Note: Thank you to everyone who has followed this story through to the end. For all intents and purposes, this is the last chapter of Crescendo. The next two chapters will mainly serve to tie up any loose ends, so you can consider this the end. We've put a lot of thought and hard work into this, so we hope you enjoy it.

On the eve of sunset, they approached their target. The partially-destroyed, ten-storied complex remained standing in the deserted city block, a remnant of the old Republic City. Before Kuvira unleased her reign of destruction, the building housed hundreds of well-off families. But when a simple blast from the spirit cannon tore through the roof, erasing the upper three floors and causing debris to cascade down onto its residents, it became abandoned and discarded, wholly worthless. Now, only two people remained in its ruined skeleton, and soon, they would remain no longer.

Korra rode in the passenger seat of Lin's squad car as they reached the desolate structure. Ten officers followed closely behind, followed by two ambulances. Lin was hesitant to bring any more of them. She insisted that their operation was a rescue mission, that the hostile was a mere child, that his main weapon was surprise, and that they did not need any more assistance to bring him down. Korra ignored her advice and stayed silent for their ride. She merely breathed through her nose and kept her eyes transfixed on her damaged hands. When they parked outside of the ruined structure and stepped outside of the car, Lin had to grab Korra's arm to stop her from racing into the building.

"Let go of me," Korra demanded. Her voice did not rise in pitch, but its passion and fury was unmistakable.

"We need a plan of attack," Lin stated. Korra growled. The other officers gathered around them, waiting impatiently for their instructions. "Boys, you know what we're up against. Our number one priority is ensuring that Asami Sato is located and brought to safety. You will be split into two teams of six. Avatar Korra will lead Squad 1 on a thorough search through the ground floor up. I'll take Squad 2 up to the roof, and we'll start searching from there. Stay in contact. If all goes well, we'll converge in the center and locate the target."

"And Masaki?" asked Korra.

"The kid should also be somewhere in the complex," said Lin. "We don't what kinds of defenses he might have set up. Don't let your guard down, and don't let him get to you. He may look innocent, but he will not hesitate to use lethal force. I have faith that you all can handle him, but remember, our number one priority is rescuing Asami. The boy won't have any escape route, and hopefully, we can make a clean arrest before anyone else gets hurt. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am!" came the men's enthusiastic reply. Korra balled her hand into a fist.

"Yes, ma'am," she muttered under her breath.

"Then, let's get moving. Time is short."

As Lin and her squad ascended the side of the building with their metal cables, Korra and the others charged through the building's front entrance, breaking the rusted metal off its hinges. The broken lobby was small, containing nothing except a stairwell and piles of rubble resting in the darkness. Korra hurried up the stairs, pushing past the sluggish police officers. She jumped up two steps at a time, using blasts of air to push herself faster. When she reached the top of the two flights, she shoved open the door to the first floor, and stopped dead in her tracks.

Each floor featured two rows of six apartments each, attached to the front and back of the building, with a single, long corridor connecting the two. The stairway emerged in the center of the H-shaped structure, though Korra could hardly tell due to the overwhelming darkness. The power had long since been deactivated, and the primary source of light were flashlights and dim lanterns scattered haphazardly on the floor, their thin light barely cascading off the walls. Korra lit a ball of fire in her palm, and took a step forward. She felt a thick crunch underneath her boot; looking down, she discovered that the entire floor was covered with broken glass.

She pressed on, undeterred, stepping over the glass as she made her way down the corridor, and walked up to one of the many apartments. With her shaky hand, she pushed the door open, and jumped back as a meat hook suddenly swung from inside the room and nearly reached her face.

"He's boobytrapped the apartments!" Korra called out to the other officers. "Watch yourselves!" She moved past the hook, and examined the room. More rubble. More dust. No life. She went to the next room, and carefully opened the door. A bucket of nails fell harmlessly to the floor, and she checked inside. When the she finished her search, she heard an officer call that the floor was clear, and they needed to move on.

She climbed the next flight of stairs more quickly than the last. Her breath grew rigid as she stormed across more broken glass, pushing another apartment door. She blasted the falling bucket of nails away with a gust of wind, quickly scanned the room, and moved on to the next. Her heartbeat grew faster as she came to each new door. The concrete building smelled like death and charcoal, and was unbearably hot. Her skin clung to her muscle like a thick coat, and the dull air made it difficult to breathe, let alone focus on the task at hand. She stormed from one room to the next, gazing inside for only a few seconds at a time before moving on to the next. By the time the squad gave the order to move on, she had finished five rooms and was already sprinting halfway up the stairs.

