I have a message from another time... Eyrie Productions, Unlimited and Magnetic Terrapin Studios present Undocumented Features Future Imperfect THE LEGACY OF KORRA / THE ORDER OF THE ROSE Suite for Avatar and Trinity (The Diqiu Suite) Third Movement: Goodbye and Hello, As Always (The Director's Cut) Benjamin D. Hutchins Philip J. Moyer with Anne Cross (c) 2013, 2014 Eyrie Productions, Unlimited THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2410 AIR TEMPLE ISLAND, DIQIU Corwin Ravenhair woke up, but remained perfectly still, because he knew exactly where he was. The room where he lay was dim but not dark, the daylight outside diffusing softly through medium-weight window blinds, and silent but for the soft and pleasant sounds of those who had not yet awakened. Corwin didn't even bother opening his eyes at first. He'd have to do that soon enough anyway. Right now he was just going to savor the unique combination of being conscious of his situation and not actually needing to be yet. On some level, he had expected many things about the night that had just passed to be difficult, or awkward, or logistically complicated beyond his fatigue-and-stress-diminished capacity to cope with them. In practice, though, it had all just been really... quite nice. There had been frequent interruptions for routine maintenance, sure, but it was -still- one of the best nights' sleep he'd had in ages. He wondered idly whether - the cosmos being an inherently perverse place - that meant there was something wrong with him. If so, he decided, the hell with it. Let it be wrong. If it was wrong to enjoy lying here in this pleasantly cool, dim space, wrapped up in bison wool and warmth and love and subtle scents of roses and cinnamon and human beings, Corwin was reasonably sure he didn't want to be right. Presently the person to his right - technically in front of him, since he'd turned onto his right side at some point - stirred and made faint waking noises. He knew without looking which she would be, from the sounds and the flatness of the belly under his left hand; but he opened his eyes anyway, for no better reason than that he wanted to watch her open hers. This Utena Tenjou did a moment later, blinking awake with something just short of a start. Corwin watched her clear blue eyes focus on the unfamiliar ceiling, her face assume a demi-frown of thoughtful concentration as she considered it; then she blinked again, turned her head toward him, and smiled. "Corwin," she said quietly. "Good morning." "Morning, elskr," he replied, kissing her gently. Utena's smile became slightly wry, but also slightly dreamy, as she lay her head back against her pillow again. "I don't think I'll ever get tired of hearing that," she said. "That's good," Corwin agreed, "because I plan to keep saying it for... some time." "Get a room, you two," Anthy Tenjou mumbled from the far side of Utena, but when she raised her own head, she was smiling at them both. "Good morning, High Priestess," said Corwin cordially, moving his hand to place it on her arm where it crossed Utena's chest. "I trust you slept well?" "Astonishingly well, my Pillar, considering," Anthy replied. "OK, the formality is creeping me out a little," Utena observed. Anthy chuckled and gave her a kiss. "Be patient with us, my love. It's only the second time we've woken up together!" Utena would have replied to that, but before she could do so, there came a soft sound from the cradle next to the bed, alerting the three that the newest and smallest member of their household was awake as well. Three-quarters of an hour or so later, everyone was sorted out and ready to face the day. Showered and dressed, Utena went and opened the blinds, flooding the room with daylight and revealing another lovely day in Yue Bay. Standing by the sink in the ensuite with the door open, Corwin finished tending his beard. This, in its neatness, was considered a slightly weedy attempt by many of his maternal relations, but he was simply not up for growing the full Grizzly Adams, even if either of his ladies would have tolerated it (which he sincerely doubted). For their part, Anthy and Annabelle went back to bed - together, now that they were the only ones in it. "So," said Utena. "Plans for the day?" "Well," said Anthy, "you two should get to breakfast. Annabelle and I will stay here today, I think. She's likely to have a busy enough day without us venturing to the dining hall. Besides," she added with a smile, "call me old-fashioned, but I think when a woman has given birth, she's entitled to spend the next day in bed if she likes." Utena laughed. "I wouldn't presume to argue -that,-" she said, remembering vividly the ordeal she'd watched her lover endure the night before. Anthy had bounced back from it amazingly. Utena expected that if -she- had gone through an experience like that, she'd still be a mumbling wreck the next morning, but here was Anthy sitting up in bed all bright-eyed and cheery, plainly just taking it easy because she felt like it rather than because she had no choice. It was a thing to be marveled at, and Utena did so as she bent and kissed her. After a moment's hesitation, she did the same to Annabelle's forehead, lightly. She thought the infant looked pleased about that, but she couldn't really tell. Anthy's smile was a little bit gentle as she squeezed Utena's hand and then let her go. Their instant's eye contact was all she needed to convey her understanding of that hesitation - that Utena was still working on getting her head around the very -concept- that their family now included a baby daughter, and that Anthy had faith in her adaptability. For his part, Corwin seemed to have no trouble with that. He kissed his daughter first, and then her mother, before he and Utena took their leave, promising to return straightaway after breakfast. "You're taking to this incredibly well," she observed to Corwin as they made their way down the hall. Taking his hand as they walked, she laced her fingers with his and added, "I figured you'd be a little shell-shocked today. I know I am." Corwin squeezed her hand. "All my panic's on the inside," he assured her; then, less flippantly, he added, "Though actually, yeah, I feel pretty good. I mean, I wasn't sure -how- I'd react, and I think I'm still loading a bunch of the software patches, but overall? Not as unready as I expected to feel." He grinned wryly. "That'll probably change as soon as something doesn't go exactly right." Utena laughed and kissed his cheek. "Don't be so sure. I've seen you handle a crisis or two before, remember? You're gonna be awesome at this dad thing," she said. "So are you," he replied, making her laugh again, as he pushed open the exterior door with his free hand. They had gone perhaps five paces beyond the front door, down the front steps and onto the path toward the refectory, when it suddenly dawned on them both that they had just passed a pair of colorful figures. Pausing and turning as one, they were faintly surprised to discover Maki and Izumi, still fully kitted out in their old-fashioned Kyoshi Warriors dress gear, standing at parade rest on either side of the door. As Corwin made eye contact with her, Maki smiled very slightly, but otherwise didn't move, like one of the famously impassive Cheltarine Legion guardswomen outside Queen Asrial's palace on Salusia. Backtracking to regard her closely, Corwin said, "Have you guys been out here all night?" "Of course," Maki replied. "Uh. Why?" "For the honor of the regiment, milord," Maki replied stolidly. Corwin eyed her dubiously. "Maki," he said. Maki held the stonefaced pose for a moment longer, then smiled, becoming much more human. Taking her cue from her commander, Izumi relaxed at that point as well, letting a smaller smile come to her own face. "It's a traditional first-night courtesy for the children of royalty," Maki explained, giving Utena a wink. "Normally, here on Air Temple Island, they have the White Lotus sentries for that kind of thing, but this was a special occasion." "Well," said Utena, grinning back, "I think regimental honor has been satisfied, Commander Maki. C'mon and have some breakfast with us, and then you guys can get some sleep." "I won't put up a fight about that," said Maki, having to stifle a little yawn now that she'd stopped holding herself rigidly expressionless, and the four of them set off for the dining hall. The building Corwin and Utena had just left was the last surprise they had received in their surprise-filled previous evening. They had vaguely expected, when Korra came to help them relocate from the Air Temple Infirmary's birthing room to some more suitable sleeping quarters, that they'd be taken to a room in the quarters usually used by the married Air Nomads when their endless travels brought them to the island. In the event, though, Korra and Ikki had conducted them not to the married airbenders' quarters, but instead to the big house by the pond, where once Ikki's father and his family (including the now-aged master herself) had lived. After her parents' passing, Ikki's elder sister Jinora (the Air Nomads' grandmaster) had lived there for years, until her own children were grown and gone, after which she'd moved to the smaller quarters in the Air Temple itself where she still dwelt. Though no one had lived in Tenzin's house (as everyone still called it) full-time since then, the Acolytes had maintained it meticulously all the while, as part of their regular upkeep of the whole temple complex. After the fashion of everywhere else on the island Corwin had ever seen, it was a spartan but beautiful and welcoming place. He was surprised that Jinora had given Ikki and Korra permission to bring them here, given the powerful attachments it must have for her, however much her airbender philosophy taught her to release such things. He hadn't been sure they'd all be quartered -together,- even tonight; he was still not entirely certain how Jinora felt about his oddball domestic situation. At his questioning look, though, Ikki only smiled and told him, "When a powerful enough wind blows, who tries to resist it is a fool, Corwin. Your family is a curious one... but there is no doubt in Jinora's heart now, after seeing you all challenge this great unknown together, that you are one." Then, to his fatigue-fogged surprise, she'd kissed him chastely - but not on the forehead or cheek - and then gently propelled him through the front door after Korra and the now- three Tenjous. "Go and be with them, with her highness's blessing and with mine. Good night, Corwin." Grandmaster Jinora was, coincidentally enough, the first person Utena and Corwin saw when they entered the dining hall, followed by Ikki and their two brothers, all of whom rose from their seats at the head table and led the Air Acolytes and the younger airbenders in a round of applause. With a blushing smile, Utena held up a hand as if to fend them off. "No, please. Really. We didn't even do anything." "(Speak for yourself,)" Corwin murmured to her as they took seats by Kaitlyn and Korra at the usual corner table. "(I did plenty.)" "(Pff, your part was months ago,)" Utena replied. "(And frankly not that challenging.)" Maki snickered quietly, as did Korra and Kate over their morning tea, having overheard them. Utena grinned at Maki while Corwin went a little red and mumbled something about that not having been what he meant. They were late for breakfast, and most of the temple's regular denizens finished and left shortly after they arrived. Korra and Kate stayed with them, lingering over their tea and chatting, while Corwin and Utena accustomed themselves to the strange notion that not everything in the world might be about the momentous happenings of the previous evening. When they finished eating, they packed the Kyoshi Warriors off to bed with grateful thanks for their gallant gesture and hugs for their friendship, then headed back to the house. Jinora met them as they emerged from the dining hall. Utena wondered whether the airbenders' grandmaster had been waiting for them, or had artfully arranged her morning's rounds so they would bring her by this spot at the precise time she calculated they'd be coming out. She suspected the latter; the former was far too inefficient for Jinora. "Corwin. Prince Tenjou," said Jinora, saluting them. "A moment, if I may?" Utena smiled. "Sure, but please, call me Utena. We don't need to be so formal, and besides, I'm really only Prince Tenjou when I'm in Cephiro." Jinora smiled slightly. "Surely the owner of a truly princely heart is a prince wherever he... or she... happens to be," she said, "but thank you, Utena. I wonder if you think Anthy would be willing to receive visitors shortly. Ikki and I would like to call upon the four of you." Utena and Corwin glanced at each other, then turned back to Jinora. "I don't think she would mind," Utena agreed, nodding. "She was pretty chipper when we left for breakfast." "And as for Annabelle," Corwin added with a grin, "I think it might be a little too early to expect an opinion from her." Jinora chuckled. "Indeed. In that case, Ikki and I will be by in... let us say an hour's time." "We'll see you there," said Corwin. As the elderly airbender walked away, he turned to Kate and said, "How about you? Ready to meet your niece?" "Of course," said Kate with a smile. They were about halfway back to the house when Corwin's omni- tool phone rang, the generic old-fashioned-phone ring it made when someone was calling for whom he hadn't set a special ringtone. Corwin raised his hand to look at the caller ID, then grinned and keyed open the link. "Hey, Ryo," he said. "So listen, Corwin," said Ryo Sato, skipping straight over any introductory small talk. "I was just over in Minmin's office, and some guy from the Tribune had slipped past Security and was trying to get her to speculate on whether she thought you were going to, and I quote, 'take our Avatar away from us'. Now, pardon my Kokugo, but what the -honk,- son?" Corwin blinked. "Do what now?" he said. "That's what I said," Ryo replied. "Wait a second, -guy- from the Tribune? Not a woman?" "Now don't you go believing my sister when she says I can't tell the difference," said Ryo mildly. "OK, fine, um... hm," said Corwin. "Gotta level with you, Ryo, I don't even know what that -means.