get rid of it, but that we realize we are strong enough to live without it disrupting our idea of what we truly are. We are humans. We have a different kind of power that we hold to be more important. A power that is inherent in each one of us that manifests itself so differently in everyone. As a skill or an invention. As bravery or courage. Or love and friendship and sacrifice. It's this power, this human power, that drives us to edges of this world to preserve our existence. To survive, live our lives in peace and be able to realize our own power and experience everything in life freely. That is why I have come here. The humans only wish to live, and that is more important to them than your power. The end of your intervention in our world is the only way that can ever be.

You think you are fighting for some righteous cause? You don't believe that you have only skewed your own goals to make them sound right? Your people will only find a new power to crave in the absence of bending. A new form of subjugation to protect any idea that comes into their minds. To defend even the most irrational beliefs. If there is control over the lives of others, your species will find it, and abuse it, just as they have done throughout all of history.

I do not doubt your words. But there will always be good people as well, to rise and fight against the evil, to remind this world that the light will always shine through the darkness. That is why those people will always exist, to strengthen the good. Graft was proof of this. Graft was your ideal example who tried to prove to us that the power of bending is our foundation. He tried to show us that bending holds more significance to us than the ones we love. But he was wrong. He defended his idea, with violence, with control, but in the end, his regime fell. Solomon was the one who killed Graft, but his legacy, his mission, those were killed by us. The humans, who realized that he was wrong, that bending and power can never be as important to us than the ones we love and live with. Than our dreams and happiness. You cannot have an ideal world. You cannot have a race where everyone knows only good because you have forced them to. That is life bounded in chains. It is injustice. You cannot punish an entire race of an innocent, loving species for the actions of those who have fallen too far. You cannot create life like this only to take it away when you decide it is right. What happens to us must be our own doings, must be the result of our own actions and of the random chance of the world we live in. Your intervention disturbs that. You become the creator and the assassin. You are no better than Graft, than the worst of the humans.

Korra felt the energy levels changing around her. Becoming angry. The whole conversation felt weird. As if she was having it with herself. A different part of her own mind.

You fail to realize that we are one and the same, Oni. That whatever I am, you are as well. You cannot escape this truth. You are forever tied to me. You will never be free of what you truly are. I will make you proof of my claim, Oni. You have become one of the humans, then you will fulfill their prophecy, their fatal flaw, and finally understand why they must be destroyed. You can feel the power flowing through us.

No. I won't become that. You can't tempt me. I have come here for a specific reason. I won't let Koh be right. I'll prove you wrong, Daya. I wanted to come here, hoping you would understand, but it seems that will not happen…

Then there is only one option left, isn't there? In order for the Spirits to cease their attack, the one tying them to the physical world, me, must be destroyed. You must destroy this statue to release me.

Why? Some kind of trap?

This is my cage. Locked in here ever since your creation all those years ago. Using all of my strength to project myself into the physical world. But now that projection is here, back in the Spirit World. You, the energy that has been gone from me for so long, has returned. We are the same entity, Oni, and when we are together, in this same place, we share the same power. The same mind. The only thing that stands in the way of what we both want is this statue that you must break. My goals involve my freedom from this cage. And yours do as well. You wish to kill me and end all of this, and the only way to do that is to free me from here. So go on then. If you refuse, I'll make sure you get a good glance at the next species that will replace yours.

Korra, angered, walked quickly toward the provoking statue of Daya. She placed both hands on the sides of the statue and lifted it out of the ground, looking right into the glowing green eyes of the angel.

I'm not doing this for myself, Daya. I'm not a pawn in your game. I'm doing it for both of our worlds. So that the strife will be suppressed forever. I'll make sure that happens when this ends.

Korra turned and smashed the statue against the ground. The stone shattered and a black dust spread like a swarm of flies from the inside, withering all of the flowers and trees as it passed over them, depleting the bodies of water, turning the grass to dirt. Eventually, the swarm grew so thick around Korra in all directions, spinning around, her at the center of this vortex. No longer could she see the sky or the field. Trapped in a swirling mass of darkness emitting an extremely loud buzzing noise.

Korra stood, unafraid, breathing quickly, absolutely still. The force of the energy spinning around her blowing her hair to the side. A pair of bright green eyes formed before her, and two arms materialized, stretching out to grab her. Korra didn't wait for them to reach her. Acting out of instinct upon noticing these hands, she quickly removed her sword and plunged it into the glowing green eyes. What she thought was the brightness of the eyes blinding her, Korra then realized that it was actually a sun. The rays peeking through the tops of very tall trees of a forest. Not the blue, crystal forest of the Spirit World.

Green trees, fruit growing from them in full. Ripe and delicious-looking. Grass so soft against her back as she realized she was on the ground. As if the garden she just saw decay into darkness had revived itself.

Korra sat up and looked around to see that she was indeed in the middle of what seemed like a large rainforest. The air was slightly humid. She did not feel tired. Her sword was returned to its holster, completely clean.

It's over. Korra leaned back again, feeling the comfort of the grass again as celebration for her achievement.

I don't know how, but it's over. I have done it. I can rest…