When she reached the third floor, she skidded to a halt. The broken glass was gone. In its place were rows upon rows of bear traps, their jaws open and waiting to feast on her flesh. However, something else caught her attention. Somewhere on the floor came he faint sound of opera music. She turned left, walking slowly down the hall, bending the pressure plates on the traps as she went, causing them to snap shut with tremendous force. As the opera music grew louder, her pace grew quicker, until she was back running down the hall, scanning each of the six doors. Eventually, her gaze fell onto the final door packed tightly into the back corner of the hallway. She heard the police running up the steps in the distance, but she did not wait for them. Without further hesitation, Korra reached forward, and opened the door.

The first thing that hit her was the smell of blood. She recoiled in disgust, but forced herself further inside. A record player sat in the corner, spewing melodic, operatic tunes that sounded as if they came straight from the stage. In the center of the room was a single chair, its arms wrapped in bloody barbed wire, and a pool of blood beneath it. However, the chair was empty. The room was empty. Asami was not there.

"I've been waiting for you, Korra."

Korra looked up in surprise to find Masaki's grin glowing through the darkness. He clung to an old lamp like a spider on its web, swinging from the ceiling in his dark grey school uniform, a switchblade in his free hand. Before Korra could react, he lunged on top of her, slashing her across her shoulder before rolling to his feet behind her. He made a mad dash down the hallway, running and sliding over the startled policemen as they poured into the hallway. Korra furiously chased after him, ignoring the pain and the blood dripping steadily from the open wound.

"Get back here, Masaki!" she shouted, forcibly shoving the officers out of her way.

"Avatar, he's not the primary target," one of them yelled after her, but she did not care. She followed him up the stairs to the fourth floor, seething with rage. He bolted down another hallway, jumping from wall to wall to avoid the line of beartraps just beneath his feet. Korra screamed, and launched a stream of fire out of her palms, launching herself after him. Masaki reached the end and froze, realizing that he was stuck in a dead end. Instead of panicking, he smirked, and threw up his arms in defeat before Korra tackled him violently to the floor.

"Where is she?" she growled, wrapping her hands around small throat.

"I'm impressed that you managed to find us, Korra," Masaki said with a grin. "I was starting to get worried that you'd never show up."

Korra snarled and picked him up by his collar. She walked over to the closest beartrap, and shoved his head in the opening, dangling him mere inches above the trigger. His loose dark hair nestled between the spikes, but he did not seem to mind.

"I said," Korra said with intensity, "where is she?"

"This won't work, Korra," Masaki smiled. "We both know that you don't kill people. It's not in your nature. Nothing you can do could possibly harm me."

With a scream, Korra lifted him away from the trap, and threw him against the stone wall. He let out a pained gasp, but his smile did not disappear.

"Where is she?" Korra screamed.

"You knew what would happen if you lost the games."

Korra grabbed Masaki's hair, and dragged his face against the stone surface.

"Where is she?"

"She kept telling me that you would come for her…"

Korra booted Masaki in the head, breaking his nose beneath.

"Where is she?" Korra shouted, her anger reaching a boiling point.

"She really thought you would save her," Masaki gurgled. "In fact, she wouldn't stop talking about it. No matter what I did—"

Korra punted Masaki in the stomach. He curled up into a ball on the floor, moaning in agony, but he kept smiling through the pain.

"Where. Is. She?" Korra demanded. She picked Masaki up off the floor, and pinned him against the wall. Blood dripped freely from his fractured nose. His eyes could not focus, so Korra grabbed him by the throat and forced him to meet her gaze.

"You know exactly where she is," Masaki said, dazed but still mocking in his tone. "When you hung up the phone, she tried to escape. She wriggled free of her bonds, and almost slipped out of the room. I couldn't have that, so I grabbed a crowbar and… you know…"

"Where the fuck is she?" Korra screamed once more, her voice echoing throughout the dark hallway. She slammed her fist into the wall beside Masaki's head, punching directly through the stone.