-" "Yeah, well, neither did Minmin," Ryo replied. "Not that the guy from the Trib was prepared to take that for an answer. I had to show him out before she put a serious hurt on him. She was starting to get that twitchy eye thing going on. You know what comes after that. Shocky-shocky time!" "Hm. Well, uh, I don't have any idea how I might've managed to cause -that,- but I'm sorry about it, anyway," Corwin mused. "Listen, can you guys get out to Air Temple Island later on? I can apologize to Minami in person, and there's somebody here I want you both to meet. A couple of somebodies, actually." "But certainly, young man," Ryo replied jovially. "We'll be out as soon as I can pry my beloved sister's talons from the corners of her desk. Ta ta!" Corwin closed the connection, then gave Korra a mystified look. Arching an eyebrow, she shrugged as if to say, "Beats me, man," and they all continued on their way. They arrived back at the house to find that Anthy and Annabelle were already entertaining guests, in the form of Korra's distant relative Karana, her professional bending partner Azana, and Anne Cross, who was Azana's student in firebending and Kaitlyn's in swordsmanship. When Corwin, Utena, Kate, and Korra arrived, Karana was bending over the bed to conduct a cheerfully one-sided conversation with Annabelle, while Azana stood by a trifle awkwardly and Anne watched her with a crooked little half-smile. "Hmm, getting a bit crowded in here," Korra observed. "Maybe I better come back later." "Don't be silly, Korra," Anthy chided her. "You're Annabelle's godmother, your presence is never going to be a problem for her. Besides," she added with a wry little smile, "this isn't a particularly boisterous gathering, however many of us there are." She turned the smile to her infant daughter and added, "We're all reasonably low-key at the moment, mm?" Korra's grin was a little sentimental as she crossed to the bedside. "OK," she said. "'Sides, I have to get back to town," said Karana. "So you can take -my- place, Gran-gran," she added with a wink. "Ehh, I oughta..." Korra mumbled, half-heartedly flourishing a fist. Karana laughed, hooked an arm around the Avatar's shoulders, and gave her a squeeze, then turned her loose and said, "Bye, all, it's been real. C'mon, Pabu. See you at practice this afternoon, Princess?" "Hnh? Oh. Sure," said Azana absently, as if jarred out of a reverie. "Later, Karana." Karana eyed her faintly-puzzled-looking partner skeptically, but declined to say anything; instead, she tagged Utena's shoulder on her way past, kissed Corwin on the cheek, and bounded out of the room, fire ferret on her shoulder. "Hm, suspected morning person," Amy Pond observed as she passed Karana coming in. Glancing back over her shoulder down the hall, the Scottish redhead added without rancor after a moment's reflection, "I think I hate her." "Aw, don't hate Karana, she's awesome," Anne chided her. "Where's Dr. Pond?" "Still sleeping it off," said Amy with a grin. "So. Any news from eggland?" Sitting in the corner with his feet up on the iron-banded chest containing his Aunt Matalde's egg, Nall shook his head. "Nope. Nothin'." Amy's grin slipped slightly; looking a little concerned, she crossed to him and crouched by the chest as he took his feet off it. "I hope nothing's wrong," she said. "Nah, she's fine," Nall replied; then, with a sardonic smile, he added, "She just won't come out. Claims it's too cold right now and she's waiting for summer." Amy blinked at the chest, then at him. "Are you messin' with me now?" she asked. "I am not," Nall replied cheerfully. "Believe me, Mrs. Williams, when I'm messing with you, you'll know." He patted the chest. "What are you two talking about?" Azana wondered as she and Anne approached. "Who won't come out?" Nall turned to regard her, then got that twinkly-eyed look Amy remembered from the train. "You wanna see?" he asked her. "It's pretty good." At Azana's puzzled nod, he produced the key, unlocked the chest, and swung it wide. "May I present my cousin, name as yet unknown," he said, patting the faintly glowing surface of the egg. Azana arched one perfectly shaped eyebrow at him. "Your... cousin," she said. Nall nodded. "Daughter of my father's sister," he said. Then, drawing himself up grandly, he went on, "Matalde the Red, most dreaded dragon in Jotunheim." Azana didn't quite snort derisively - she was far too well-bred for that - but she looked as if she might've wanted to. Instead, she said slowly, "Your father was a dragon." "Yep. Mom, too. That's more or less how it works," Nall explained patiently. "Anyway, li'l red here, she's supposed to be Annabelle's childhood companion, like I was for Himself over there," he added, gesturing to where Corwin sat on the edge of the bed. "But evidently she's none too pleased that our girl was born in March and not, say, August. Despite our careful packing - " he gestured to the bed of hot coals in which the egg was nestled, " - she insists she's not coming out until it's at least 20 degrees warmer." Azana eyed him. "And you know this because... ?" "She told me. We're telepathic in the shell," Nall said. "With each other, at least. It's how we find out where our eggs are, once the Dreaming is over." "I'm completely lost now," Azana admitted, mostly to Anne. "OK... short version," said Nall. "Dragon eggs aren't like, you know... turtleduck eggs. They don't hatch after a set time. Someone - usually one of the parents, or a dragon priest - sets certain magical conditions on them when they're laid. They develop for a year and a day; after that, the dragon inside is fully formed, ready to take on the world. "Only, if the conditions haven't been met, we don't hatch. Instead, for however long it takes for our eggs to be ready, we roam the astral - you guys would say the Spirit World. We learn things - languages, history, our culture - from the spirits of our ancestors. We call that phase the Dreaming. Whenever the conditions that were originally set on our eggs are met - which could be anything from 'let's give it six months' to 'hatch when the dynasty is threatened' - the Dreaming ends. We wake inside the shell, check with anyone who might be outside, and if we think it's safe, out we come." He rolled his eyes at the red egg. "Usually." Azana turned to Anne. "Do you believe anything this young man is saying?" she inquired, sounding genuinely curious. Anne smiled. "I've been to his homeland," she said. "I even met his uncle Bahamut, the Dragon King." She nodded to the chest. "I was there when Bahamut gave that egg to Corwin." Azana looked her student straight in the eye for several long seconds, her face impassive, and Anne looked right back at her, unflinching. (Truth be told, the hardest part about that wasn't not flinching, it was not -blushing.-) Then she nodded with a fair-enough sort of expression, turned back to Nall, and asked, "Would a little extra heat help?" Nall looked puzzled for a second, then grinned. "Right! Duh! Firebender." He stepped away from the chest and gestured to it. "Be my guest! I mean, worst case, you're not gonna do any -harm.- As long as you don't set the house on fire," he added wryly. Azana gave him a sardonic smile. "Please," she said. "I am a professional." She squared herself up to the chest, closed her eyes for a moment in concentration, then struck a firebending stance and thrust both hands forward, playing a concentrated jet of orange-yellow fire over the surface of the egg. The eggshell's dull-red glow brightened, then began to shift to orange. Azana's eyes flicked questioningly to Nall; he nodded, so she kept it up, keeping the flame carefully confined to the space within the chest's opening as she stepped up the intensity a little more, to a pure, sunlight-like yellow-white... ... and the egg cracked with a sound like a rifle shot, drawing a startled cry from Annabelle. While her parents reassured her, the others drew nearer to look. Azana cut off her stream of fire and withdrew her hands, then took a handkerchief from her pocket and mopped the sweat from her forehead as she, like the others, watched the single crack in the glowing eggshell grow and branch out, spreading in crackling, percussive jerks as the dragonet within hammered at the weakened shell. "Should we... ?" Azana wondered, but Nall shook his head. "Nah, she's got it," he said, a broad grin spreading across his face as he stood, hands in pockets, and watched his cousin emerge into the world. Anne realized, in that moment, that she had unconsciously been expecting the new dragon to look like Nall - a creature not unlike a cat in shape and proportion, but for a pair of feathery wings. What emerged from the red egg, though, was nothing like that. This creature was perhaps twice as long and very slender, much more serpentine than Nall, with no real distinction between neck, body, and tail save for the positioning of four fairly short legs, more like the way dragons were depicted in Asian cultures. Her face wasn't catlike either, but nor was it the face of a Chinese-style dragon; instead, she had the classic European dragon's head, with muzzle, crest, and a pair of backswept, gently spiraling horns. She did have wings, about halfway along her sinuous length, but they were batlike, not feathered. The new dragon finished battering her way out of the shell of her egg, pushed the remnants aside, and sprawled full-length on the hot coals in the bottom of the chest, faint plumes of steam rising where they boiled away the residual egg-moisture clinging to her scales. In the bright sunlight streaming through the window, these glittered - not metallic like Bahamut's scales, but bright and with a curiously translucent depth. They were like thousands of minutely tessellated little jewels, each one a beautiful, rich blood red. "... oh," Azana breathed, her amber eyes wide with astonishment. "-Spirits.-" Then, following some ancient cultural precept she might not even have been consciously aware had been instilled in her as a child, she fell to her knees before the chest and bowed her head: an instinctive obeisance to one of the original firebenders. A short distance away, Korra glanced at Corwin, her eyebrows rising. "(OK, I was impressed when Nall hatched, but -this-... wow,)" she murmured to him behind a confidential hand. "(I know, right?)" Corwin replied, watching the scene with a fond smile. "(Fire Nation girls.)" Korra blinked, then realized what he was getting at and smiled. "(Oh yeah, right,)" she said quietly. "('Course.)" Behind them, Utena glanced quizzically from one to the other, then leaned her head between theirs and whispered, "(You guys are doing that -thing- again.)" "(Remind me, I'll tell you later,)" Korra responded, a millisecond or two before Corwin could. After resting for a few moments, the hatchling dragon stirred, raised her head, and opened her eyes. Azana, still kneeling by the chest, met the creature's gaze with her own, awestruck anew. The dragon's eyes, like her scales, resembled gems: they were a clear and sparkling yellow-gold, like fire opals. "You are -so beautiful,-" Azana whispered. The dragonet blinked slowly back at her; then the corner of her mouth quirked in an unmistakable little smile, revealing a number of very sharp-looking little teeth, and she spoke. "I was just thinking the same thing," she said. Her voice was mellow and not very loud, like a quiet teenager's - nothing like what Azana might have imagined the voice of a dragon would sound like, even if she had been expecting a hatchling to speak at all. Receiving no response to her opening foray, the dragon continued, "Hi." Then, looking around, she added, "Hmm. Quite a crowd." Still grinning, Nall looked around at the dumbfounded little group, winked at Juniper (who seemed as taken by Azana's reaction as by the hatching itself), then nodded to Amy and said, "Mrs. Williams, a towel, if you please." "Huh? Oh!" said Amy, and she stepped forward with the specified article. Nall crouched by the chest and, without regard to the coals, scooped up the tiny dragon carefully in his hands, then placed her upon it. "Oh hello!" said the hatchling as the young Scotswoman carefully enfolded her in the towel and started gently rubbing away the last of the moisture. "Mmmmm, that's nice," she went on, snuggling down. Glancing from Amy to Azana and back, she asked, "Are you all like this? Nobody told me," shooting an accusatory look at Nall with the last. Nall smiled and stroked her head. "Nalliuniqsiutsiarit, little red," he said fondly. "We meet at last. I'm your cousin Nall." The dragonet looked puzzled. "Um, gesundheit," she said, and then, quizzically, "What kind of a name is Nall? Can you even write that in dragonscript?" Nall actually giggled at that, for reasons not immediately obvious to anyone but Corwin. "I don't use my Draconic Name among humans," he explained. "Whether you do is up to you, of course." The little dragon frowned thoughtfully. "Hmm. Well, people have to call me -something.-" "What about Ruby?" Nall suggested, but his cousin rolled her eyes at that, emitting a snort that brought with it a little puff of flame (and a surprised sound from Amy). "That's so obvious," said the young red. Anne nodded agreement. "You're a darker red than that anyway," she pointed out. "You're more like a garnet." The dragonet turned to regard the young human thoughtfully for a second, then smiled. "Hmmmmm. Yeah. That'll work." Then, craning her serpentine neck in an attempt to look past Azana and Nall, Garnet went on, "Right, so, where's the baby? I distinctly remember something about a baby." "Oh. Right," said Amy. "Here..." She carefully crossed the room, drawing all the others from near the chest along with her like iron filings after a magnet, then knelt at the bedside. "Hey, Annabelle," she said with a quiet smile. "Here's another new friend to see you..." Garnet wriggled partially free of the towel and reached her snout toward the infant, who was regarding her with that same look of intense, vaguely bemused curiosity Corwin had registered the night before. The tiny dragon and tiny human examined each other for a few moments while the adults tried not to crowd around, but watched the scene intently, some holding their breath without realizing it. "Drem yol lok, Sovngardsekiir," said Garnet, her voice hushed and serious now. "Zu'u Yolvahlok." Reaching closer, she touched her forehead to Annabelle's and went on, "Fen kos hin spaansebriinah." Though any of them who knew anything about human newborns was well aware that it was far too early for that, several of the adults could have sworn Corwin and Anthy's baby daughter took that intelligence (whatever it may have meant to one who couldn't speak Draconic) on board with a certain grave focus. Then, with a delighted sound, she attempted (unsuccessfully) to put the dragon's head in her mouth. "Ack!" Garnet blurted, twisting away from her human companion's tiny hands. As she readdressed her strategy, coiling her body around the infant's, Korra failed to restrain a giggle. "What?" Utena wondered. "Oh, just remembering days gone by," Korra replied, casting a significant glance at Corwin and Nall. The former coughed, reddening, while the latter rolled his eyes and took a theatrical half-step away from him. Most of the well-wishers dispersed at that point, congratulating the new parents one last time and filtering away to various other pursuits, until the three and Korra were left by themselves with newborn and hatchling. As she followed Kate and Anne out, Azana hesitated, then turned back and lowered herself to one knee by the bed. "Aw, are you leaving?" said Garnet drowsily from her new station. "I was just thinking I'd like to look at you for maybe a couple more hours." (This time it was Corwin's turn to snort and glance significantly at Nall, who looked frownily away, and Korra, who giggled again. "History repeating, eh," said Korra, to a nod from Corwin, a cough from Nall, and a puzzled look from Utena.) Azana's cheeks went a bit pink, but she put it aside and bowed her head again, saying in a reverent murmur, "Thank you, honored dragon. I'm greatly blessed to have witnessed what I've seen today." Garnet smiled lazily at her. "What's your name?" "I'm... My name