This time, when Asami opened her eyes, she was able to recognize that the foggy walking-in-water sensation that suffused through her senses meant that she was dreaming again; it took a moment longer however, for Asami to identify what it was she was dreaming about.

Blinking the disorientation away, she looked about her and saw she was in a small but not entirely unpleasant room with a small single bed in the corner and a round table with a couple of chairs on the other side. The only signs of evidence that perhaps the room was not as benign as Asami had originally thought it to be was the fact that there were heavy bars on the windows, great big locks on the door, and what looked like several restraints hanging off of one side of the bed.

'An... asylum?' Asami thought, bewildered. 'Why am I dreaming about an asylum?'

"I don't know. Maybe you're crazy too?"

Turning around at the unexpected voice, Asami blinked in confusion as she saw the teenaged girl in a straightjacket sitting in the corner in the room. As her eyes fell upon her, Asami couldn't help but feel a great twist of something full of yearning inside as she instantly recognized the girl from... from somewhere.

The girl's long black hair was unbound and fell into her face, but it was not entirely unkempt; someone had brushed it. The hospital clothing she was wearing under the straightjacket was clean and unsoiled, as was the straight jacket itself. Her voice was equal parts bored and contemptuous in that way that only adolescence could really manage to convey and ennui in her golden eyes couldn't quite disguise the complicated miasma of conflicting emotion underneath.

Asam's eyes widened as her heart urgently pushed her brains to place the girl, and something deep in Asami's memory tinged and a vague recollection of seeing this girl wearing historic fire nation armour came upon her.

Despite the shockingly different state the girl was in compared to the last time she had dreamed of her ('in that... in that Fire Nation garden!'), there was no doubt in Asami's mind that they were the same person.

And the epiphany rushed upon all her senses like a tidal wave upon a beach.

'My... daughter?'

No sooner as the thought came to her did the girl's eyebrows lift, as though she could hear Asami's thoughts. A lot of the negativity dispelled from her golden eyes, before she schooled her expression into one of feigned boredom once again and looked away from Asami, leaning back against the wall.

And Asami could not understand exactly how she could know this – that this girl was her daughter, the child she was carrying right now in her womb - but from the very depths of her heart, her spirit, her soul, she knew that there was no one else this person could be.

No one else could quite cause this sort of wondrous joy to flare so strongly in a parent's heart even as abject worry clenched at their stomach.

Seeing the girl in such a twisted at Asami's insides painfully and she took one step forward instinctively, wanting, so badly, to reach out to her.

The girl looked back over at Asami calmly, her lips twisted into that same contemptuous sneer that had been on her face for most of their last meeting. Curiously, Asami noted idly to herself, the girl now looked only to be in her mid-teens, where she had been in her late teens previously.

"You'll have to excuse my rudeness," the girl said dryly and not sounding very sorry at all. "I'd have prettied myself up a little if I knew I was going to have a visitor."

Asami stared back at the girl for a long time, before she was able to swallow back the torrid of emotions inside her. Her gut instinct was still telling her to go to her child and undo that terrible straightjacket, but some rational part of Asami's mind kept trying to point out that there might be a reason why she was wearing that thing, even as another part of Asami's mind suggested that since this was all a dream anyway, maybe her daughter could probably get out of the restraints herself. So despite her mother's intuition screaming at her to do otherwise, Asami stayed standing where she was for now, though she found herself needing to clench her hands into fists to help control her shaking.

It took Asami a long time to figure out what to say in return to the girl.

"... Hi."

"..." The girl was clearly unimpressed with Asami's eloquence. "Hello, Mother."

Asami's heart skipped a beat at the title and she couldn't help but feel equal parts pleased and maybe perturbed as well. It wasn't every day a first time parent found herself having a conversation with a grown daughter after all, even if it was all happening in a dream.

"Why... are you wearing that?" Asami finally asked.

The girl was unperturbed. "Because people think I'm crazy."

Asami honestly hadn't expected the casual explanation. "... are you?"

Her daughter gave her a harsh bark of laughter. "Well I am having a conversation with a figment of my imagination, aren't I?"

Asami frowned. Something very obvious the she couldn't quite put her finger on wasn't making sense. "But... but this is a dream. I'm dreaming - I know I'm dreaming." She looked down at herself and indeed saw that she was wearing a set of Korra's pajama bottoms and tank top; they never did get around to finding a new nightgown for Asami at the South Pole, so she and Korra had ended up sleeping in the buff for the rest of their stay. But now, on their journey back to Republic City, that hadn't seemed entirely appropriate, so they had raided Korra's old closet at the Chieftain's Palace before leaving the Southern Water Tribe.

