Mike woke up in jail. "Not again," he said to himself, panicked as he felt the cuffs around both his hands and feet, the walls closing in, the lack of oxygen in his lungs. He was immediately teary. "What did you do?!" he cried in confusion.

"Quiet in there!" A guard banged on the bars with his armored hand. "You've been given recovery time before questioning. Count yourself lucky."

Mike finally noticed the bandages wrapped around his arms, covering the bruises. There was also one stuck to his face where the cut had been. He was still wearing his clothes from before, although his apron was missing and obviously his other shoe had been replaced with a shackle. "Why am I here, I didn't do anything!" he asked.

The guard laughed, his blue eyes amused and mocking. "That's cute. Tear up the office and half a city block—'no, I'm innocent! Let me out, officer!' You're pathetic." A police officer spoke to the guard quietly and he got his key out.

"That wasn't me!" Mike swore as the guard unlocked the door and the chains; the shackles were still on.

"Who was it, your cousin? Save it for the Chief, you're not fooling anybody," the guard said with an eye roll. "Now move it."

This room was much closer to what one would think of for an interrogation room. The main difference was the bendable materials that had been laid out on the table, similar to the candle Mako had used before, one of which was present. There was also a disc of rock and a cup of water. The floor was mats that were not unlike those in a gym setting.

"This is going to be interesting," Beifong noted as she stood outside the door to the room. "Don't kill him, obviously, but you can rough him up a little if he doesn't cooperate. I'll be in there as support."

Korra cracked her knuckles. "I'm gonna make him talk whether he likes it or not," she agreed.

"Maybe try a softer approach this time," Mako suggested from behind. "The rough and tough didn't go so well for me, or for you, really."

"He wasn't soft with me, why should I be soft with him?" Korra rebuttaled.

Mako shrugged. "Just a suggestion."

Korra entered the room with Beifong trailing her. It smelt of smoke, metal, and sweat.

Mike was sat in the center of the room, curled into himself as much as possible when he couldn't shift his arms or legs very much. His eyes were closed as he shivered and shook, though the room was not cold. His hair was in his eyes since they took it out of its holder when he was arrested.

Korra felt that ache in her head again as she looked at him, even stronger than before now that they were close up. An energy she couldn't explain to herself. It kept her from moving further towards him.

Noticing her hesitation, Beifong started the dialogue instead. "There's no point in trying to cover anything up, Mikkeq. There are plenty of witnesses to what you can do."

"What did they do…I don't know…why I'm here," Mike said very softly, no opening of his eyes or pose.

"The why isn't the pertinent word in this case. Why you destroyed those stores, that one's been confirmed by your boss. Self-defense. The police station…Mako isn't the greatest interrogator on the force, yet, so fair enough." Beifong dropped a folder of papers on the table. "How you were able to bend fire, earth, and air. As a registered non bender in this city, who is not Avatar Korra. That's the issue."

Mike was starting to look a little more awake. "I'm not a bender-" he promised.

"You're lying again," Korra accused him. She nodded at Beifong, who stepped forward and unlocked the shackles on his hands and feet. She then bent the water out of the cup and positioned it threateningly in front of him. "Why don't you cut the act and tell the truth already!" This usually scared people enough to get them to talk.

Mike opened his eyes completely. They were…blank. Stony. His shuddering got worse, and his breathing grew quicker. "Don't," he pleaded, although it wasn't clear who he was addressing. "Please." He put his newly free arms up and over his head, curling into a ball position.

Korra was dumbfounded. He was trying to defend himself, yes, but he wasn't putting up a fight, he just…shut down.

She slowly bent the water back into the cup. "What am I supposed to do with this?" she whispered to Beifong.

"I don't do emotional nonsense well, kid. You're on your own here," Beifong admitted.

Korra groaned internally before taking a deep breath. "I'm not bending right now," she said loudly to get his attention back. "You don't have to look away."

He didn't move.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you, is that so hard?" she pushed further, pressing her hands into the table.