is Azana." "Well, Azana, it was my pleasure, believe me," said the dragon. "Oh, hey, before you leave - you might like this." So saying, she raised her head clear of the bedclothes, drew breath, and then breathed out a short cone of fire, sparkling and scintillating in a swirl of colors Anne had never thought of fire coming in. Watching the scene, the teenage samurai felt somehow as though she'd just opened a door and glimpsed a tiny part of the machinery that ran the universe - and Azana, sitting so near that the flames cast glittering reflections in her eyes, looked as if the heavens had winked at her. Looking at the young firebender's stunned expression, Korra quipped, "Ah, could someone help Azana get to the ferry, please?" "We're heading that way anyway," said Kate, smiling. "Yep," said Anne, cheerily taking Azana's arm as her slightly- dazed-looking teacher rose, stammering out a nearly inaudible thank-you to the dragon and last congratulation for the others. "C'mon, Sifu, this way. See you guys later!" After seeing them off (and Nall and Amy with them), Utena returned, pulled up a chair next to the bed, and sat down, putting her feet up on the corner of the mattress. Corwin had by this time gotten onto the bed itself opposite her, watching with an enigmatic little smile as Annabelle and Garnet dozed in Anthy's arms. "So," said Utena as Korra sat down Indian-fashion on the foot end of the bed, "what was the deal with Azana there?" "She's a firebender," Corwin and Korra began at the same time. They glanced at each other; Corwin smiled and made a be-my-guest gesture. "The dragons of this world were the original firebenders - the beings Azana's ancestors learned the art from," Korra went on after a moment to regather her thoughts. "People all over the world have venerated them for centuries, but in the Fire Nation, before the Hundred-Year War, they were especially revered. Rare people - including my predecessor, Roku - were able to commune with them and have them as companions, as I've always done with polar bear dogs, like Niri." She looked more closely, making sure Garnet was asleep, then sighed glumly. "Unfortunately, after Roku died, the Fire Nation nearly exterminated them. It turned into this bizarre firebending machismo thing during the war - kill a dragon and prove you're more powerful." "What a tragic, senseless thing to do," said Anthy, sounding faintly shocked. Korra nodded. "Everything Fire Lord Sozin -did- was tragic and senseless. He and his son and grandson between them did this world -so- much harm. I'm the third Avatar since he came to power, and the mess still isn't entirely cleaned up. Hell, it may -never- be, not entirely. Those guys were special with a capital 'spesh'." She sighed again. "Anyway, the -only- reason dragons aren't extinct in Diqiu today is because certain groups of people who I will not mention by name did their best to keep the last Firebending Masters alive. They're still at the top of the endangered species list. Even -I- can't get any information on where they're living now without a damn good reason. "The only creature that's rarer than dragons in Diqiu these days would be lion turtles, but they're in a classification all their own, and ever since we got global satellite coverage, it's made it easier for conservationists to keep track of them and to adjust shipping lanes so they aren't disturbed." She thought about it for a second, then added, "Well, lion turtles and Meelo. There's only ever gonna be one Meelo. And it's best to keep the shipping lanes away from him, too, but for different reasons." "So watching a dragon hatch was like seeing a vision out of ancient history," Utena mused. Korra nodded. "More than that, in Azana's case. She's from the actual Fire Nation, not descended from colonists or expats, and she comes from an old, old military family. Two of them, actually. On her mother's side in particular, they've been firebenders for generations - since -long- before Sozin's time. She'll have been raised on the stories of the ancient masters, the adventures of Avatar Roku and Fang, all that stuff... and been told a thousand times since she was little that she would never, ever see one alive." Utena nodded, understanding, as Korra went on, "And then, suddenly, she was not just watching, but -helping- one be born. And in return, she got a look at the True Fire, which is something maybe a dozen firebenders currently living have ever seen." The Avatar grinned, recovering her good humor at the memory of the look on Azana's face. "Pretty special day. I hope Juni-chan's willing to guide her all the way back to her apartment; left to her own devices, she's liable to wander in front of a truck or something." Corwin snorted; Korra glanced a question at him, and he grinned and replied, "Uh, I suspect Anne's more than willing to go annnywhere Azana might need or want to go." Utena chuckled and agreed, "Yeah, she goes for the elegant snappy-dresser type." Korra looked none the wiser for a second. "Uh? Oh! Hmm." Then she shook her head with a little smile and said, "Well, I suppose that'll be motivational. Azana will keep it professional, though. Anne's too young for her anyway." "For now," Corwin agreed thoughtfully; then he shrugged and said, "Ah well, what is is." He might've gone on, but there was a quiet knock at the open door just then; looking up, he saw Jinora and Ikki standing in the doorway, smiling. "Good morning, Grandmaster, Master Ikki," said Anthy, gesturing for them to enter. "Please, come in. Excuse us if we don't get up," she added with a wry smile. "Of course," said Jinora as she crossed the threshold, her sister right behind her. "No, please, all of you stay where you are," she said as Corwin, Utena, and Korra all made to rise. "The Apsara Lama declines to stand on ceremony," said Ikki with a devilish grin. "Where's that girl from the Tribune who's been following you guys around, Corwin? This is some -real- news for her to report." Jinora shot her younger sister a half-hearted glare, then sighed and turned back to the new parents. "I didn't have a chance to extend them in person last night, but please accept my congratulations," she said. "All of you." Then, smiling in a warmer, more human way than she had before, she said, "Your daughter's beautiful." Corwin blinked to hear someone else pronounce the phrase; Anthy smiled fondly at her sleeping offspring and agreed, "She is, isn't she?" "In olden times," Ikki put in, "there would have been a lot of drumming and chanting at this point, but do you know, we've found that such things rather tend to -upset- newborns, so we tend to skip them these days." Utena chuckled. "Thanks for that." Annabelle stirred, half-waking, but it was only to fumble around until one of her hands found Garnet's smooth, gleaming scales; once she'd accomplished that, she went almost immediately back to sleep. "She's a quiet one, at least so far," Jinora observed. "That's unusual for this place. Even with the drumming and chanting omitted," she added with a wry glance at Ikki, "Air Nomad babies tend to be... loud." "I think that's my late mother's gift," Anthy replied. "For her people, silence is an important survival skill." "Hmm." The grandmaster lowered herself smoothly into seiza at their bedside, her movements, as always, betraying no sign of her great age. Meeting Anthy's eye, she asked, "May I?" "Please," said Anthy, nodding. Jinora reached out and very gently touched Annabelle's forehead with one hand, bowing her own head over the child. Annabelle stirred, murmuring, but didn't quite wake as Jinora said softly, "Welcome to our world, little one. Your family is a peculiar lot to this old woman's eyes, but no one can doubt their love for each other or for you... and in the end, that is all that matters. The blessings of the Air Spirits upon you. Wherever you go in your life, whatever you do or see or become, may the wind always bring you home again." After a moment's silence, Corwin said, quietly, "Thank you, Jinora." The elderly airbender smiled at him, knowing that he wasn't just thanking her for the blessing, but for the remarks preceding it; for letting them stay in her father's house; for welcoming them to the island in the first place. For accepting what was. She knew all that, and he knew she knew it; nothing more needed to be said, and so she left it all unspoken and replied simply, "You're welcome, Corwin." Then she turned back and regarded the sleeping infant for a few more seconds, her expression kindly thoughtful. When she rose to her feet, she turned to Korra and asked her, "Have you told them?" Korra blinked at her. "Told them... ? Oh! No. Uh, sort of waiting for the right -moment?-" she said, a trifle aggrieved. "Moment for... ?" Utena prompted. "Your daughter's chi is very strong," Jinora said, which Utena wasn't really sure was an answer, but seeing Anthy's nod and Corwin's thoughtful look, she held her peace and let the airbender talk. "I can sense it because I've devoted my life to the study of vital energies, spirit and human alike: how they flow and interact; what we can do with them and what they do with us." Nodding toward the Avatar, she went on, "Korra can sense it because she's the Avatar." Korra rolled her eyes and muttered, "(Yeah, no lifelong study HERE.)" Jinora gave her an arched eyebrow and cleared her throat ostentatiously, then turned back to Anthy and continued, "As -such,- I think it's very likely Annabelle will be a bender." Utena blinked. "... Uh, how?" Jinora shrugged. "Who knows? I very much doubt anyone has ever been born a bender who didn't have at least one parent from Diqiu before," she went on with an indulgent smile, "but as ever with you three, it's a brave new world." "Do you know what she's likely to be a bender -of?-" Anthy wondered, regarding her daughter thoughtfully. "No idea!" Jinora replied cheerfully. "It's rather exciting. She probably won't manifest any really noticeable abilities until she's at least able to walk." "I was four," Korra put in. "Yes, but you've always been a slow learner, Korra," said Jinora with a serene smile. Korra half-grinned, half-scowled at her. "... one of these days..." "You'll stop opening doors for me that way?" Jinora wondered. "I hardly think it likely." Korra raised a finger as if to object further, then subsided with a muted, wordless noise. Ikki slipped up next to her and patted her affectionately on the shoulder, whispering, "(Welcome to my actual entire life.)" "At any rate," Jinora went on to her now-quietly-snickering guests, "when that stage is reached, be on the lookout for flying rocks..." "Or for bathtime to suddenly become much more interesting," Korra noted, her momentary, mostly feigned dudgeon over with. Utena looked from one of her spouses to the other, then at their daughter, then at Jinora, and said a little awkwardly, "Not for the first time in the last couple of days, I'm... not sure how to react." "That's perfectly normal, Utena," Jinora told her kindly. "Every parent's reaction to this news is unique. Some are thrilled, some are scared..." "Mine were pleased... sort of," said Korra. "I mean, they were happy when I told them I could bend, but Dad was a little nonplussed when fire was involved." She chuckled wryly. "I didn't understand the look he gave Mom for -years.-" It took a second for that to sink in, but they were all still giggling about it a moment later, when there came another knock at the door and the tall, elegantly robed figure of Chief Civil Servant Chin appeared on the threshold. "Good morning," he said. "I hope I haven't come at a bad time." "Not at all, Master Chin, do come in," said Anthy. Chin beamed at her and bustled into the room. "Thank you, Lady Anthy." Bowing first to her, then to the three women who stood by the side of the bed, he addressed them politely in turn: "Your Holiness, Master Ikki, delighted to see you again. Avatar Korra, I trust you're well." Then he turned to Utena and Corwin, his beaming smile unchanged, and went on, "And our mystery couple, of course. The Tribune's people have been badgermoling my staff relentlessly for any information we might have on you." With a twinkle in his eye, he polished his spectacles on an immaculate red silk handkerchief and continued in a cheerfully didactic tone, "But, of course, it is the strict policy of the United Republic Office of Records and Vital Information to disclose nothing whatever except through proper channels, which they, naturally, can -never- be bothered to follow; and thus our traditional impasse persists for, I believe, the one hundred fifty-seventh consecutive year." He popped the spectacles back on, folded the handkerchief fastidiously and put it away, then bent to smile at the baby in Anthy's arms. "And -this-... must be Annabelle." "Have you come to register her birth record?" Korra inquired. "Yes, indeed," said Chin. "Oh dear, where -are- my manners." He bowed again, first to Utena, then to Corwin. "Maximilian Chin Yongmin XVII, Supreme Civil Servant to Their Excellencies the President and Senate of the United Republic of Nations and Hereditary Chief Bureaucrat to the Celestial Emperors of the Western Reaches, at your service." And with that, he removed from his back a dark-stained, beautifully made wooden pack that turned out to be a sort of portable secretary with shoulder straps, placed it on the end of the bed, and began to unpack a surprising amount of kit from within it: documents in expensive-looking dark card folders, an inking pad and roller, adhesive wafers, paper-wrapped gold foil, and a pliers-like sealing device. Annabelle complied without comment as her hands and feet were inked, printed, and cleaned with fastidious care by the fussy but competent hands of the bureaucrat; but even she, the quietest baby the Central Air Temple had ever seen, drew the line at the blood sample. At the sound of her wail, Garnet snapped awake, dismayed to be roused by sounds of distress. The little dragon wrestled herself free of the bedclothes, rearing up in furious confusion. "what WHAT I'm AWAKE," she declared, looking around. Spotting the startled civil servant bending over her crying charge with syringe in hand, she recoiled, baring her tiny fangs. "HAVE AT THEE, VARLET!" "Whoa, WHOA, easy there, champ," Utena declared as Garnet spat a small bolt of fire at Chin. The bureaucrat jumped back, instinctively raising his free hand to shield his face with one broad sleeve of his official tunic. The fire splashed against the fabric and dissipated, failing to take hold, as Corwin reached over and pinched Garnet's snout shut with thumb and forefinger. "hrrmmphh mrrrph!" Garnet objected angrily. "Uhh... what'd I miss?" asked the voice of Rory Williams from the doorway. "Oh, just Garnet taking exception to official procedure," Corwin replied, gesturing him into the room with a jerk of his head. Then, turning back to the restrained dragonet, he said sternly, "Don't set government officials on fire." "nrrggmph," Garnet growled. "Are you all right, Chin?" Korra asked. "I'm fine, thank you, Avatar," Chin replied with aplomb. He brushed a few traces of soot from his sleeve. "That was unexpected, but one is always prepared to deal with obstreperous firebenders in my line of work." Bending to address the still-growling