"She wouldn't stop screaming," said Masaki, his diction suddenly becoming more confident, more focused. "Every time I hit her, she just kept on screaming. And I thought to myself: 'How can I make that stop?' So, I took my knife…"

Masaki spoke very calmly, and his smile vanished. "I took my knife, and I cut her tongue out."

Korra went numb. All at once, her emotions left her. She felt cold, colder than she thought possible. She dropped Masaki to the ground, and backed away. She needed distance. She needed to think. She couldn't think. She tripped and stumbled over herself, collapsing against the nearby wall.

No, she thought. This wasn't real. This wasn't happening.

"And then, I guess I lost control of myself," Masaki said plainly, rising to his feet and wiping the blood from his face. "Once she started to bleed, she started to cry. And I couldn't stand the sight of her crying, so I took my knife, and I decided to gouge her eyes out… one at a time."

No, no, no, no, no, Korra begged. She clutched her chest. She couldn't breathe. It had to be a nightmare. She had to wake up. She had to wake up.

"Do you want to know what I did next, Korra," Masaki said, growing cruel. "Next went off her ears. Then her nose. And then lock after lock of her soft, pretty hair, just because I could."

"This isn't real. This isn't real…"

"But you see, Korra," Masaki scolded, "I was kind to her. I didn't want her to suffer, so I did something merciful, something you would never do. I handed her my knife, and let her do whatever she wanted with it. And after all her attempts to break out, all her attempts to live, do you know what she did with that knife, Korra?"

Korra shut her eyes and covered her ears, rocking herself back and forth, shuddering, trembling, unable to speak.

Masaki dragged a lone finger against his throat. "She ended it, Korra. She just threw it all away. It's over, Korra! She's gone! You had the chance to save her life, and you wasted it! Her death, and her suffering, is on you. After all these years, you finally get to know what it's like to fail someone. To lose someone. The game is over. You lost!"

And then, Korra stopped moving. Her whimpers and moans ceased, and she became completely still. Masaki dropped to his knees, and placed his heads behind his head.

"I've proven my point," he said, satisfied. "You can arrest me now."

Korra did not move. Masaki eyed her up and down, and repeated himself.

"You can take me in now," he said, mildly annoyed. "I promise I won't fight back."

Still, Korra said nothing. Curious, Masaki stood up, and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Are you even liste—"

There was a sudden gust of wind, and Masaki flew backwards down the hall, tumbling limply next to his traps. He recovered, looking upwards, and froze. Korra rose to her feet, her head hung low, her chest heaving, and a blue flame lit in her damaged palm. Her eyes were gone, replaced with two powerful blue orbs, focused directly on the twelve-year-old boy in front of her.

And in that moment, Masaki realized that he had made a terrible mistake.

Korra screamed, her voice a thousand strong, and a burst of flame flew out of her hand and sailed towards her target. The intense fire consumed the hallway, and thinking quickly, Masaki dove into the stairwell, narrowly missing the blast, though he could still feel its incredible heat. Desperate, he ran up the stairs, knowing that the officers below would soon catch up. The roof was his one chance. He just had to make it there.

"Hey! Stop right there!"

Masaki looked upwards, and panicked. Lin raced down the stairs from above, her squad directly behind her. He hurried into the fifth floor hallway, and ran to hide in one of the apartments, sprinting over more broken glass. Before he could, Lin burst into the hallway, and shouted him down.

"Don't move!" she ordered. Masaki paused, turned around, and in a moment of weakness, ran towards her, fear-stricken.

"I surrender!" he shouted, worriedly. "I surrender! Don't let her—"

The ground rumbled, and Korra suddenly erupted from the floor, grabbing Masaki and flying him up to the sixth floor. She launched him into the wall with all the effort of moving a doll, and he fell over, out of breath and scared out of his mind.

"Masaki," Korra said, her voice like a crack of thunder.

Masaki grabbed a handful of broken glass, and threw it at her. With a swat of her hand, the glass shattered into dust.

"Korra, wait!" Masaki pleaded. "You don't have to do this. I'll turn myself in. I'll go to prison! I know I did something bad. You don't have to punish me."

Lin dragged herself through the hole in the ground, blocking Korra's path to the Hanzi Killer.

"Korra, that's enough," Lin said, holding her arms out. "He's willing to surrender. You don't have to do anything."

"Move," Korra demanded.

"This isn't the time for revenge, Korra!"

