[ Hei can feel her eyes on him -- bright with curiosity. There's no artifice in them, he knows that. On anyone else it might be a ploy to chisel away his barriers, to see the tick-tock of his mind up close. But Korra isn't like that. She's always been the embodiment of What You See Is What You Get ... With A Little Something Extra. ]

[ Not that it matters. These are questions he's asked himself often. Not just in the City, but back home. Repetition has stripped them of meaning, so they're just empty sounds now. His voice remains measured, his eyes locked straight ahead, remembering, ]

It's not so simple. [ A shark has to keep swimming or it dies. Reynard Maxley used to say that. As the years passed, Hei realized the comparison was strangely apt. ] It's more like I can't stop. I try, but the most I can do is take breaks from it. Like -- an addict falling on and off the wagon. But it always finds me again. Like it's trying to tell me that's all I am. [ Not a human. Not a Contractor. More like some grotesque third entity with the vices and virtues of both. ]