Garnet while Anthy soothed Annabelle, he doffed his cap and went on, "I apologize for startling you, honored dragon. Your young friend is quite unharmed, I assure you. I had only to cause her a moment's pain. Regrettable, but necessary." Garnet blinked at him, apparently surprised to be addressed in such a cordial fashion. Corwin released her snout with a warning look, whereupon she shook her head, a bit flustered, and subsided with a grudging, "Well... don't let it happen again." "Another sample won't be required," Chin promised, filing the one he'd acquired away in his secretary. "There are certain inborn conditions that are easily treated at this stage of life, but they must be caught very early," he explained. "The Republic Medical Service's laboratory will tell us all we need to know within a day or two - not that I anticipate any troubles with a child as healthy as this," he added with a smile. Then, rummaging within the secretary, he went on as if to himself, "You'll also need to complete a 47C-stroke-Wo, free-range dragon identification and census form.... I hope I have one in here today." "Oh, now I -know- you're just making it up," said Korra. Chin looked up from his work with an affronted frown. "-Please-, Avatar," he said, and then, to her considerable surprise, he produced the exact form he'd been talking about. It took him mere minutes to process the remaining paperwork, logging Annabelle's birth and Garnet's hatching for the official records of the United Republic of Nations. While he finished the documents, Jinora settled on a corner of the bed, regarding mother, child and dragon with a thoughtful smile as the latter two settled back to sleep. "We have one other small gift we'd like to extend," she said, looking from one parent to the other to the third, then glancing at Ikki with a little nod. Ikki grinned and picked up the thread. "You were already welcome on the island at any time - I hope you knew that - but as your first child did us the honor of being born here, Jinora and I would like to make her a citizen of the Air Commonwealth, if you agree." Anthy glanced from one of her husbands to the other, polling them with a look, and then smiled. "Thank you very much. We'd be delighted, of course," she said. "But may I ask - what does that entail, Master Ikki?" "Well, not much, really," Ikki admitted. "It's mainly a symbolic gesture. We Air Nomads don't claim any sovereign territory of our own. Even this island is technically part of Republic City, though under the arrangement we have with the United Republic, our own laws and customs take precedence here. The other Air Temples around the world exist under similar agreements with whichever nation they're in." Nodding toward Chin and his papers, Jinora said, "As such, Annabelle is already a citizen of the United Republic, by virtue of having been born here. That means she's eligible to hold Republic identity documents - not that such a thing would be of much use in the 'big universe,'" she acknowledged with a little smile. "In practical terms," she went on, "our offer means that, if she wants it, she'll be able to obtain an Air Nomad passport as well." "And there's one nice thing about having one of those," said Ikki cheerfully. "You can go anywhere in Diqiu you want, any time. No visa applications, no border controls, no questions asked. They can't even look in your luggage." Jinora nodded. "It's an Air Nomad's sacred right to wander this world at will. International law has been very clear on that matter since it was first properly codified, during the Republic's founding." Utena smiled. "That's handy." She switched places with Corwin, sitting next to Anthy as he rose to stand by the bed, and stroked Annabelle's hair gently. "Zeta Cygni, the United Republic, the Air Commonwealth, Asgard.. you're going to have more nationalities than you have parents," she told the child cheerfully. "Her passport's going to be an inch thick," Corwin agreed. Then, turning to Anthy, he said, "This seems like as good a time as any..." Anthy nodded. "I was just thinking the same thing," she said. "What did I miss?" Korra wondered. "Nothing yet," said Corwin. "But Anthy, Utena, and I have been talking about it off and on for the last couple of days, and... well, we're going to see about getting ourselves a place somewhere in Republic City. We won't be around all the time, obviously - lots of other stuff going on - but, you know... maybe a month or three a year?" Korra's cerulean eyes went wide. "... Are you serious?" "Sure I'm serious," Corwin replied. "If you think you can stand having us around that much," he added with a wry grin. Korra stared at him for a couple of seconds; then, with a delighted cry, she jumped into his arms, her own going around his neck, in a gleeful, feet-off-the-floor hug. "I guess she likes that idea," Corwin observed over her shoulder to Utena. "I guess so," Utena agreed dryly. "Honestly, you guys," Korra said. She turned him loose and bent over the bed to put an arm each around Utena and Anthy, then kissed Annabelle on the head. "That's the best news I've had in... well, quite a while. And it's not even my birthday!" "Well, under the circumstances, we can hardly expect you to come to us," Anthy pointed out. "Besides - this is Annabelle's homeworld now," she added with a fond smile. "We wouldn't want her to grow up not knowing it..." "There!" said Chin, completing his work with a flourish. "Official copies made... everything ready to go on file back at headquarters," he went on, closing up his portable secretary. "For your records, Your Holiness," he said, handing one of his elaborate folders to Jinora. "And this," he said, presenting an ornately capped and ribboned scroll to Anthy with a deep and courtly bow, "is your copy of the official birth record. Your daughter is now a citizen of the United Republic of Nations, and a freewoman of the Commonwealth of Air Nomads and Air Acolytes, with all the privileges thereunto appurtenant," he concluded formally. "Thank you very much, Master Chin," said Anthy, her twinkling smile putting the lie slightly to the gravity of her response. Chin smiled in return, then shrugged his secretary onto his back. "I must get back and file these," he said, reaching back over one shoulder to tap the case. Bowing again, hands in sleeves, he said, "A pleasure. May all your days be excellent ones." "What a charming man," said Anthy thoughtfully once he'd gone. "For your information," Rory said, crouching by the bed with a smile for mother and daughter, "I ran the same scans the national lab will be doing last night, and everything's fine. You were all pretty well out of it by that point, and there was nothing to report, so I decided not to pester you with it just then." His smile becoming a touch rueful, he added, "I'm not licensed here... or indeed anywhere... at the moment, so it's just as well to have official confirmation anyway." Anthy smiled and touched his arm. "Thank you, Doctor," she said. "You must tell me how you came by your training sometime. I'm sure it's a long and convoluted story." "It is that," Rory agreed. Then, straightening up, he said with exaggerated casualness, "Well, I must go and find Amy. At the moment she's wandering round unsupervised on an island full of monkish young boys. The mind recoils in terror... for the boys..." The others chuckled and bade him good day. As he left, Anthy raised a hand in a wave, then looked down and said cheerfully, "Oh, is it that time again already?" as Annabelle woke and began hunting for sustenance. "Ohh, this was not in the briefing," Garnet remarked dubiously, hiding her head in the covers as the process got underway. "Corwin... may I have a word?" Jinora asked quietly. "Sure," Corwin replied, letting her draw him off to the other end of the room. "I'm pleased to see that the three of you have taken my concerns to heart," she told him, her voice low. "I hadn't expected you to take action so quickly. In fact, I must say, if you intended to act on your plans during this visit, you've left it rather late." "We do our best work on the spur of the moment," said Corwin with a grin. "Particularly Utena and me. Anthy's generally a little more... deliberate." He turned his head and regarded the cheerfully domestic scene by the bed, where Korra and Ikki were pitching in to help Utena (dismayed, but game) get to grips with certain aspects of routine infant maintenance. "... That's my daughter," he observed, for about the hundredth time that day (though not nearly all of them out loud). He turned to Jinora and gestured vaguely. "That's my -daughter- over there, Jinora." The elderly airbender nodded, smiling. "Yes, Corwin," she said gently. "I know." Corwin turned and looked back again. "I have a daughter," he said for a further time. Then he faced Jinora again and asked, "Does this wear off at some point? 'Cause I have to be honest, it's freaking me out a little." Jinora's smile became slightly indulgent. "Not really," she said, "but it does eventually become... somewhat less -intense.-" Air Temple Island was no stranger to dramatic entrances. Any time even one sky bison arrived, it was an occasion. In the summertime, when virtually the whole Air Nomad nation passed through as part of its unending cycle of migration, the spectacle was such that people would park boats out in the harbor and watch the comings and goings with binoculars and telescopes. It was one of the major events on the Republic City social calendar. The show that took place an hour or so later was not on that scale, but the residents of the island - particularly the youngsters - took even greater delight in it than they did the coming of the summer migration. For one thing, there was a lot less work to be done; and for another, the arriving aircraft was of a type many of them had never seen before, which aroused a personal as well as professional interest. For his part, Corwin had - inasmuch as he'd even thought about it - assumed that Minami and Ryo Sato would be arriving by boat, either the ferry or their own. He knew from prior experience that Minami had a passion for powerboats; he still vividly remembered an afternoon spent aboard her steam launch, charging up the coast to whatever that little town was called with the greenmarket. Instead, as the sound of her and her brother's arrival drew him outside to witness it, he was amused and delighted to find that they were coming by air - aboard one of his very favorite Early Aviation Contraptions. "Huh," said Utena as they jogged together toward the plaza near the ba gua circle, where the craft was setting down. "A helicopter? Hang on, no tail rotor..." She brightened as comprehension arrived. "An autogyro! Wow! I've only seen those in Crimson Lizard movies." Grinning, she added, "I suppose that stands to reason, I mean, Minami basically -is- a Koji Aho character." Corwin laughed. "I'll tell her you said so," he remarked. They arrived at the circle to find the younger airbenders and Acolytes crowding around, curious about this strange machine, but unafraid. Ryo, in the rear cockpit, shouted and waved for them to keep clear of the propeller, but he needn't have worried; they might never have seen an autogyro before, but they knew what a prop was and why to avoid it. A moment later it spun down to a stop as Minami cut the engine. With the rotors gently windmilling to a halt a safe distance above, she climbed out of the front cockpit and jumped down to the ground. Once there, she took off her leather flying helmet, shaking out her long, wavy black hair in a gesture that was so obviously unstudied, and yet so effortlessly glamorous, that Utena was reminded (not for the first time) of Juri Arisugawa. Near the front of the little crowd of youngsters, Tenzin and Gyatso glanced at each other in astonishment, their cheeks going red; beside them, Sita hauled off and slugged Tenzin in the shoulder, nearly knocking him down. "Hello, all!" Minami declared cheerfully as she began tugging off her gloves. "Can I trouble a few of you to help me tie this beast down, please? We don't want it wandering off if the wind comes up." She had no shortage of volunteers for the task, which was accomplished in mere moments. Then, tossing her gloves into her helmet and the whole affair into the cockpit, she trotted across the paved area to give first Corwin, then Utena a hug. "Hey, strangers," said Ryo, who opted for the Manly Handshake instead. "You've got this whole town in an uproar." "Yeah, uh, not really our -intention,- but it sort of started without us and we ended up deciding to just go with it," Corwin replied sheepishly. "We'll have to get into that later. First things first, though," he said with a mischievous grin as the four of them started back toward the house. "C'mon and meet my newborn daughter." Ryo stopped walking. "I'm sorry, I could have sworn I just heard you say 'c'mon and meet my newborn daughter,'" he said conversationally. Corwin paused and turned back, still grinning, while Minami halted next to her brother and stared at him in turn and Utena giggled at both of their reactions. "I did," he said cheerfully. Ryo pondered that for a moment, then raised a finger as if to object, then lowered it and thought some more before saying slowly, "Now... I realize I'm not the most -observant- prairie hog in town sometimes..." He glanced pointedly at Utena and concluded, "... but I was definitely clocking your good lady thoroughly enough the other night that I would have -noticed- a thing like that." Utena would probably at least have considered punching most guys, particularly most relative strangers, for a remark like that; but coming from Ryo, it was so straightforward and sincerely complimentary that she found herself just rolling her eyes with a wry little smile and a slight blush - which deepened a bit when Minami put in helpfully, "For the record, I concur!" "Well, I did -say- there were a couple of someones I wanted you to meet," Corwin said, gesturing for the Satos to get moving again as he resumed his course for the house. He said nothing more until they arrived; Utena knocked on the bedroom doorjamb and put her head around to make certain new company was appropriate, then entered, waving the others in after her. The airbender elders had gone, but Korra remained, slouching in the chair Utena had placed earlier, her own feet up on the bed. "My, my, we are popular today, aren't we," Anthy remarked to Annabelle with a smile. "Anthy, this is Minami Sato and her brother Ryo, I've told you about them," said Corwin. "Guys... I want you to meet my daughter Annabelle Tenjou, and her mother, Anthy Tenjou." "I'm very pleased to meet you," said Minami with one of her movie-star smiles and a near-90-degree bow. "Likewise!" said Ryo; then, turning to Corwin, he said in a matter-of-fact voice, "I'm -hugely- confused, Ted." Minami chuckled indulgently. "I'm sure there's a very simple explanation, Ryo." "Oh ho hooo, not so much," said Korra with a knowing smile and a shake of her head. Anthy gave them the short version - after summarizing the matter for Jinora the other day, she felt she was getting to be something of an expert at it. Once she'd finished, there were a few moments' silence, during which neither Sato's face was easily readable while they digested what they'd just been told. Then Minami seemed to reach a conclusion. She blinked in sudden epiphany; then her green eyes went wide with delighted amazement. "Corwin!" she declared, turning to face him. "You're prepared to father other women's children as a personal favor?!" Then, to his complete surprise, she became the second woman that day to leap into his arms (though the overall effect was slightly different, given how much taller Minami was than Korra). "There's a future for the Sato line after all!" Minami declared happily, hugging him soundly. "Uh - that's not - " said Corwin, while Ryo gave a painful- sounding snort that turned into a short coughing jag, Anthy giggled, Korra gave Minami a disapproving frown, and Utena just eyed the scene dubiously. "It makes so much -sense,- though!" Minami persisted, stepping back without entirely releasing him. "You're a genius, I'm a genius, you're good with tools, I'm good with tools, you're handsome, I'm... a Sato... our children will be -supermen!