Korra summoned another ball of fire in her palm. "I. Said. Move!"

The Avatar threw the fire at Lin, forcing her to duck out of the way. When she was distracted, Korra lunged past her and grabbed Masaki by the throat. She took Masaki's left hand, and squeezed as hard as she could, encasing the limb in a sea of fire. The boy howled in pain, but Korra did not stop until his hand was charred to the bone, a perfect match for her own. Lin launched a metal cable to pull her away, but with a snap of her fingers, Korra launched the Police Chief aside.

"Hey, Masaki," Korra sneered. "Do you want to play a game?"

"Korra, he's still just a kid!" Lin shouted, but her words fell on deaf ears. Korra picked up Masaki by the throat, and slammed him into the floor. She flew him down several levels, the hard stone breaking against his back, until she was surrounded by beartraps. She dropped him, allowing him the chance to catch his breath.

"Okay, I lied, Korra! I lied, alright?" Masaki cried. "I didn't kill Asami. She's fine. I swear, she's fine. I hurt her a little bit, but it wasn't anything serious. I just wanted to see your reaction, that's all. I promise, I would never hurt her."

"The rules are simple," Korra stated, leaning in close to his terrified face. "Don't let me catch you."

Masaki picked himself up, and ran as fast as he could, but it did not matter. He only took a few steps before Korra levitated one of the remaining beartraps, and launched it at his leg. Upon contact, the trap snapped shut, jamming the rusted steel into his calf. He yelled out in torment and collapsed, writhing in pain like a worm. Korra was expressionless as she took a chunk of earth from the wall, and used her bending to whittle it into a small spike. She pressed her foot onto his forearm to stop him from moving, and hovered the spike above his last good hand.

"You lose," she said darkly. "This is your punishment."

The spike drove into his hand, piercing directly through the flesh. Masaki opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out. His mind had been warped by the pain to the point of breaking. He felt like passing out, but Korra clenched down on his jaw, forcing him to stay awake.

"Not yet," she growled. "You need to feel all of this."

With one final feat of strength, Korra picked the child up by his jaw, and threw him at the wall. The stone caved in around him, and suddenly, Masaki was in freefall, plummeting three stories to the abandoned street below. He landed with a thud, bloodied and beaten. The fight was over. He could hardly move, but he knew that he had to get away. However, he never had the chance; within seconds, the Avatar landed at his feet, her enormous power unlike anything he had ever felt before. The monster towered above him, driven by fury, motivated by hatred; a being of pure power condensed into its most wicked, violent form. He tried to sputter out one final plea for his life, but his body would not let him. The Avatar stared him down, taking pleasure from his weakness, fulfilled by the pain she brought him. He waited for her to finish him, wondering what she would use to bring his demise.

Korra said nothing more. All she did was raise her bandaged hand, and close her fist.

At first, Masaki felt nothing. For about fifteen seconds, he checked himself over, trying to find what she did to him. He saw no new marks on his body, no new wounds or injuries. He studied himself, desperately trying to figure out what she was doing.

But then, he felt it, first in his chest, and then gradually spreading to his head. His vision blurred. His fingers started to lose their feeling. Breathing was harder than before, and he started to whimper, making bizarre moans and grunts. Then, all at once, it hit him; a massive unbearable pain erupted in his head, and he began to shake violently, uncontrollably. His brain felt like it was about to burst out of his skull, and he found himself gasping for air. He trembled, and Korra watched with her dead, blue eyes, her closed fist extended outwards.

"Do you feel that?" Korra asked him, speaking to him in hushed tones as her other voices echoed with contempt. "That's the feeling of me holding back the blood from rushing into your brain."

Masaki choked, his bloody legs flailing wildly, as his vision clouded further.

"You killed her," Korra said hatefully. "She was the one good thing I had in this world, and you took her from me. She never did anything to harm you, and you killed her. All so you could get to me. That is something I cannot forgive."

The boy moaned, struggling to fill his lungs with air.

"You're right about one thing: I don't kill people. I don't want to kill anybody," Korra stated. Tears welled in her eyes. "But you're not really a person, are you? A person would never be so heartless. No, you're just a creature. A thing. A pathetic little monster that doesn't deserve to exist with the rest of us. In fact, you don't deserve anything. The only thing you deserve is to be snuffed out like the insignificant bug that you are."

