Asami no longer slept without stimulation. She laid her head on Air Temple Island with radio static humming her to sleep. The week prior, she had slept in the spirit world, and Korra had been her distraction. She did not know what would happen now. And though she drifted to sleep, she did so in fear of the nightmare creeping at her peripheries.

She heard Zhu Li's radio open- a long pause of static while she thought.

"Ok. We have visual, here. Colossus is entering the kill zone. Sato, are you with me?"

Asami had to look down and check her joysticks for the switch. She saw her father's hair in the cockpit below her, and the quick work of his fingers adjusting his saw reticle. She thumbed her mic open.

"On your Five, Zhu Li. Closing."

Her own commitment stunned her. When her mic released, she heard for a long time the wings of the Varrick Wasp thrumming as fast as her heart. She could pilot a car, but flying was a whole new skill. And here she was on a hair-brained plan to save the world. They had the Avatar on their side. Now, all they needed was luck.

"Dad?"

"What is it, Asami?"

"We're ready for this. Right?"

"I will be honest, Asami."

He looked up from his targeting reticles. He did not see as they rounded Cabbage Corp Tower and the colossus came into view.

"I have always dreamed of destroying a giant robot."

He smiled, seeing her resist a giggle.

"Me too, dad."

Static interrupted.

"Zhu Li, how do you work this thing?"

"Here. Let me. Varrick, stop touching it and focus! Asami, we're moving into range. I'll stay over Kuvira's right shoulder. Aim low while we distract her. Remember the plan, and stay mobile."

Hiroshi chuckled as she finished.

"She's quite bossy. She reminds me of your mother."

Asami had to shake that thought aside. Her mother was gone. But her father was there. The nightmare was only in her peripheries, waiting.

"Ok. I'm going in. Ready, Dad?"

"I'm ready, Asami."

She felt her grip on two joysticks, and the seamless reaction time with the wings. She and Hiroshi had perfected this flying machine as a team. They were together on this problem and solution for the first time in years. Like Zhu Li and Varrick, this family was now united. She thumbed her radio open.

"Zhu Li, we're drawing most of her attention. Can you make a move?"

"Roger. Varrick and I are engaging."

The nightmare sharpened, and her heartrate purred like a racing Satomobile. Her body tensed. The controls responded to her every feeling. She made a buzz past the bridge of the colossus. She saw Kuvira's Kata, then saw it mimicked when the dance played out across the golem's body. Kuvira met eyes with her, and Asami realized with a jolt of fear that they were dancing together.

"Something's wrong," her father mumbled.

"Kinda busy, Dad."

She had two arms to keep track of, and the closer she got to Kuvira's attention, the faster the arms seemed to move. Her father scanned the ground battle with concern.

"I can't see Korra from here. Is she in position?"

Asami dived to save them from a swinging arm. The feeling of her seat falling out from under her lurched every organ she had.

"Zhu Li, I'm diving out! Watch yourself."

"I see her! Varrick, retract. We're waiving off."

And the dance continued.

"There she is," Hiroshi murmured.

"Alright, Dad. Zhu Li is drawing their attention. We're up next. Get the saw ready."

Her father focused, and she felt with him the sudden connection she'd had before with Korra. It was the assurance of competency. She saw his reticle light up and their landing gear extend under his control.

"The flat surface on the right thigh, just below the hip," he asserted.

"I see it. Closing."

"Too fast."

"Gotta save time, Dad."

"Too fast!"

"Fine. Slowing."

"Three-hundred meters. Two-hundred. One. Fifty, forty, easy, easy. There."

She flared the wings back and felt her wasp clank against the colossus' thigh. The sound of an arc-saw flared up just as they landed, and her father's half of the cockpit lit up like a star. She barely heard her radio under the sound of cutting.

"Asami, we're pulling back! Watch your ten, high!"

She looked up, saw the arm coming down on her.

"Dad, retract! We're moving!"

And the dance continued. Asami had more brainpower to spare than piloting required. She imagined herself as Kuvira. She imagined what the power-addled woman was seeing, and if she would realize how close she was to the canal and a pissed-off avatar. Her next pass over the colossus' bridge ended that meta-game. The shock of realization was on Kuvira's face. Zhu Li's voice on the radio confirmed it.

"She's turning out of the kill-zone! Asami, it's now or never! I'm signaling Korra! You have the longest cut, so you move in! On three."

A flare spat from Zhu Li's Wasp.

"One."

The memory of what happened next began to claw at Asami's mind. She denied it. Her mind ran through courses of action, and the rapid degradation of their tactical situation shook every muscle in her body.

"Two."

"Sorry, Dad, but we're going in hot this time!"

"I understand."

"Three!"

The coordination had to be perfect. Zhu Li committed her wasp to Kuvira's attention. Asami cut her engine, and her father trusted that their forward V was enough to land them right on target. Asami had never learned to pray or meditate or standardize a hope. But she hoped with all of her might that Korra was ready. Asami brought her wings back online just as the trap sprang. Bolts of ice leapt up from the canal and entombed the colossus. Avatar Korra had just erected a skyscraper in the blink of an eye.

Asami lit up her engine and heaved back on the joysticks, felt her weight increase as the wasp struggled to a hover, heard her father's methodical worry.

"Seven-hundred meters, four-hundred, three, two, One, Asami?"

Clank.

Asami did not watch her father work this time. Her eyes rose to the battle above them. She saw as the colossus's right arm cracked free. Here, the nightmare faltered in its grip, and she realized with an uninhibited dread what would happen next. And she realized that she could not change it.

The arm swung free in a sudden jerk. She saw smoke. There was no radio static. Zhu Li punched her mic, broadcasting a bitonal wail as harmony to her melodious panic.

"Hydraulic failure! Asami, we're punching out! You're on your own! HOLD ON!"

A chunk of ice landed on Asami's windshield. She glanced down to her father.

"Dad?"

He did not flinch from his work. The cut was now a semi-circle.

"This is our last chance, Asami."

"Dad, we have to move."

"Almost there."

A shadow eclipsed them. Asami saw the palm of the golem descending.

"Dad. Dad! We have to waive off!"

"Almost there."

She saw three-quarters of the hole completed. In reality, she had felt hope. She had imagined laughing this moment off with her father over a game of Pai Sho. She felt only fear now, and an intense need to not be living in this nightmare.

"Dad?"

"Almost there."

She remembered the last embrace of her mother. She remembered every beaming smile of pride her father had cast her way. She remembered her first kiss with Korra in the Spirit World. All three of their voices were as one.

"I love you, Asami."

"No. No! NO! I'm pulling us out, this time!"

She jerked on the joysticks, but they did not move. Across her dashboard lit up an array of red lights, led by a blinker, "Lockout-" then darkness consumed her panels. Her father's hand rested on her ejector.

"Goodbye, Asami."

No controls responded. She did not have control. The rear hatch popped, air hissing in and whirling her hair into action. She felt it all as if struggling through ocean water. She saw in perfect detail and terribly slow motion as the boosters under her seat ignited. She tried with all of her might to reach over her display and grab her father, to take him with her.

Then she felt G forces. Her spirit slammed back into her body as it shot upright in bed. She was woken by her own screams defying tragedy. Her voice was sore. And though her senses returned, her father did not. And she did not stop screaming