-" She threw back her head and let out a film-villain laugh. "What's going on?" Garnet demanded blearily, raising her head. "Can't a hatchling get a little sleep around here?" "Wha!" said Ryo, taking a half-step back. "Hello!" Minami jumped slightly, startled out of her reverie. "Hatchling?" Corwin gently extricated himself from the remains of her embrace and sat down on the edge of the bed, stroking the little dragon's head. "Sorry," he said. "It's just Minami being herself. Minami, Ryo, this is Garnet. Remember Nall when we were kids? Well... same deal." "Oh," said Ryo. "Right. OK. Dragon. Sure! Why not." "For the record, the dragon companion thing would be entirely optional," Minami allowed. "That might actually make the product of our destined union -too- powerful." "I am not out to stud!" Corwin objected. "At least not until Utena and I figure out the fee structure," Anthy put in not-very-helpfully, making Utena utter an I-didn't-really- want-to-laugh-at-that laugh. "Well I'm not talking about RIGHT NOW, I mean it's a PROCESS," Minami said. "I'm only 22! I have a lot of things to do! But, you know... eventually... -someone- has to carry on the line, and it's no use looking to -Ryo- to pick up that slack." "Oi!" Ryo protested. Korra sighed. "Don't make me lightningbend you, Minami. Ryo would complain." "I would?" Ryo asked, as if that were news to him. Minami sighed as if unfairly put upon. "Fine, forget it. It'd probably be too much like kissing my brother anyway." She smiled again, a little slyly this time, and couldn't resist tossing in as a parting shot, "He -is- good with tools, though. And that -is- hot." Cornered that completely, Utena had to admit that this was so, and then, the moment having broken, everyone laughed. Minami and Ryo stayed for lunch, where there was plenty of room at the Avatar's table. The Ponds and Anne had all gone into town, Anthy had already declared her intention to remain in or near bed all day, Nyima had matters to attend to elsewhere, and Nall and Lhakpa seemed to have wandered off somewhere, leaving only Corwin, Utena, and Kaitlyn (who had returned to the island just before lunchtime) to share the midday meal with Korra and the Satos. Ryo considered the items on offer - rice, seaweed, various sliced vegetables, and a bottle of vinegar - and, without comment, began assembling hosomaki. While he worked, his deft hands seeming to be on autopilot, he picked up the thread of an earlier conversation and said to Corwin, "So listen, son, this thing with the Tribune." "I told you, Ryo, I have no idea," Corwin said. "I don't even get what it is they think I'm trying to do." "To hear the man who sneaked into my office tell it, their society editors think you're planning to sweep Korra off her feet and carry her off back to your fairy castle in the sky, or wherever it is you keep yourself when you're not here," said Minami dryly. Korra choked on a sip of tea, then coughed explosively into a napkin as Corwin thumped her in the center of the back with the flat of his hand. Thanking him absently, she wiped her face, put the napkin and teacup down, and hunted among the stack of papers by the side of the table until she came up with the morning's Republic City Tribune, which they hadn't had time or inclination to give its usual inspection at breakfast time. Sure enough, there on the first page of Section 4 was the usual blaring headline, this one reading: WHAT CAN IT MEAN? Below, the usual stack of ever-shrinking subheadlines was absent, but there was a photograph of Corwin and Korra at Narook's Seaweed Noodlery the previous evening. This was slightly grainy, but quite good considering how surreptitiously it must have been taken. They were both smiling broadly, plainly having a blast; she had him in a headlock (having had to climb more or less halfway into his lap to do it, given the disparity in their heights), his near arm trapped between them, and was administering a brisk mock noogie, while he had the heel of his free hand under her chin in what was obviously a deliberately ineffective effort to fend her off. "Republic City, Sanyue 17," Korra read, more to herself than anyone else at the table. "The story of this city's exotic visitors took a strange turn tonight..." She trailed off into inarticulate mumbling, skimming through the article, her expression becoming more and more incredulous; then she put down the paper and dropped her forehead into her hand. "Oh, my aching back." "What? What is it?" Corwin wondered as Kate picked up the paper and started perusing the article herself. "When we saw Emily last night at Narook's," Korra said without looking up. "Remember at the end, when we were leaving, she was all worked up about something?" "I was kind of in non-maskable interrupt mode by then," Corwin remarked dryly, "but yes, I seem to recall something to that effect." "She seemed angry," Kaitlyn observed. "... And I think I see why now," she added after a moment's reading. "I don't," said Corwin, sounding a bit lost. Korra dropped her hand and looked at him. "She thought we were on a DATE date," she said. "And she's been covering YOU guys..." she added, gesturing between him and Utena, "... on your honeymoon." Corwin blinked. "... Oh," he said, and then, philosophically, "Well, that -would- explain the you-beast-how-could-you look she gave me on her way out." Utena raised her eyebrows. "That's quite a conclusion to jump to," she observed. Then, getting a good look at the photo, she went on, "Although having seen this..." "It's true," Kaitlyn concurred with a slightly evil smile. "If you HAD been on a date date, given that it's YOU two, it would have looked exactly the same to Miss Wong." "We just, we were - that's FRIEND stuff!" Korra protested, nearly losing hold of the sentence for a second. Then, picking up her tea, she gave Kate a sidelong glare and repeated in a low mutter, "We're friends, that's what friends do." "And that's exactly what you'd say," Kate went on, her smile becoming a little more wicked as she glanced pointedly from Utena to Corwin. "I know the signs." Utena gave a sheepish grin, her face going red over the bridge of her nose, and took Corwin's nearer hand. "Was it really -that- obvious?" she wondered. "No more so than a car accident," Kate reassured her, taking another bit of veggie sushi from the serving platter Ryo had been preparing the whole time and popping it in her mouth. In exchange, he snagged the paper from her and started reading the article. "All those in favor of throwing Master Kaitlyn in the ornamental pool out by Tenzin's house, raise your hands," said Korra, putting up her own. "Threaten me all you like, Avatar," said Kaitlyn placidly. "I'm not afraid to speak truth to power." Korra subsided, grumbling, then gave her a speculative look as a thought struck her. "Is that so?" she wondered. "Hmm." Seeming to will herself back to casualness, she picked up her chopsticks and helped herself to a bit of hosomaki as well. "How'd you like a job?" "I have a job," said Kate. "Actually, I have several jobs. What's one more? What did you have in mind?" "Well, it so happens that the Order of the White Lotus is short a Master Lotus or three just at the moment..." "Whoa, did you read the rest of this?" Ryo interrupted. "It goes way beyond 'you guys were on a date' at the end here. I think Minmin was right, what she said earlier. Check it out: 'What Avatar Korra plans to do with her new conquest now that she has severed him from his exotic companion is far from clear, but we cannot ignore the possibility that she may return with him to wherever on the Outside he comes from. The cause for concern here is plain: the consequences of such a cavalier abandonment of her duties would be grave indeed. We can only wait and hope that discretion and the needs of her world win out over our hot-blooded Avatar's latest fiery infatuation.'" He put down the paper and gave the rest of the table a startled look. "Conquest? Abandonment? -Infatuation?- Them's fightin' words, boys and girls." He frowned thoughtfully at the article. "-And- they ended a sentence with a preposition. Though in fairness that would be an awkward one to recast. 'Whencesoever on the Outside he may come'? Hmm." Korra's chopsticks snapped in her hand. Without another word, she took out her GearPhone and thumbed it to life, speaking sharply to the person who answered her call. "Cheong. Yes, I see it. No. No longer amused. I want - what? Hang on." She reached and took the paper from in front of Ryo, dragging it back to her own place. "Aha. No, I didn't see that, good catch." She gave a tight little smile at something Cheong said, then replied, "OK, fair enough, I'll stand down from DEFCON 1, but I'm still pretty damn ticked. Get hold of Miss Wong and tell her to get her ass to the Jasmine Dragon at Fifth and Plum RTFN. Non-negotiable. No, I'm not meeting her myself. You are. I'm sending someone from my new team to go in with you. Get down there and size her up. See how much of this came from her. If you think she's still being straight with us, bring her here. If not..." Korra sighed. "... I dunno what if not. I'll have to figure it out then. OK? Thanks. No, she'll meet you there. You'll know her when you see her... no, not Utena, she's too much like me. There'd probably be punching." Corwin snickered and elbowed Utena, who rolled her eyes, drawing a muted giggle from Kate. "OK. Yeah. Thanks, buddy. Seeya." Switching off the phone, Korra closed it and put it away, then let out a great, weary, slouching sigh. After a moment, she became aware of the others' eyes on her again and looked up. "What." "Your new team?" Kate wondered impishly. Korra shrugged. "Everybody says I've got one, who am I to blow against the wind?" she replied. "Also, I think I just accepted that place in the White Lotus for you. Sorry about that. Got a little carried away." Mustering a wry little smile, she added, "The duties are largely ceremonial." Kate smiled. "I was planning to take it anyway," she said. "It sounds interesting. Is there a snappy uniform?" "As a matter of fact there is," said Korra. "What got you back from scorch-the-earth mode?" Minami wondered. "This," Korra said, turning the paper around and pushing it across to her, then tapping the place where Emily's byline would normally be. "Hm. No byline. A staff report," Minami said, understanding at once. She glanced to the bottom of the article. "'Our correspondent Emily Wong contributed to this report.'" "She must have filed something a little more cautious," Corwin mused. "And her editors decided it wasn't punchy enough," Utena agreed, nodding. "Typical. Remember that Zeta Cygni Post article after our fight with the Amar?" "The one with the picture of you being all adorably pissed off at the girl from Avalon This Afternoon?" Corwin replied with a grin. "I have a copy of that front page on my wall at home." Utena snorted. "No, that was the Cornet-Sci. That article was all right." "Well, I don't look at the nameplate that often," Corwin explained, waggling his eyebrows. "ANYway," Utena went on doggedly, "the Post article was about me... and Dad... and how they figured I got the Valiant job." "Oh THAT article," said Kate, nodding sagely. "Yeah," said Utena, scowling at the memory. "The one that's why the Post got all new editors that month." "I had erased those memory sectors," Corwin objected. "Now they're back. Unclean. Unclean!" Utena shoulder-checked him, knocking him into Korra, which broke her out of a frowny reverie over the newspaper; instinctively, she bumped back, and there ensued a bit of a jostling match at that end of the table that dissolved into giggling. "OK," said Korra. "I feel better. For the moment. Kate, you'd better get ready to head into town. Go see Jinora - she'll set you up. It's important to look the part..." 1:24 PM THE JASMINE DRAGON TEA HOUSE 5TH AVE. & PLUM ST., REPUBLIC CITY Emily Wong arrived in the tearoom feeling... well, if she were to be honest, feeling ever-so-faintly scared. She had, over the last week or so, developed what she had flattered herself was a reasonably good working relationship with Master Cheong, the White Lotus master who managed Avatar Korra's press relations. He hadn't told her much of anything useful, but their conversations had at least been cordial, bordering on friendly. Her interactions with him, like her pursuit of the mysterious foreigners' story generally, had taken on the flavor of a game. Now, though, she had the distinct impression that that was all over. His call - not to her desk in the Section 4 bullpen, where she hadn't been all day anyway, but to her personal mobile phone - had been terse to the point of curtness, and he had sounded very much displeased about something. His tone made it plain that she wasn't being asked to meet him at the Jasmine Dragon, she was being -told- to, and not for any purpose she was likely to enjoy. She wondered what had happened to make him angry. Surely it couldn't have been anything she had done. Emily was a little early, having agreed to meet Cheong and an unspecified colleague at 1:30. Taking a table in the corner, she ordered a pot of jasmine oolong, hoping that it would simultaneously perk her up and settle her nerves, and then settled in to watch the entrance. At this time of day, the customers were mainly students from nearby Republic City U, coming in to use the freewire, talk over their morning classes, and/or cut their afternoon ones. She was sipping her first cup and watching the entrance when a lately-familiar voice said behind her, "Miss Wong. Thank you for coming." Emily nearly jumped out of her skin, coming halfway upright with a yelp that drew looks from the nearby tables, as a middle-aged man in a blue business suit slipped around her and took the seat opposite. He was tall and thin, rather dark (but not Water Tribe dark), with a narrow, ascetic face; his only evident hair was a pair of heavy black eyebrows. As he seated himself, his expression betrayed carefully contained vestiges of the anger that had been plain on the phone, but also a faintly apologetic air. "Sorry," he said. "I don't know how I keep doing that." "Where did you come from?!" Emily demanded, sitting back down and mopping up the tea she'd spilled. "I was watching the