Asami looked back over at her daughter. "Why would I dream about you being crazy?"

The girl looked away from Asami, leaning her head back against the wall, that bored expression coming back onto her face. "Well clearly, this isn't your dream," she said flatly. "This is my dream. Or, more appropriately, my nightmare."

"Your nightmare?" Asami considered this, a slow feeling of dread entering into the mix of emotions in her heart. "Why are you having nightmares about being in an asylum?"

The reaction was instantaneous, and completely at odds with the girl's earlier calmness. As if she'd been provoked, her daughter's face twisted into one of anger and she snarled at Asami. She leapt to her feet and for a moment, Asami thought she was going to attack her though she ultimately did not. "How DARE you!" The girl shrieked. "You put me in here in the first place, Mother, and you have the audacity to ask me that?! HOW DARE YOU?! I HATE YOU!"

The venom in the girl's words hit Asami with the full force with which they were flung and Asami felt as though someone had run her through with a knife. "W-what?" She gasped, involuntarily taking a step back, suddenly feeling hollow.

"GET OUT OF HERE!" The girl screamed, growing more and more unhinged. "GET OUT OF MY HEAD! EVERYONE THINKS I'M CRAZY BECAUSE YOU KEEP SHOWING UP IN MY HEAD! YOU'RE NOT WELCOME HERE, MOTHER! I KNOW YOU NEVER LOVED ME! YOU THINK I'M A MONSTER!"

It was some of Asami's worst nightmares come to life: her daughter spewing out hatred against her, so similar to the venom she had once spat at her own father in a fit of anger.

But, somehow, even as Asami thought she might be swallowed up by those horrible feelings of guilt, somewhere inside her, she could hear Korra's soothing words of comfort to her – that her father hadn't died thinking that she'd hated him, that he had found peace – and it was largely from her lover's words that she found herself drawing the strength she desperately needed right that moment to withstand her daughter's cruel tirade.

So Asami stood her ground, rooted to the spot, some ancient instinct inside her telling her to stand firm, to not budge an inch, to just let the girl hurl the abuse, no matter how much they hurt and confused her, knowing that she needed to let her get it out, that she didn't actually feel that way (hopefully).

It took a while, but eventually the girl fell to the ground, visibly shaking, and huddled in the corner. "You think I'm a monster." The girl repeated softly under her breath, her shoulder shaking. "You... you think I'm a monster!"

The hurt in the girl's voice nearly broke Asami's heart.

Because it was utterly crystal clear to Asami that it was her daughter herself who thought she was the monster.

Not able to take any more, Asami wordlessly crossed the room and knelt down to wrap her arms around the girl's head, pulling her into a tight hug.

Her daughter's eyes widened in horror and she struggled. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" She screamed, struggling against Asami. "Let go of me! LET GO!"

"No." Asami replied firmly, even as she grunted, the girl's wrenching against her painful and probably bruise inducing had this been more than a dream. She continued to hold the girl closer, despite her struggles. "I'm not letting you go. Ever."

"AAAgaagh!" Incredulous tears started to stream from the girl's eyes as she continued to struggle and rage, smashing herself against the wall hard enough to dislocate her shoulder, again, if this had been in the physical world. "You're not even here! You can't be here! You're just in my head!"

"You're wrong; it's not your head I'm in," Asami whispered softly, some ancient instinct deep inside her compelling her to speak the words she knew her daughter had to hear though she could never comprehend how she knew this. "It's your heart."

"AAAH!" Unable to take anymore, the girl took a sharp intake of breath, puffing out her cheeks, and then let loose a massive gout of flame into Asami's face.

Eyes widened in horror, Asami didn't have time to do anything at all as fiery death came towards her: all she could do was squeeze her eyes tight and grimace, even as she held the girl in her arms tighter, because she had already made a promise to her daughter - when they had plunged off the back of the raven-spirit that had tried to separate them - that she was never going to let her go.

"You're safe!" Asami cried, even as the flames burned horribly at her, burning her into nothing, repeating that promise she had made. "I've got you! I'm not letting you go! I'm not going to let you go for anything!"

And as she shouted this, even as her body melted away, Asami managed to open her eyes a crack, and she could see the girl - her daughter - golden eyes wide with shock and horror, even as the fire from her mouth abruptly extinguished itself.

