Chapter Text

“Now I know we have a lot of of business to attend to regarding the state of the Earth Kingdom and it’s rebuilding but since we finally have the two best engineers back in the city at the same time, I want to start this meeting with talking about the expansion of the city.” Raiko regarded Asami and Varrick. “I hope you enjoyed your time off because starting next week we will kick the rebuilding process into overdrive.”

“Sir, I thought we were simply expanding the city and leaving the destroyed buildings in their place?” Asami questioned.

“If anything is done to put the spirit portal in danger, I will shut it down.” Korra warned.

“Don’t worry Avatar, no harm will be done to the area around the spirit portal. The area around the spirit wild will be a protected habitat and Avatar Korra Park is going to be extended to create a larger habitat for the spirits to exist it. I have trusted Master Jinora and Master Tenzin to advise on the design of the area.” Raiko answered, hoping to assuage Korra.

“So what’s this I’ve heard of demolishing the buildings then?” Asami asked. “I thought they would be left alone?”

“I was advised by Chief Beifong that leaving areas for criminal activities to stir would be a bad idea, I trust her judgement so we’ve had groups patrolling the area for the past couple of days.”

“What about all the homeless refugees that are being displaced by those searches?” Korra questioned.

“They are being dealt with.” Raiko barked.

“and what do you mean by being dealt with?” Asami asked. “They deserve to be protected, the Earth Kingdom is in disarray again and anyone looking to find shelter in the United Republic deserves to find it.”

“Then let’s get to our second order of business then, the state of the Earth Kingdom and a how we are going to help it towards new governance.” Firelord Izumi chimed in. “It should come to no surprise that the Earth Kingdom has once again fallen into chaos after the former Prince Wu’s complete disregard for all advice given to him. The lack of information given to the public has tripled banditry and once again plunged Ba Sing Se into a rioting mess. This power vacuum could have easily been avoided had Wu taken control of the kingdom while the details of it’s replacement were worked on.”

“What about the neighboring states wanting to join the United Republic?” Korra asked. “Shouldn’t that be seen as a priority too? We don’t want chaos that close to the border do we?”

“Those negotiations are ongoing.” Raiko answered indignantly.

Korra couldn’t believe how little Raiko actually cared about the world around him.

“So what’s the plan then? Stabilizing Ba Sing Se and hoping that the rest of the Earth Kingdom sorts itself out?” Korra asked, annoyed that no one wanted to touch the subject. “We need troops out there stabilizing the states, we can’t risk having the Earth Kingdom sorting itself out by itself. More importantly we can’t risk any remaining Red Lotus fanatics grouping together. We need intel. We need, we need…” Korra hated to say it. “We need intel from Kuvira. She’s the last person to unionize the kingdom.”

“We can arrange that.” Raiko stated solemnly.

Korra finally backed down as Fire Lord Izumi took the floor and laid out a plan of stabilizing the Earth Kingdom. She had nothing further to add, she was worried about the remnants of The Red Lotus amassing more followers and wanted whatever hideouts they had, smoked out. The Fire Lord’s plan seemed thorough enough; she would lend her troops to help spread as many troops as possible across the kingdom, they would bring peace to the area by squashing whatever local bandits were causing trouble, then they would help whatever governor of state with food supplies and rebuilding, they would leave a small group of soldiers to help defend the states and bring the governors to Ba Sing Se once everything was stabilized to work out a way for all the states to cooperate together as one nation, if at all possible. Korra would help where needed, starting with Ba Sing Se, but first she wanted to assurance that the neighboring states would be given fair terms in whatever was done to allow their merger to the United Republic.

---

“That meeting went great!” Korra said sarcastically.

“It wasn’t that bad; we have a pretty solid plan for rebuilding the Earth Kingdom, Future Industries has a new contract to repair the broken rail lines and redesign the infrastructure in Ba Sing Se, and Raiko is caving towards helping the refugees.”

“Yeah, I just hope he doesn’t stall on it too long, he’ll be needing a new door if he does.”

“Don’t worry, I know how he works. I had to work with him very closely when I was redesigning the city and he’ll cave after a while with enough prodding. Why don’t we get some lunch?”

---

“What are you doing Bolin?” Opal questioned her boyfriend who was busy cramming his clothes into a suitcase as she walked into their shared room on Air Temple Island.