door." "Through the kitchen," said another voice, from the same place. Emily turned to see the second speaker: a young woman, slim and pretty in a foreign sort of way, dressed in a skirted version of the same natty blue suit the man was wearing, and with the same discreet White Lotus lapel pin. She had long, slightly curly brown hair and big, round outlander eyes a shade or two darker, behind circular wire-rimmed spectacles. As she seated herself at the side of the table, she leaned her dark wood walking stick carefully against its edge, ready to hand. "As I'm sure you've figured out by now, I am Master Cheong of the White Lotus Society," said the man. Nodding toward the woman, he added, "My colleague, Master Kaitlyn." "You were at Narook's," said Emily to Kaitlyn, surprised. "And Chau's before that." The woman smiled slightly. "You're perceptive," she said. "That's good." Emily looked her over, taking the remark as a sort of challenge (besides which, it was an instinct by now). "You have the same ring as the others," she said. Kaitlyn surprised her slightly by not glancing at the pink-rose signet ring she wore, which would surely have been the natural reaction; instead, her smile got a little wider and she said, "You're -very- perceptive." Then, her expression suddenly hardening, she withdrew part of the morning Tribune from inside her suitjacket and slapped it down on the table in front of Emily, adding in a slightly cold voice, "Much TOO perceptive to have drawn these conclusions." Emily blinked. "What? I didn't draw any conclusions. In fact I went out of my -way- not to draw any conclusions." "You haven't read the article, then," said Cheong. "I haven't even -seen- today's paper yet," Emily told him. "I've been up to my armpits in the morgue all day." She paused as what she'd just said seemed to dawn on her, then added, "Uh, the newspaper one, not the... dead bodies one." "Well, perhaps you should familiarize yourself with it now," Cheong suggested. "So that we're all on the same page." Now it was his turn to pause. "... As it were." As Emily read the morning's Section 4 front page, Kaitlyn marveled silently as she watched the stages of the reporter's reaction march plainly across her face: Curiosity, confusion, dawning horror, embarrassment, fury. At length she put down the paper, looked from one blue-clad figure to the other, and said in a voice that almost trembled with a mix of the last two, "I did not write this." Cheong regarded her thoughtfully for a moment, then turned a questioningly arched eyebrow to Kaitlyn, who nodded. "What -did- you write?" Kate asked. "I..." Emily hesitated, then pulled herself together with a sigh and a sip of tea. "I can show you, I still have my own copy," she said, touching the cover of her notebook. "The first couple of grafs here are mine, mostly. The factual part," she added with a trace of dark wryness. "What I saw and where I saw it. The rest of -my- version was the exact opposite of this... trash. I warned my readers not to jump to conclusions. The 'analysis', if you even want to dignify it with that name... that's someone else." She considered for a second, then said, "Probably Kazu. He's hack enough to come up with a crap phrase like 'to wherever on the Outside he comes from'." Cheong steepled his fingertips before him and said judiciously, "I'm curious how you thought you could present this information - particularly this photograph - without any explanatory context and expect people NOT to jump to conclusions." Something in Emily broke loose at that; banging a fist down on the newspaper, she blazed, "Don't take that tone with me! Have you ever had to work to a deadline?" She gestured vaguely in the direction of the Tribune building and went on, "I've been searching for that context for the past 16 hours. I've -had- to, because -someone- thought it would be funny to just string me along all week." Folding her arms, she shook her head at him and snapped, "Ohh, no, Master Lotus. I'm not taking the fall for this on my own." Cheong gave her another one of those long, thoughtful looks, then turned to Kaitlyn and said dryly, "I am forced to concede that Miss Wong has a point, Master Kaitlyn." Kate nodded. "Mm," she agreed. Then, addressing Emily, she said, "No one's looking for anyone to take a fall for anything. We just want to get this situation back under control." "I was supposed to meet with them on Air Temple Island tomorrow," said Emily. "I had hoped that my -own- analysis would be in print by then, so they could tell me how close I came, but now... well." She sighed, shrugging. "Exactly," said Kate. "Which is why we'd like you to come out to the island -today,- so we can get everything sorted out." "How stupid do I look to you?" asked Emily. "I'm not going anywhere near the Avatar after this. She'll kill me." Cheong gave her an incredulous scowl. "No she won't, don't be ridiculous." Kaitlyn shot him a slightly severe glance. "Don't belittle her concerns, Master Cheong," she said. "Of course Korra isn't literally going to kill her, but she has a perfect right to be anxious." Cheong frowned, then nodded. "You're quite right," he conceded, and then inclined his head to Emily and said, "My apologies, Miss Wong." "Emily, it's true Korra was very angry when she read this," said Kate, touching the newspaper. "She still will be, with the people responsible. That's why Cheong and I came here - to assess whether you were one of them. If we thought you were, well... we wouldn't be inviting you to the island. You'll be perfectly safe, I promise." Emily held eye contact with her for a moment, then sighed again and took another sip of her tea. "All right," she said. Then, signaling the waitress, she asked, "Can I get this to go, please?" Cheong insisted on settling the bill, including springing for one of the Jasmine Dragon's cunning little Thermos jugs in place of the usual paper to-go cup. Emily gathered up her notebook and the paper in one hand, took the Thermos from the waitress with the other, and followed the two Master Lotuses outside. She assumed they would be heading for the ferry terminal, but instead, she found that there was a third person waiting for them: a young Air Nomad girl, rail-thin and buzzcut, sitting perched on the head of a sky bison. She had a winged lemur stationed on one of her narrow shoulders, and was dressed in what Emily recognized as very formal Air Nomad clothes: full, blousy pants and an oval-hemmed cloak over a high-collared tunic. Instead of the usual oranges and reds, her outfit was the same rich dark blue as the suits Cheong and Kaitlyn wore, but for the broad, tasseled white sash around her waist. Seeing them emerge, this remarkable specimen smiled broadly. "Hello, Miss Wong," she said. "I'm Nyima, and this is Makoto and Vayu," she added, petting first the lemur and then her bison's head. "Have you ever flown before?" "Only in an aeroplane," said Emily. "And did you enjoy it?" Emily hesitated. "... It was all right?" "Well, this will be much better," Nyima assured her, gesturing for her to climb up to the saddle behind her with Cheong and Kaitlyn. "Just relax and we'll have you on the island in no time." Emily began to comply; on her way up, she asked, "Wait, you're a Master Lotus? How old are you?" "Sixteen," Nyima replied, unconcerned. Emily reached the top, where Cheong gave her a hand over the gunwale of the saddle. She thanked him, then went forward to lean over the pommel and ask Nyima, "How'd that happen?" Nyima's smile was undiminished as she replied blithely, "I studied hard and ate my vegetables." Then, twitching the reins, she declared, "Yip yip, Vayu!" On Air Temple Island, Korra, Corwin, and Utena had determined that Anthy, though still fully intent on staying in bed basically all day, would be happy to change rooms if, for example, they were to set up a nice futon-style daybed for her in the sun parlor on the south side of the house. Since this was a particularly pleasant room anyway, and would make a good site for receiving further company, they'd inquired of Jinora where such a thing could be found, and she'd directed them to one in an upstairs bedroom. They brought it down, then hunted up a couple of armchairs to go with it and the couch that was already out there, setting up a nice little conversational grouping. Now, as Anthy finished arranging herself, Annabelle, and Garnet upon said futon and Corwin carried in the last of the armchairs, Korra's GearPhone rang. "Hello," she said. "Yeah. OK. Problems? Good. OK, thanks. See you soon." She closed the phone, put it away, and said, "They're on their way. Kate says she thinks Emily's just as surprised as we are." "This should be interesting," Jinora remarked. Utena nudged Korra with an elbow, grinning. "I'll give you ten thousand gold ren if you give her that cute photo Kate took of you and Corwin Monday night and tell her you're eloping." Korra gave her a startled look, but before she could remark, Corwin said to Utena, "You -started- this, elskr, don't make it worse. Also, where are you going to get ten thousand gold ren?" "I could turn to banditry," Utena suggested, settling on the daybed next to Anthy. Addressing her next remark ostensibly to Annabelle, she went on, "I mean, you saw the paper, right? What have I got to lose? The Avatar's stolen my husband." "(It's like herding cat-owls,)" Korra muttered to Jinora, but the airbender only smiled her this-is-your-problem-dear-but-I'll-gladly- watch-you-try-to-solve-it smile. Rolling her eyes in response, Korra turned back to the others and said, "I can't believe I'm the one saying this, but let's try to focus, people." "Hey, I'm the injured party here, I get to laugh," Utena said. She stretched her legs out full-length in front of her, crossed at the ankle, and leaned back with her hands behind her head. "I'll be good when she gets here, I promise." She paused, thinking, then added offhandedly, "That really is a cute photo, though." "It's true," Anthy agreed. "Not helping, Anthy," Korra grumbled. Anthy smiled benevolently. "It's sweet how you assume I was trying to," she said. "OK, they're here," Corwin reported from the window. Turning back, he proposed, "How about we -try- to pretend we're grown-ups?" Anthy sighed. "Oh, very well, if you insist." "Well, I'll leave you to your conference," said Jinora. "My hopes for a satisfactory resolution. I'll see you at dinner." "Thanks, Jinora. See you later," said Corwin. "I don't know how you do it," Korra admitted to Jinora as she walked with the grandmaster to the front door. "After growing up with Ikki and Meelo, the rest of the world is easy," Jinora replied serenely, then took her leave. Korra stayed at the door to greet Emily, Kate, and Cheong when they arrived. Cheong parted from them at that point, remarking darkly that he thought he might best serve by heading back to town and depositing a word or two into certain ears at the Tribune. Korra showed the other two down the hall to the sun parlor. Before she could start making introductions or find some other way of breaking at least a little of what was, in frankness, some pretty thick ice, Emily took the matter out of her hands by marching up to Corwin and declaring flatly, "Your name isn't Watari Karasu; you're Corwin Ravenhair, the eldest of IPO Chief Gryphon's three sons. You had been visiting this world semi-regularly since a few months after you were born in 2391, but you stopped coming in 2404 and this is the first time you've been back since then. No one seems to know just what it is you do for a living, but by all accounts I could find, you're quite clever." Leaving him to give her a surprised, impressed look, she turned to Utena (who had risen to her feet alongside the futon when the reporter entered) and went on, "-Your- name is Utena Tenjou. The 'big universe' wire service reports say you're a master swordswoman and one of the IPO's crusader-for-galactic-justice types. You've never been to Diqiu before; in fact, you don't seem to be -from- anywhere, you just appeared out of nowhere not long after Corwin's last visit here." She shook her head. "A real international mystery woman. "But that pales in comparison to -you,-" she went on, addressing Anthy. She was carrying a notebook, but they'd all noticed by this point that she wasn't consulting it as she hit the high points of her findings about each: "There's virtually nothing about you in any public record I could get my hands on in the past 16 hours or so. I know your name is Anthy, and you and Utena have been married for four years as of yesterday, but before your wedding you don't appear to have -existed at all,- which is frankly a little creepy." She angled a thumb back at Corwin. "Also, I'm fuzzy on how she can have been on her honeymoon with -him- last weekend, given the preceding, but let's leave that for the moment." Finally, turning to Kate, she said, "And -you- are Kaitlyn Hutchins, Chief Gryphon's eldest daughter, Corwin's half-sister. You're a rock star, a movie star, you do your own stunts, and you'll be New Avalon University's associate professor of music the -nanosecond- you finish your Ph.D. And," she added without missing more than one beat as Serge sauntered in from the hall and pushed his head under Kate's free hand, "you apparently have a pet tiger." Turning a slow circle to take all of them in, she concluded, "Plus, you all seem to be pals with the Avatar. I feel like I just crashed an Overachievers Anonymous meeting." No one replied for a moment; then Utena said, "You're not doing so bad yourself. That's more than I thought you'd have turned up." Emily put her hands on her hips and gave Utena a challenging look. "You want to know the really impressive part? I got all that since nine-thirty last night." With another, this time rueful, shake of her head, she went on, "Normally I wouldn't brag about that, but it comes with its own shameful confession to balance it out. Save that for later. What the heck is goin' on?" Before anyone could attempt an answer, she turned to Korra, gestured to Corwin, and went on, "And why were -you- two out on a -date- last night? I mean, I understand now that it was their wedding anniversary," she said, nodding toward the futon, "so that's why they went to Kwong's by themselves, and I know it was Kaitlyn's birthday, but that scene at Narook's... -something- was going on there." Looking Korra in the eye, she asked bluntly, "What -are- you to him, Avatar?" Korra thought about her answer for a moment, looking steadily back at her; then she said, "Well, I suppose, if you get right down to it, I'm his godmother." Corwin stepped up next to the Avatar and put a hand on her shoulder, adding in a gentle voice, "And a very dear friend." Korra smiled wryly, reflexively reaching up to touch his hand, and glanced at him. "Well, that went without saying," she said. And just for an instant, as she glanced at him, there it was again: that same look, the one from the photo Emily -hadn't- submitted for publication, the one that had set her on the sixteen-hour odyssey of research she'd just finished: many-layered, hypercontextual, and so intensely personal that Emily felt she was intruding on something just by having witnessed it. What the young reporter received then, seeing it live and in person, wasn't a flash of -insight-, exactly; in many ways she was none the wiser for it... but it was certainly a glimpse of some higher-level, cosmic-basecode truth. Emily didn't know what that truth -was.