The last thing Asami heard before she woke up was her daughter's anguished cry of regret.

"Mother! Don't go! Don't go!"

Asami woke up in the middle of the night to Korra's shaking.

"Asami? Asami, wake up!" Korra urged, worry clear in her voice.

"W-Wha-?" Asami asked blurrily, her eyes fluttering awake with a start. She was lying on her back while Korra was hovering to one side, a firm grip on her shoulder. Asami looked at Korra in confusion, blinking her eyes, surprised to find moisture caught between her eyelashes. "K-Korra?"

An expression of relief came onto Korra's face and she gave Asami a weak smile as she relaxed her hold on her shoulder. "You were having a nightmare."

Asami blinked a few more times, slowly, before her brow crinkled. "I'm not sure the nightmare was mine."

Korra frowned and cocked her head to the side questioningly. "?"

Asami put her hand on her lower abdomen, an expression of awe on her face. "I know this is going to sound crazy, but, I think the baby might be trying to talk to me..."

For a moment, Korra didn't quite know what to say as she considered what Asami was saying to her. Then she raised an eyebrow. "Um. Are you sure it's not just gas?" She laughed weakly when Asami gave her a look of reproach. "Okay, okay, not gas."

It took Asami a while for her to describe her dream to Korra - the one she'd just had, as well as what she could remember of the previous one, and when she was finished, Korra's expression of incredulity had turned into one of fascinated intrigue.

They laid comfortably beside each other in bed, holding hands and lost in thought, before Asami said softly, "... do you think it's got something to do with what King Enma said? About Lady Meng Po's... 'flag' on our daughter's soul?"

Korra nodded silently. "Yeah. I'm hoping we can get a little more information about her. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I kinda wish Botan was still here so we could grill him with questions, you know? But I guess he doesn't have any reason to stick around anymore."

They had only meant to stay a week at the South Pole with Korra's parents to enjoy the Glacier Spirit's Festival, but as they could not take a short cut through the spirit portal back to Republic City, they had had to take the slow way back, either by ship or air bison.

Then, the air family had had a surprise announcement to make, and that was the fact that Katara was going to relocate to Republic City to be with the rest of her family, seeing as how all her children and grandchildren were now gathered together in one spot. Once that decision had been made, however, everyone's stay at the Southern Water Tribe had had to be extended for a couple of weeks longer, so that the air family could help Katara prepare for the move.

When it was all said and done, by the time they'd left the South Pole, Korra and Asami had entered into the 2nd trimester, and the pregnancies were finally starting to show on both of them.

Everyone had decided that it was probably for the best to take it slow on the air bison, as the weather could be inhospitable this time of year, and they had planned to take several stops along the way. The first stop was the Southern Air Temple. This suited Korra and Asami just fine, as they had actually been hoping to do some research about this Meng Po that had been mentioned to them, and the Southern Air Temple's library boasted some of the most complete knowledge about the spirit world. The air family itself had also not been back to the Southern Air Temple where Aang had grown up since they had last been there on vacation three years earlier and were eager to return. They had arrived on Oogi and Pepper late in the evening so everyone had just ended up retiring for the evening.

"... I wonder if I'd be able to talk to her too?"

Asami turned to give Korra a look of wonder. "Can you do that? As the Avatar?"

"I don't know," Korra replied honestly. "But these don't sound like normal dreams, Asami. It sounds a little bit almost like meeting in the spirit world in some way - like our daughter's spirit is trying to reach out to you. And if that's the case, maybe I can find some way to talk to her spirit too. I'll ask Jinora for some advice in the morning."

"That sounds like a good idea."

Smiling at her fiancee, Asami cuddled up to Korra's side and held her close, putting one hand on the gentle swell of Korra's lower abdomen affectionately.

Korra chuckled as she kissed the top of Asami's head as they drifted off back to sleep. "I'm afraid I haven't really been having any similar experiences with this one. The kid's been perfectly considerate so far. For which I am totally thankful."

A/N: Sorry for how long it took me to push this one out, guys. I just had a lot of trouble with it and I'm still not quite sure I like it though hopefully where I'm going with this will be a more interesting read (if not quite "fun").

And I think I should probably give a heads up that chapters are probably going to be a bit slower coming out now. I'm an organizer for my local anime con, and I've got a few deadlines coming up over the next month and a half so this fic will have to take a little bit of a back seat for now. But! I do promise I will finish it, as I do have a pretty good idea of how the whole story will play out now! Yay! Thanks for your patience in advance!