A/N: Oh hi, hello! Do people still read this? Haha, I hope you remember what's happened! I know it's not the best story and I've been working on writing better. Initially, I was going to wait to post this but it's been so long since I updated and I wanted everyone to know that I really haven't dropped this story. I hope you're all still interested and I'm still incredibly busy with school but I'm still writing. I know it's taking so long but thanks for staying with me.

Also, note, the previous chapter was Korra's point of view. We're back to Asami's and we'll stick with her point of view until the end :)

Chapter 10

"Korra? Korra!" Asami grips the detective's form tighter but restrains enough to not hurt her. Hoping her nanobot strength will transfer to the detective is a naive thought but it still crosses Asami's mind. Tears burn behind her eyes. No, don't let them fall. Keep them inside. Don't show weakness to everyone.

Everyone...it's quiet. Wait.

Asami jerks her head up and looks around her. Sure enough, Mako, Lin, Jet and the rest of Charlie team are on the floor...unmoving.

Fuck. Fuck.

"Asami?" Opal calls for her best friend through the ear piece, "What's going on?"

"Everyone's dead," Asami whispers. She chokes on the sob that escapes her throat while she clutches Korra's limp body closer to her chest. Rocking back and forth, she's doing the best she can to stay as strong as possible but it's not working.

"Asami," Opal says gently, "did you check their pulses?"

Pulses...right. Lifting a shaking hand, she carefully places two fingers on the side of Korra's neck. A second passes, then two. Her patience wears thin and she's about to tell Opal they're really dead but then she feels a faint thump.

She gasps, bringing her free hand to clutch at her chest. Air floods back into it, expanding her lungs. "She's alive!" Asami exclaims.

She can feel Opal's eye roll through the earpiece but she doesn't care. Korra's alive. That's all that matters. Still, Opal always finds a way to tease her, "You should have checked those first." She sighs, "If you're done being a bi mess, go check the others. I'll see if I can wake them up somehow."

Before Asami can even get up, a booming click echoes through the high ceiling room. The hairs on the back of her neck rise as she hears a hiss. A few seconds later red, thick gas starts to fill the room. Looking up and around, she panicks when there's no source for the gas. Shit. This is not good.

"Opal!" Asami yells. She needs to say this. Before she can't breathe anymore, "It-it's gas! I don't know what it does but I can't hold my breath for long!" If Opal replies she doesn't hear it. Instead, she inhales a deep, clean breath before the gas envelops her in a red wave.

For a second she considers covering Korra's face with something, anything. But what if she can't breathe afterwards? Can she give Korra oxygen through mouth to mouth? But they're both going to faint anyway. There's no point in doing any of that.

Her vision swims with tiny black and white stars. Her chest starts to ache with lack of oxygen, feeling the muscles of her lungs wanting to expand. She knows she'll lose consciousness within seconds. There's nothing she can do.

Her body begins to slump. Limbs become dead weights, bringing her down like cinderblocks thrown into the ocean. Her body collapses completely, she's not in control anymore. It's a lost cause to keep holding her breath so she gives in. Lets her lungs expand, filling it with air it so desperately needs. All she gets though is the thick, ugly red gas in her throat and she coughs as it slithers down into her chest.

It's a struggle to open her eyes but she manages it. Red is all she can see, she can't even see the outline of Korra's face who she knows is underneath her.

It takes every ounce of strength to bring her hand up. She can feel the taut muscles of Korra's chest underneath her palm as she tries to feel for a heartbeat along her pulse point. Gods, it's so faint. But it's there so she commits the rhythm to memory. Her breath's coming in short breaths now and she knows she shouldn't do that but everything feels so heavy. Her lungs demanding clean, sweet air but constricting in pain when the gas is all they receive. The energy it took to bring her arm up was too much. She's slipping in and out of conscious, doing her best to fight off the gas's effects. Her efforts...futile.

As she blacks out, Asami focuses on the quiet but steady beating of Korra's heart underneath her fingertips.

Thump. Thump.

/

Thump. Thump.

Asami wrinkles her nose. The last she remembers is feeling Korra's heartbeat. There's knocking on a door that sounds oddly like the detective's heart but a quick check of her surroundings tells her she's not encased in sickly red gas.

She's back at her loft.

Weird.

Brow furrowing, she clambers out of her bed towards the knocking.

She opens the door and yelps when she finds the detective grinning widely at her with perfect pearly whites.

"Korra?" Asami asks. She sticks her head out, peering around the detective to confirm, yep, she's definitely in her loft. That's her hallway and the picture of her father posted above a small table at the end. There's that small gash in the wall from when Opal was wielding one of her weapons and got carried away.

What the hell is going on?

Korra sighs, "Thanks, babe! My hands were full and I couldn't knock properly. I thought I was going to be stuck out there for hours!" She moves through Asami's bedroom with the ease and comfort of someone who's lived there for years. As Korra places her items on the bedside table, Asami's look of horror and confusion goes completely unnoticed.