- Rather, in that moment she understood that it probably wasn't hers to know... and that whatever it was, there was beauty in it. "Oh," she said, feeling that it was a trifle lame, and yet the only thing she could say. Corwin gave Korra's shoulder a squeeze, then released it and crossed the room to sit down on the edge of the futon, next to Anthy. At the same time, Utena resumed her station on the other side; once she was settled, Kaitlyn perched herself on the mattress's edge next to her, with Serge curling up contentedly on the floor beside. "You mentioned that you know I haven't been back to Diqiu since 2404," Corwin said. "What you probably don't know is that that wasn't by choice. Korra and I haven't seen each other in six years because we -couldn't.- There were people scheming to keep us apart." "So she wouldn't meet -me,- of all the lamebrained ideas," Utena put in. "So that's what you saw last night," Corwin went on. "Old friends making up for stolen time." "-Not- me breaking up my godson's five-day-old marriage," Korra added sarcastically, seating herself in the armchair next to the daybed, alongside where Corwin was sitting. "Take a seat," she said, gesturing to the one on the opposite side. "And what was that crap about me running out on Diqiu?" Emily sat, feeling a little awkward now. "That wasn't me," she said, and explained - her annoyance smoothing over the hesitancy - that the article -she'd- filed had been, if she did say so herself, a marvel of circumspection, and that she suspected her stupid so-called colleague Kazu had been the one called on by her editor to "spice things up a bit," with catastrophic results. By the end, she'd reached the point where she was unconsciously speaking more loudly, and Anthy was just about to ask her if she'd mind keeping her voice down when Garnet raised her head, peered around, and then inquired wearily of Annabelle, "Why is it our destiny to be surrounded by shouty people today, dovfahdon?" Emily recoiled in shock and stared for a moment. Her cheeks reddened as she realized that, for all that Kaitlyn had recently praised her perceptiveness, she hadn't noticed that the adults weren't alone in the room. "A baby," she said, as if not quite certain whether to believe it. "And a... dragon?" "Yeah, you're definitely a reporter," Garnet snarked, snuggling back down against Annabelle's shoulder. "This is our daughter Annabelle," Anthy said, "and her boon companion Garnet." Emily smiled at the infant, who looked back with an expression of vague, abstract benevolence, then seemed to dismiss the visitor from her calculations and return to considering the ceiling instead. Then, a thoughtful frown coming onto her face, the reporter said, "Who is 'our' in this context?" "Well," said Anthy, taking Utena's right hand in her left, "I prefer to think of us all as her parents, the three of us, but if you must look at it technically, mine and Corwin's." Emily's natural reaction to that was to glance at Utena, who shrugged and said wryly, "I'm a multitalented woman, but that particular trick is beyond me." Emily blushed again, looking away, but couldn't quite suppress an embarrassed smile at that. These people were strange, but very charming in their strangeness; she'd felt that about Utena and Corwin the first night she'd met them, at the Velvet Palanquin, and she felt it again now. She could see how a person would get drawn into their orbit and never get out again - never particularly want to. "So, yeah, you've got most of the rough outline already," Corwin put in. "If your editor hadn't gotten so antsy, your follow-up probably would've been good enough that our meeting tomorrow would just've been us giving you a gold star," he added with a grin. "I still have a couple of questions, if you don't mind," said Emily. "Sure, but I have one for you first," Utena said. "What is it?" Emily wondered. "You said you had a shameful confession to balance out the bragging about how good you are at research," Utena prompted. "Fair's fair." Emily smiled. "I suppose it is." Then, sobering, she considered how to phrase what she had to say for a moment before looking at Corwin and saying, "When I saw you and Avatar Korra at Narook's last night, I... well, I did assume more or less what Kazu's version of the article ended up saying. Not necessarily the part about Korra leaving us," she qualified, "but I thought you -were- there on a real date. That she had..." She reddened again. "... I don't know, convinced you to leave your bride and be with her instead. I was... hurt. Shocked that she would do such a thing, disappointed that you would go along with it. A woman I've looked up to and respected my whole life, and a man I thought I'd gotten a pretty good read on when he rescued my Minox from the bouncer at the Velvet Pal," she added with a wry little smile. "What changed your mind?" Anthy wondered. "Well..." Emily looked across the futon at Korra. "It was you, Avatar," she said. Korra looked puzzled. "Me?" "After our little... confrontation... outside the noodlery, I went home and developed my film. I had that same minicamera with me, and I knew I had managed to get a few good shots." "You process your own film?" Corwin asked. "Nice." "I have to," Emily replied. "The Tribune's photo lab wouldn't know what to do with Minox film. They're going all computerized anyway, but I don't trust that stuff. Where's the archival permanence? They can't even read the magnetic tapes from the Phoenix Flight mission -at Future Industries- any more." She reddened slightly as she realized she'd wandered of the beam a little. "Anyway. I developed my film and started printing the better frames. And... well... in one of them..." Emily opened her notebook to the back, removed a photograph, and tossed it onto the futon; it slid across the smooth coverlet, stopping just before it would have gone off the edge and fallen at Korra's feet. She bent forward in her chair, turned it so it was right-way-up for her, and considered it with eyebrows rising. It showed herself and Corwin, framed roughly the same as they had been in the photo that had run on the Section 4 front page, but in a different moment; he was talking to someone off-camera (Juniper, if Korra remembered right how they had been sitting), and she was looking at him, their eyelines such that she would've had him in profile. She didn't remember having had that wistful, where-did-you-come-from-all-of- a-sudden look on her face, but she supposed she must have. Seeing it now, and knowing the others around her were seeing it too, she felt the bridge of her nose go a bit hot. Corwin leaned in over her shoulder to have his own look at the photo. After a moment's consideration, all he said, in a judicious sort of voice, was, "Well." "That is... not the look a woman -gives- a man she's just stolen from his wife," Emily said hesitantly. Anthy leaned forward a bit so she could get a closer look as well, then smiled. "No," she agreed. "No indeed." "When I saw that, I knew I was wrong," said Emily. "And for a second I..." She hesitated again, looking down at her hands in loose fists on her knees, then went on in a smaller voice, "... I was disappointed." Korra looked up from the photo. "Disappointed?" Emily nodded, not meeting her eyes. "Yes. Because I thought I had a really juicy thing to report, and then it slipped away from me. And then it hit me how -wrong- that thought process was. How... sleazy. And I suddenly realized that I'd turned into exactly the thing I've always prided myself that I -wasn't.- I might be paying my dues at the Trib by putting in a couple of years in Section 4, I always told myself, but I wasn't going to be just another society-page celebrity gossip creep. I wasn't going to take pleasure in human frailty or glory in making people's private things public. "Except that's exactly what I had been looking forward to doing. I didn't even realize it consciously... until that photo brought it all back into focus for me." She looked around from one to another, shame- faced, then back at her knees as she continued, "I hadn't even -tried- to take up the challenge Utena laid out for me at the Velvet Pal, to go and find out who she and Corwin really were on my own. To -be a real reporter,- like I always told myself I was. I just merrily trailed them around town, waiting to see what they would do next, spinning theories and looking for evidence that backed them, waiting for someone to do something that my editor would be really interested in. Ignoring most of the potential for real news... looking for dirt instead." Emily looked up again, seeming like she might be on the verge of tears. "I don't know when it happened, exactly; it was so subtle I can't trace it back now... but somewhere in the last couple of years, I lost my way. I was disappointed that my childhood idol turned out NOT to be a homewrecker. How screwed up -is- that?!" she demanded. Not waiting for an answer, she went on, "That was about nine- thirty last night. I went straight to the office, filed a different photo and a really cautious report - I had to file SOMETHING - and then I really went to work. I trawled the morgue, I hit the lightningweb, I phoned the New Avalon Cornet-Sci - spirits help me, they'll probably make me pay for that call - I dug up everything I told you when I came in here, and a few more things besides. I had a good start on my follow-up to the report I -thought- had hit print this morning when Cheong called... and, well, you know the rest." Korra picked up the photograph of herself from the bed, considered it again for a few moments, then handed it to Kaitlyn and said, "OK. You messed up. Like you said, you lost your way. You recognize that." Emily nodded miserably. "Then we don't need to dwell on it any further," Korra went on, causing the young reporter to blink at her in faintly hopeful disbelief. "The important thing isn't that you ended up down a hole," Korra explained to her disbelieving look. Utena nodded, recognizing where she was going, and said, "The important thing is that you climbed out." Korra grinned and high-fived her without looking, then said to Emily, "Doing whatever it takes to fix a screwup goes a lot further with me than never having screwed up in the first place. If you -never- screwed up, that probably just means you weren't -doing- anything. Staying up all night to -fix- one? That shows character." "I..." Emily reddened once more, lowered her eyes, and mumbled, "Thank you, Avatar." "Call me Korra," said the Avatar with an easy smile. While Emily was taking that on board, Utena said, "So. You had a couple more questions, you said." Blinking rapidly, Emily took a moment to get herself back on task, then said, "Uh, yes. This one's not for publication, so much as my own understanding, but, um..." She looked from one end of the little group on the futon to the other, reddening a bit, and asked hesitantly, "How did you three... you know." Anthy momentarily considered remarking that as yet they -hadn't- all three... you know, but decided that between them they'd put the poor girl through enough already. Instead she glanced at the others, then said, "Years ago, Utena and I were roommates at boarding school. In time," she added, taking the pink-haired woman's hand and exchanging a smile with her, "we fell in love. Unfortunately, there were some difficulties with my family - " (Utena stifled a laugh.) " - and she was obliged to leave me for a time. Her roommate at her -new- school was Kaitlyn - " "With whom she did -not- have the courtesy to fall in love, thank you -very- much," said Kate mock-petulantly, earning herself a grinning swat from Utena. " - and Corwin is her brother," Anthy continued as if she hadn't been interrupted. "He and Utena are naturally very compatible, so it was only to be expected that they would find themselves together. I won't bore you with the details," she went on lightly, "but eventually, Corwin was able to reunite Utena and me - for which gallant act he earned my heart as well," she added, leaning to kiss his cheek with an impish smile, "and, well... it took rather a lot of doing, to be honest, and got a bit tiresome at times, but here we are at last! Utena is my husband; Corwin is -her- husband; Annabelle is our daughter..." "And dragon makes five," said Garnet sleepily. "There are dragons in the Big Universe?" Emily wondered. "Oh, sure," Garnet mumbled. "Loads. Place is swarming with us. What are we talking about?" "Nothing, go back to sleep," said Corwin, reaching to stroke her head, then Annabelle's. "K," murmured the dragon, her gemlike golden eyes slipping shut again. Emily shook her head. "You guys are crazy," she said. "I thought so at the Velvet Pal and now I'm sure of it." Then she grinned, taking most of the sting out of it, and added, "I like your flavor of crazy, though." "Hey, sometimes crazy works," said Utena, leaning to kiss Anthy on the cheek. "OK, next question," Emily went on; this time she actually opened her notebook and got out a pencil, propping the one on her knee to stabilize it for the other. "This one -is- for the record. What have you got planned next?" Utena, Corwin, and Anthy glanced at each other, all puzzlement between them. "You said it yourself," Korra put in before any of them could attempt a response. "Corwin's the IPO chief's son and Utena here is one of his up-and-coming galactic go-getters." She threw Utena a wink. "In the next little while, we'll all be looking at ways of increasing communications across the Veil. Strengthening ties." She sat back in her chair, ankles crossed, and grinned. "It's a project I've been trying to get off the ground for years, and now it looks like we finally have an opportunity to make a start on it." "How will that affect day-to-day life in Republic City?" Emily wondered, perking up at the scent of actual news. Korra shrugged. "Odds are it won't, at least in the short-to- medium term," she said. "I mean, we're not looking at wholesale integration into the galactic community. I don't think you'd find many people who even -want- that. On the other hand, we need a better way of knowing what's going -on- over there. It's really about communication." Emily nodded, jotting some notes. "Isn't everything," she said wryly, recalling again their own recent difficulties with same. "Yeah, uh, listen, I'm sorry about that," said Utena, hand behind head. "My brilliant plan got a little out of hand. In my defense, it seemed like a good idea at the time," she added sheepishly. "Thank you," said Emily, a surprised and pleased smile touching her face. Then, a little ruefully, she added, "I think it's fair to say that this whole mess doesn't represent -anyone's- finest hour." "Except maybe Cheong's, for putting up with the lot of us," Corwin quipped, drawing an only-slightly-awkward laugh. "Speaking of which, Miss Wong," Korra put in. Emily turned back to her. "Yes?" Korra gave her a judicious look, then asked bluntly, "Tell me something: Are you brave? Like, -physically- brave? I already know you've got moral courage, or you wouldn't have just admitted all that to a