“I’m packing up, Team Avatar is bringing peace to the Earth Kingdom. You better start packing too.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Korra just swung by, said we were leaving for Ba Sing Se tomorrow and that team Avatar is back in action. I finally get to do what I originally wanted to do 3 years ago, I get to restore peace in the Earth Kingdom, and maybe my family can finally go back home.”

“I’m glad you finally get to do what you meant to do originally but are you sure Korra wants me to come too? I’m not really part of team Avatar.”

“I’m one hundred fifty percent sure, now come on; let’s go get lunch, Korra invited us to join her and Asami.”

---

“So where exactly are we going for lunch?” Asami asked, “I have no idea what is open.”

“We could go to Wan’s, they just reopened up a couple of days ago. Most of uptown is still intact so all the restaurants there are opening up one by one.” Opal answered.

“sounds great!” Korra responded.

---

“So what is the plan for the city expansion anyway?” Bolin asked. “I really can’t see them extended downtown as far as they would need to because Aang’s memorial and Air Temple Island is in the way.”

“So far is looks like the buildings left standing will be demolished for safety concerns, outside of that businesses that plan on reopening in the area will be rebuilt in the area and the city will be extended somewhat towards Air Temple Island.” Asami answered. “I’m still pushing for Future Industries to have a large campus instead of a single building with my manufacturing spread out.”

“So that incredibly long ferry ride will be cut in half?” Bolin asked.

“Something like that. The specifics still need to be discussed, which I’m hoping to do tomorrow with Raiko. Regardless, I’m going to have to split my time between team Avatar and rebuilding the city; I don’t trust Varrick to plan the city intelligently.”

“Knowing him, he’d set some hippo cows loose and plan the roads around that.” Korra said sarcastically.

Their food finally arrived and the four of them dug in. The restaurant specialized in Fire Nation Cuisine and it took Asami some coaxing to get Korra to order the spiced pig chicken. Asami had ordered an array of prepared fish wraps while Bolin and Opal shared an order or fire flakes and hot onion rings.

“We are inviting Officer Moody too, right?” Bolin asked.

“Of course we are, he’s part of team Avatar too.” Korra said. “Whether he wants to come or not is up to him, I imagine he wants to see his boyfriend in Ba Sing Se.”

Everyone laughed.

“Where is he anyway? Korra asked. “I wanted to invite him but I had no idea where he would be.”

“Probably at the police station, that’s where he’s been living the past week.” Opal answered. “You’d think he’d be spending time with his family.”

“Why don’t we all go down there and surprise him?” Bolin asked.

“That sounds like a great idea.” Korra said excitedly, causing Opal and Asami and to share glances of disbelief.

---

The four of them entered the police station to a confused desk clerk.

“Um, how can I help all of you?” She asked.

“We’re here to talk to Detective Grumpypants. This is very important business.” Bolin answered.

“I’m sorry?” She answered with an increasingly confused look growing on her face.

“We’re here to see Detective Mako.” Opal exclaimed. “Please excuse my boyfriend, he’s an idiot. And also Mako’s brother.”

“I see, I’ll go get him; he just got back from lunch.” The clerk said, disappearing around the wall behind him.

“How rude, he went to lunch without us.” Bolin said.

“And we went to lunch without him, we’re even.” Opal said flatly.

“There he is!” Korra exclaimed as Mako walked into the lobby of the police station.

Mako, already confused by the desk clerk declaring that a deranged family member was here to see him, was further embarrassed realizing his whole group of friends had dragged him away from his job. “What are all you doing here?”

“Well we wanted to invite you to lunch but we had no idea where you would be so we just called it a double date.” Bolin said.

“But what we’re really here to do is invite you on a team Avatar mission into Ba Sing Se.” Korra said.

“I don’t know, Beifong has me really busy right now, I don’t think she’d be happy if I just left in the middle of my work.”

“I don’t care, go ahead.” Lin said, who just happened to be walking into the building. “You’ve been working hard the past month protecting that insufferable idiot Wu, you deserve a vacation with your friends.”

“Thanks Chief.”

“Don’t mention it, you have 2 weeks, spend it wisely.”

“Woo hoo! Team Avatar is back in action!” Bolin yelled, grabbing everyone into a large bear hug.