Babe?! Asami's brain short circuits and zeroes in on the detective's nonchalant use of the word. This can't be real. Her and Korra, it's not...no it would never be real. She doesn't deserve to fall in love after everything she's done.

This isn't real.

It's not and yet, Asami felt her heart bloom and ache with conflicted feelings over the detective's term of endearment. She wants this to be real. Gods, she wants this so badly but...Asami shakes herself out of the shock.

She opens her mouth to speak but Korra beats her to the punch by pushing a piece of fruit into her mouth. As her lips close around the fruit and Korra's finger, she sucks on the residual juices. Nipping the tip of the finger, she lets it go with a soft pop.

What the fuck?!

Where did that flirty move come from?!

Despite Asami's internal freak out, her body responds to the action she just performed, feeling heat pool into her stomach. And if Korra's dilated pupils and slight smirk are anything to go by, this seems like a normal precursor for them to...you know. Asami clenches her thighs.

Korra takes in all of Asami, watching her fidget and attempt to hide her arousal. The smirk grows wider as she licks her lips. She slowly drags her gaze back up to Asami's eyes, locking green irises in place. Enraptured, Asami watches as the arousal pushes the black of her pupils closer to the edges almost swallowing the blue. Her breath hitches as Korra takes a slow, deliberate step forward while biting her bottom lip.

Asami shifts her weight again and feels a jolt rock her body.

The jolt felt like it was a result of her physical attraction to Korra. As she approaches, she feels a spike of excitement. Her heart racing with anticipation.

But a moment later, her vision falters cutting out to red and her chest feels like she can't breathe. It lasts a second then her vision is back to Korra who has finally reached her. "What the—," she clutches her head and shuts her eyes, willing herself to find something real, substantial. Something that isn't dream-like. Something that she knows is reality. A reality where Korra hates her, is hurt by her. Where she knows she'll finish this mission with Sozin dead and her wrists in cuffs. Where she knows she'll spend the rest of her days rotting in a cell. Where Opal is safe back at the loft, smiling happily with a clumsy Bolin. Where Lin has a permanent scowl on her face and Mako matches it. Where a flirty joyous Jet greets her at the front desk of the precinct, smiling and hopeful. Where everyone is protected, safe, away from harm and the Red Lotus.

This...dream...it's not real. It can never be real. Because Asami decided to take up this mantle, carrying it on her shoulders letting it weigh her down until her knees are digging into the floor. Because she saw the horrifying experiments Red Lotus was conducting, taking innocent people away from their families. Innocent wives, husbands, daughters, sons, friends. Because no matter the consequences, no matter what her father might have done, she loves her city. She loves her company. She loves her people.

Korra's face swarms her view and she takes on a ridiculously cute furrow, her eyebrows pinching together in worry, "Babe? Hey, are you okay?"

But the last sentence sounds muffled, like she's swimming underwater. Another jolt wracks her body leaving itchy tingles at her fingertips and toes. Her vision falters again, this time a room filled with traces of red, bodies everywhere. Somehow Asami knows that this room with hints of red tendrils is her reality. She knows that there will never be a reality where Korra will utter the word 'babe' and it will be direct towards her. So she accepts this vision, embraces the red, clings onto that sight. And it holds for awhile longer as another muffled voice fills her head.

"Asami. Asami!"

Korra and the other voice sound extremely worried. Part of her wants to settle here with this wonderful reality and the woman of her dreams, living happily. Peacefully. And if she really looked back, memories flood her mind: an awkward first date, the warmth of Korra's hand in hers, the moment Korra gets down on one knee and revealing an intricate proposal necklace from the Water Tribe. It's all there rooted within her heart and mind, making her feel like she really did have this life with Korra. That she offered her place for Korra to move into and she wakes up every morning to breakfast in bed. It's not real though. She knows that now.

She's decided to turn away from paradise and face hell. The other voice is getting more insistent, more desperate. Another jolt courses through her. This time though, she can tell it's electricity. Her vision is back to Korra, who's now leaning over her while she cradles her body.

"Asami, wake up," Korra's mouth is moving but it's not her voice singing in her ears. It's...who is it?

Asami squeezes her eyes shut, willing the headache and the memories of a happy life to fade away.

Korra's worried face melts. No, literally. It's melting away. The skin slithers across the surface, revealing horrifying flesh and veins underneath. Her mouth is still moving and she sees the gums attached to bare teeth but no signs of what Korra looked like before. A cold shiver runs down Asami's spine at the sight. Then a final jolt of electricity yanks her completely away from Korra and into a large circular room, bodies everywhere.

It takes her a moment to realize where she's at, what just happened. There's a slightly muffled sound in her ear. It grows louder as each minute passes. Without warning, the sound comes through loud and clear. Battering her eardrums incessantly with, "Asami! Wake up, Asami! Damn it!"

"Opal?"

"Oh thank gods. Are you okay?" Asami can imagine the hairs on Opal's head quickly fading to a snowy white as the woman on the other end exhales a relieved sigh.