Korra stared into Masaki's eyes as the life began to fade from them. "Can I be honest with you? I thought that when I would do this, I would hate it. I thought I would be disgusted with myself. But I hate to admit it: It feels good. It feels right watching you die, knowing that your evil will be removed from the world, and knowing that it hurts. Truthfully… the only thing I hate is that I can only kill you once."

Lin ran out the front door, panicked. She saw Masaki tremble, and saw Korra's blank expression, and a sense of dread overcame her.

"Korra, stop this right now!" Lin called. She raced towards the Avatar, but Korra turned to look at her, and Lin shot backwards, rolling across the floor.

"Stay out of this, Lin!" Korra shouted. "This has nothing to do with you."

Lin recovered, planting her feet into the pavement below. Korra continued to launch strong gusts of wind in her direction, keeping her away.

"This is insane, Korra!" yelled Lin over the rush of wind. "You're going to kill him. You need to calm down."

"I will not calm down!" Korra shouted back, furious. "He is evil! He doesn't deserve prison. Prison is too good for him."

"Dammit, Korra, look at yourself!" Lin pleaded. "You're bloodbending a child! He's suffering. This isn't right! You have to stop this!"

"You don't understand!" said Korra, as the tears began to flow down her cheeks. "He killed her! He took her from me! This is about what's fair. Asami's life for his. No exceptions!"

"What are you talking about?" Lin shouted, confused. "Asami is fine. We found her. She's going to be okay! You don't have to do this!"

Korra said nothing. She stared at Masaki. She could see the life nearly depleted from his eyes, his breathing crawling to a halt, and body becoming motionless at her feet.

"Korra, please!" shouted Lin. "Let us take him into custody. We'll do this the right way. Don't do something that you're going to regret!"

Korra closed her eyes. She could feel only the warmth of the tears streaming down her cheeks, and the hatred that consumed her heart. She did not know what to think or what to feel. She simply wanted to kill, to feed off another life, to get revenge against everyone who had wronged her. For a moment, she heard Asami call to her, begging her to stop. Was it a dream? A ghost? Or was Asami there, watching act on her most primal instincts, watching her claim another life as her own?

"Korra!" Lin shouted forcefully. "I am begging you: stop this right now!"

Masaki's trembles had become nothing more than twitches. His face was pale, and his wide smile long gone. There was almost no light left in his eyes. Korra opened her eyes, and looked at him. She no longer saw the Hanzi Killer; instead, she saw a child, scared, confused, and alone in a world that hated him, searching for the meaning in his life. He did not understand what he was doing, or why he was doing it, because he could not. For a moment, she felt sorry for him.

Then, she looked at her broken hand, curled into a fist, choking the life out of him; a hand that would never know the touch of another ever again, a hand she was forced to mutilate in a futile attempt to save the woman she loved. And Korra realized that she could not let go.

Masaki stopped moving all at once, as if a switch had been turned off in his brain. His hands relaxed, and his head fell to the side, staring blankly into the distance. His heart slowed, coming to one final beat before pausing indefinitely, and a single breath escaped his lips. The wind stopped howling, and Lin stood upright, watching in horror. Korra unclenched her fist, and it was only then that she realized how much her own hand was trembling. She released a shaky breath that she didn't realize she had been holding in, and left the Avatar State. She stood motionless on the street for what seemed like an eternity, crying silently as she looked at the corpse in front of her.

Then, Korra dropped to her knees, dug her fingers into her hair, and screamed. She screamed as loudly as she could, letting her voice carry through all of Republic City. She screamed until her throat was raw and bloody, and then she screamed further, letting out weeks of pain, of anger, of sadness, of guilt, of torment all at once. Every emotion she had ever buried suddenly flooded back to the surface. She screamed out the madness and the resentment, the ache and the need, until her voice was completely gone. She felt Lin gently wrap her arms around her from behind, cradling her like a child.

"I'm sorry," Korra sobbed, barely louder than a whisper. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"It's okay, Korra," Lin said quietly. "It's over now. It's all over."

"I'm sorry," Korra repeated over and over again, until it was all she could think about. She had regressed into a blubbering mess, a shell of her former self, incapable of anything other than those two simple words. Lin held her as the sun set below the horizon, removing the last traces of light from the city streets, draping the remains of the boy before them in darkness, the final victim of the Avatar's wrath.