"You're terrible," he started speaking in a low voice; whom he was speaking to was still unclear. "A disgrace to yourself and the world. Look at you, cowering when you have the real power in this situation. Miserable and wasteful, that's what you are."

"Did you just insult me?" Korra asked, putting her fists up as if ready to shoot fire at him.

"I can't…I can't keep control right now," Mike said as he trembled, his shaking hands gripping his forehead. "He wants to come out and face you…"

"What? Who? Is it a spirit? It feels like it might be," Korra wondered, her headache pounding.

'Mike' abruptly chuckled. "If you hadn't already proven yourself to be nothing short of insufferable I might have thought you were actually intelligent," he mused as he sat up straight and stared at her. "What a displeasure to meet you, Avatar."

"It is possession! Okay, easy enough to deal with…maybe," Korra said with very little confidence. Her experience with spirits wasn't that comprehensive.

"True spiritual possession of another is a goal of mine one day, yes, but you are mistaken," 'Mike' countered.

"But—you just said it, you're a spirit!" Korra accused, pointing at him aggressively and accidentally firebending in his direction. "You're in someone else's body, that's possession!"

He tilted his head to the side and turned his smirk into a frown.

That change in expression alone broke the cup of water, startling Korra.

"I don't appreciate what you just did, little Avatar," 'Mike' decided, his eye twitching. "I could have slipped away again. There's a few people here who want to fight you and they're not going to, no, they had their turn already."

This guy is totally insane. She scrambled to get her power position back. "Scared of a little fire? Ha! Shouldn't have burnt down a building yourself, idiot!" She kicked out, launching fire towards him-

Tssssss!

'Mike' whistled to himself while he watched the fire was blocked. "Thinking you have the power to make us buckle and break, that's what's going through your head now," he observed. "Because you have the ability and the backup, you can get your answers like that." He snapped his bandaged fingers before rotating them.

As the water from the cup swirled up and dispersed the flames, it expanded—there must have been some moisture in the air—and came crashing down on her. She pivoted to bend the water away from her, barely succeeding. His grasp on it was stronger.

"You don't really want to understand what we are, who we are, why we are," he claimed slowly. "You just want an excuse to hurt us, like every waterbender in this miserable world you Avatars claim to want to balance." He turned his wrist; the water wrapped around her and froze.

Korra struggled to unfreeze herself. Her hands and legs were stuck, her head tilted upwards.

He loomed over her as she tried to melt the ice with her breath; if she didn't know better, she'd have sworn his head turned upside down while the rest of him stayed static. "Only I get to do that."

"Playtime's over," Beifong decided, shooting her wires at him; he used what remaining water that hadn't pinned Korra to block them temporarily. "Let go of her."

"She'll just start her rageful attacks again. Your strategy is failing and you know it, and it's hilarious," he said with a laugh as he let the water shielding him drop to the floor. He'd said what he'd wanted to say.

Beifong's wires wrapped around him, dropping him to his knees. The loosened bandages on his arm were starting to fall off. The ice surrounding Korra remained.

"I'll take him back to his cell. We'll circle back in ten minutes," Beifong dictated, dragging him out as his body and face went slack.

The ice returned to a liquid state. Korra shivered briefly before storming out of the room.

Mako was still waiting outside. "So…how did it go?" he asked carefully.

"I'm going to kick that guy straight back to the spirit world when I get my hands on him—who does he think he is, talking to me like that?" Korra growled, her arms crossed.

"So it went poorly, got it…did you at least learn anything new?"

"You were wrong, he is a waterbender, and he hates them to boot, which is really confusing, and hurtful, and—gah!" Korra covered her eyes. "How is this even possible?"

Mako tapped his chin. "Did he bend any of the other elements at the same time," he inquired.

"…no, he didn't. He just bent water." She wracked her emotion-filled brain. "He mentioned other people were there, but that can't be right—"

"Maybe it is. We can't be certain yet, but there were definitely shifts in how he looked and talked whenever he was using a different element."

"He basically admitted to being a spirit though."

"Who did?"

Silence fell between the two.

"La's fins, you might just be onto something."

DID is not possession, and having a spirit alter isn't possession either

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