"Yeah, I think. What happened?" Her head aches, the air smells metallic, and there's a very heavy weight pushing down on her thighs.

"That gas. It knocked you out. I don't know what it did exactly but I had to activate the nanobots in your body to...uh...well shock you awake."

Ah. That explains that. "Do I need to be worried you'll start controlling me like a puppet?" Asami quips as she attempts to shift her weight. She looks down and sees the limp form of the detective. "Korra!"

She frantically places two fingers against Korra's neck, struggling to find a pulse.

Thump.

It's there.

Faint but it's there.

"Asami, you need to wake them up," Opal says, pulling her away from her moment of relief.

"Right...," Asami shakes the detective's shoulders, not too strong and not too light, coaxing her back to reality. It takes awhile, way too long for Asami to keep her cool. But eventually, Korra starts to stir. The detective's eyes flicker open and Asami is welcomed by a wave of blue. They're slightly glossy, still lost somewhere else. It takes all of her willpower to push away the memories—now starting to fade—and leave Korra. She has to wake everyone else up.

/

Groans begin to fill the circular room, ricocheting off of the curved walls. Some are coughing, forcing the remnants of red gas out of their lungs. Mako, Chief Beifong, and everyone else's voices erupt in a flurry of, "what just happened?"

Just as the fog beings to clear from their heads, Asami hears a scream. "No! Please, please! Stop! Make it stop!" It echoes around the room making it too difficult to pinpoint the origin as Asami frantically swivels her head.

She hears it—the sickening click—a second before it happens and she's crying out, "No!" just as the gunshot rings in her ear. Asami hears the body thud to the floor to her right where two or three police officers have gathered. One is covering her mouth and looking away while another is clenching their fists. Asami rushes to the body, selfishly praying it isn't who she thinks it is.

On the floor is a mass of brown hair, the police uniform, a pool of blood slowly pouring underneath, and the lines of red that have veered away from the main mass, snaking its way along the grooves of the metal floor.

Oh gods.

It's Jet.

Tears have mixed with a nosebleed on Jet's face, forming a jagged line starting at the edge of nose. Her face is permanently etched into a look of terror. The gun, still smoking from the barrel is gripped by one of her lifeless hands. A sob wracks the body of one of the police officers behind her.

"She was screaming for help but no one was touching her," says the one with clenched fists, Asami can hear the grinding of his teeth as his jaw works back and forth.

"I—I—she's—," the sobbing one struggles to breathe, to speak. Her words start to grow fainter as the other officer gently leads them away from Jet's body.

Asami respectfully, reverently closes Jet's eyes. She was young, too young. Unable to experience love, duty, loyalty. To her city, her friends, her family, her future love interest. She was all giggles and smiles and teasing. She didn't deserve this. She didn't deserve to suffer whatever she saw while influenced by the red gas.

She deserved a better life.

And it's all Asami's fault.

Sorrow and anger rush through Asami's veins, painfully pulsing and pounding within her head. Her ears ringing as she sits on her knees, hands balled into fists atop her thighs. A warm, familiar hand squeezes Asami's shoulder and she looks up to see Korra, staring at Jet. She doesn't say a word but her face tells Asami everything. The hard set of her jaw. The flashing of her eyes which she swears grow a little bit darker. The squeeze on her shoulder tightening by the second until eventually, the hand lets go. "She was too young," Asami hears the detective say.

Asami takes in a deep, calming breath, focusing on the anger throbbing within her.

Sozin will pay for this.

/

They have no way to carry out Jet's body to the surface. After Chief Beifong found a door directly across from the sealed off entrance, there was a huge argument on whether they should leave Jet. There was a compromise, at least. Two officers helped carry Jet out of the circular room, carefully placing her beside the exit. Swearing they'll come back in here to properly bury her, the teams move on. Some hesitating slightly but reason seems to wash over them as they realize that staying with a dead body won't help them out of this lair.

Asami's heart breaks with every guilty step as she walks away from the woman who deserved better.

/

Sozin will pay for this.

/

The next room is small, only big enough to fit everyone shoulder to shoulder and back to back. A desk sits in the middle. There's nothing on it except for a desk lamp but there's no dust on its surface so it must mean that Sozin and his people frequent this area often; that, or the janitor decided last night was a good night to clean everything.

At first it seems like a dead end but when two sliding doors slither open, revealing a large elevator, everyone knows it's a trap. Everyone knows...yet they continue forward. Exhausted, angered, and some injured cluster into the elevator. Though they've been attacked, broken, and beat up, they hold their heads high. Chins tilted upwards, tight fists by their sides, chests breathing fury into their lungs with every inhale, revenge and resolve with every exhale.

At the forefront stands Asami, staring at the metal doors, fingertips twitching and aching for the cold steel strapped to her forearm. The eagerness of warm blood slipping down her blade and her bare arms.

The look of horror when Sozin breathes his last breath.

He will pay for this.

/