room full of total strangers. But can you handle it when dangerous stuff is happening?" Emily looked confused. "I... yeah. I can take care of myself. I'm an earthbender." Korra's eyebrows went up. "Really! Even better. OK. I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. You know the Red Monsoon Triad?" "We haven't been formally introduced," said Emily dryly, "but I'm familiar with the name." Korra chuckled. "OK. One more question. Do you know what Comet is?" "In the astronomical sense, or... ?" Korra shook her head. "No. It's a street drug." "Oh," said Emily. "No, I haven't heard of it. That's not really my area at the moment." "Mm. Well, it's some kind of designer variant on speed, we think. I'm not a chemist, so I couldn't tell you the details, but basically what it does is supercharge firebenders." "Ah. Hence the name," Emily said. Korra nodded. "Exactly. It's fairly new, originated out west somewhere. Caused some real problems in Caldera City and Fire Fountain. The RCPD and I have been pretty lucky about keeping it from coming into the city in bulk so far - but it's starting to turn up regardless, and a buddy of mine in the Organized Crime Task Force, Inspector Imanishi, got a tip that the Red Monsoons are going to try and start a -serious- pipeline into town soon." Emily's brow furrowed. "The Red Monsoons are waterbenders," she said. "Why would they be interested in a drug for firebenders?" "They don't want to -use- it, they want to -sell- it," Korra told her. "From that standpoint it's actually better if it's something their own people don't have any use for. No reason for them to sample the merchandise." "But they'd be making their own enemies more powerful if they sold it to, for instance, the Agni Kai." Korra nodded. "I know. They must think they have some kind of angle. We're still looking into that. Anyway, the point is, we're reasonably sure they're going to move a major shipment of the stuff into the city sometime in the next few weeks, and we think we'll know when and where in time to put a stop to it. So I'll cut you a deal. If you do what you can to tidy up the mess your editor made so I don't actually have to have the White Lotus sue the Tribune for libel - which I don't want to do, but I will if I have to - and if you can keep the story quiet until you and I are agreed that you can break it without screwing up Eitaro's case, I'll talk to him about getting you embedded with the task force when we go in for the raid." She grinned, her eyes twinkling. "If you think you're up for that." Emily stared at the Avatar, her own eyes going wide. "I - ... you would do that for me? That, that could be my break. It -would- be my break. With my byline on a story like that, I could go anywhere." "I know," Korra said, still grinning. "For a chance like that, I'll typeset the retraction myself if I have to," Emily promised. She got to her feet and bowed, hands linked in front of her chest. "Thank you, Avatar. I can't... I can't thank you enough." Korra rose, walked around the futon, and clapped Emily on the shoulder. "I told you to call me Korra," she said. Despite her fatigue and the emotional roller coaster she'd just ridden, Emily looked like she could've floated back to the mainland herself, she was riding so high on the outcome. Nyima and Vayu gave her a lift anyway, just to be neighborly. "Where do you live, Emily?" Nyima asked as Vayu sped out over the bay. "We can run you straight home." Emily, leaning over the prow of the bison's saddle with her arms crossed atop it, opened her mouth to reply; then she hesitated, a thoughtful expression stealing over her face, and she said, "Actually, Master Nyima, if you don't mind, I think I'd like to check in at the office first..." REPUBLIC CITY TRIBUNE TOWER TRIBUNE SQUARE For just a second, Luo Qiang thought he'd dozed off in his office and was having that dream again. The one where the Wong girl was yelling his name. She was an irritating little creature in person, all full of airs and ideas that she was going to be a Real Reporter someday, and she had zero tolerance for old-fashioned newsroom paternalism; but in certain of Luo's dreams, she tended to be much more amenable to the... -traditional- role of a junior reporter. Then he realized that he was -not,- in fact, asleep at his desk, and furthermore that Wong's voice seemed to be coming from behind him. Which was a bit puzzling, since the only thing behind him was his office window, and his office was on the 21st floor. He swiveled in his chair and then stared in amazement at the sight of Emily Wong, standing with a face like thunder about ten feet from the window, as though the office were at street level and she stood on the sidewalk. Startled, he bolted from his chair and threw open the window. Leaning out, he saw that Emily had not, in fact, somehow learned how to fly, but - very nearly as astonishingly - was standing on the back of an Air Nomad sky bison, whose master was keeping it in a very steady hover just below the window. "Wong! What in the world - " he began, but Emily cut him off. Fists clenched and arms akimbo, face nearly crimson with rage, she bellowed in a voice that could be heard plainly out in the bullpen: "You IMBECILE! What in the WORLD! POSSESSED you! To LIBEL THE AVATAR! _IN AN ARTICLE WITH *MY NAME ON IT?!!*_" For a moment, Luo was so taken aback he couldn't even react; then, a fury of his own rising, he leaned out the window and shouted back, "Who the hell do you think you are, Wong? I haven't seen your cute little butt in the bullpen all day, and then you show up taking that tone with me?" Drawing himself up in a slightly futile attempt to assert his authority over someone who was shouting at him from the sky outside his window, he added lamely, " You're lucky I don't fire you!" Emily snorted, sneering at him, all the disdain and resentment she felt at having spent two years as this patronizing cretin's lackey boiling up at once. "You CAN'T fire me!" she shot back. "You don't have the BALLS to fire me! I'm the only thing standing between YOU and the ENTIRE WHITE LOTUS LEGAL TEAM, you pusillanimous sack of talentless mung!" Pointing toward his chair with an imperious finger, she went on, "Now you sit there and you THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU DID. I'll be back to clean up your mess when I'm FRIGGIN' GOOD AND READY! And if you know what's good for you, you'll stay out of my WAY while I'm DOING it!" Then, turning away, she sat down behind the low wall at the front of the bison's saddle and gave it a couple of thumps with her hand. Not very convincingly hiding a smile under an impassive front, the skinny Air Nomad youth at the "controls" twitched the reins and guided the animal away from the building. As soon as they were a reasonable distance from the Tribune building - which didn't take long at Vayu's cruising speed - Nyima glanced back over her shoulder with a grin and said, "That was nicely done." "I feel so much better," said Emily, sagging wearily against the prow of Vayu's saddle. "OK. Now I can sleep." She told Nyima her address, but by the time they arrived, she was already out like a light. She would always wonder thereafter how the spindly young Air Nomad had gotten her up to her fourth-floor walk-up apartment and into her bed. AIR TEMPLE ISLAND "Well, that must have gone well," Minami Sato announced, striding into the sun parlor once the reporter had left the house. "Yeah, the walls are still vertical and I didn't see Miss Wong launched into the harbor," Ryo added, carrying a small basket with him as he followed his sister in. "I still remember that one time when we were at that joint meeting..." he continued, looking over at Korra. Korra, for her part, hadn't reacted to the siblings' words. She was standing by one of the open east-facing windows, watching the buff-colored form of Vayu receding towards the city skyline as Nyima ran Emily home. Once the bison was out of view, Korra's broad shoulders sagged, and she turned and flung herself back into the chair she had been occupying with a great sigh. "Four things never change: death, taxes, the spirits, and the rumor mill," Korra grumbled as she looked up at the ceiling, not addressing anybody in particular. There were murmurs of agreement from those assembled, especially from Ryo and Minami. Since Kate had taken the chair Emily had vacated, the Satos found the chairs full and the futon-daybed arguably over-full (since it had Annabelle, all three of her parents, and her dragon on it), so they seated themselves at opposite ends of the sofa which stood along the wall. "Still, it could have been worse... -much- worse." Korra let out a self-deprecating chuckle as she lowered her gaze from the ceiling to her friends. "The media's come up with some -whoppers,- particularly back in the day." "Oh? Do tell," Kate said with her impish smile. Korra rolled her eyes into a sidelong glance at the samurai. "Well, since you asked so -nicely-..." She reached back with her arms, hands interlaced, stretching her body briefly before settling back down into a more relaxed slouch. "As you can imagine, with a job like mine, in the public eye all the time, there've been all -sorts- of contradictory theories as to who I was with at any given time, even if the actual concrete evidence was right -there- in front of them. "Right from the start of my public career, I mean, you take my original team - Mako, Bolin, Asami - any of them at any one time, or all three of them at once (which, if nothing else, I have to take as a vote of confidence in my stamina)... oh, don't give me that shocked look, Minami. I might be a girl, but your great-great-grandmother was -very- attractive. I had quite a bit of adjustment getting used to that, let me tell you!" she added, reddening slightly with a smile. "Nothing in my woefully limited experience of the world up to then had prepared me for Asami Sato blowing into my life." She grinned at Minami's blushing startled look, and Ryo's brief dumbfounded expression. "Hey, Asami had no shortage of suitors. You have to accept -that-, at least. Do I have to explain the sparrowkeets and the bumbleflies to you again?" Ryo shook his head. "No, no, we're good." Korra chuckled. "Good. Anyway, that was just the tip of the iceberg. Pretty much -anybody- I've spent any significant time with, in some fashion, I've been paired with romantically in the press. Even some of my enemies, weirdly enough - opponents in the pro-bending ring, various people I've butted heads with out in the field... I never understood that. I mean, c'mon, -Tahno?- I had to touch that guy to give him his bending back, and afterwards I just wanted to go and wash my -hands- for an hour." She looked around at a small sea of puzzled faces. "You have no idea what I'm talking about now. OK! Moving on. It was mostly my friends, anyway. Bending teammates, colleagues from Project Phoenix Flight or the White Lotus... even -Aang- didn't have to put up with so much commentary on his social life." She sighed and made a what-can-you-do-with-this gesture. "And that was just the fanzines and stuff like Section Four! It only got worse when TV and computers started really taking off. That was about when the White Lotus finally got their act together and made a media division to handle all of it." "So that's why Cheong's a Master Lotus," Kaitlyn mused. "Well, yeah. He's not my first press agent, that position's been around for nearly a century now. They certainly managed to reduce the number of embarrassing pictures I was in - spirits, that one of me and President Raiko back in 171..." Korra shook her head at an awkward memory. "It can't have been easy for them - especially once you got to the 'ubiquitous electronic media' stage," Utena commented. "Harder to get people to throttle back by talking with them, like we just managed to do with Emily there." "Oh yeah," Korra nodded. "For instance, back in 193 - that's what, 2312 to you... agni, almost a hundred years ago," she said, pausing for a second to fathom that. Then, shaking herself slightly, she went on, "I backseated for Asami in the Future City Historic GP - the first one! - and for weeks afterward, this one guy on the Avatar Spotters BBS (no lightningweb yet, remember) was -obsessed- with the 'crypto-lesbian subtext'." With a faint smirk, she added, "Guy was -really- reading into the winner's-circle champagne thing, if you know what I'm saying." "Hmm, yeah, I've seen the pictures at the Sato Museum," Corwin commented, waggling his eyebrows suggestively. Korra rolled her eyes and gently punched his shoulder, unable to entirely suppress a smile. "Pervert." Corwin shrugged. "You guys looked awesome together," he said mildly. "I don't see how diggin' that is perverted." Minami opened her mouth, trying to think of something to say. "That's..." "... well," Ryo finished for her, equally at a loss for words. Korra nodded sagely to the Satos. "People will think the craziest things, I know. I've just had to get used to it. Ah, you know what it's like, right?" "We do indeed," answered the voice of Master Rohan, standing at the doorway. Behind him could be seen Meelo, with two lemurs on his shoulders. "Good afternoon, everyone. Lady Anthy, I do hope the discussion with Miss Wong did not upset little Annabelle?" "Oh, no, not at all," replied Anthy with a smile. "She seemed to be quite taken with her." "(Nobody cares if -I- was upset, oh noooo,)" Garnet mumbled. "My apologies, Mistress Garnet," Rohan replied, making the airbender salute towards the dragonet. "I did not wish to distract you from your duties." Mollified, Garnet nestled back against Annabelle's shoulder. "Fine. Just see that it doesn't happen again." Rohan nodded graciously. "Of course not, milady." "(mmm, 'milady'... I like that. Can we keep him?)" the dragon murmured to Anthy, drawing a chuckle from her and Utena. "I don't know, I'm pretty sure he's already taken," Utena commented with a thoughtful look towards the airbending master. "That would be a correct assumption, Prince Utena," Rohan replied, unperturbed. "But I'll let my wife know that her good taste is appreciated." "Speaking of which, I believe there's somebody else who would like to meet the newest member of the family, isn't that right, Makoto?" Meelo announced as he moved his way past his younger brother. "And a pleasant and delightful afternoon to you all as well," he continued as he made the airbender salute and bowed, allowing Makoto the lemur to take off from his perch and sail over to Anthy's shoulder. Meanwhile, the other lemur (a grey-furred ring-tailed specimen) absently picked crumbs from Meelo's beard. "Thanks, Master Meelo," Utena replied, as she watched Garnet and Makoto eyeing each other from their respective positions. "It's definitely been... different." "Also, Korra, I couldn't help overhearing the subject of your discussion from earlier, about your colleagues," Meelo went on. "What would -my- romantic chances be, perchance?" Korra rolled her eyes with a put-upon expression. "I changed your diapers, Meelo. That's an automatic disqualification." Meelo did not appear dismayed by this blatant dismissal. He just shrugged and replied with an amused smile, "Oh well. Maybe in another twenty years..." "(In another twenty years we'll be back where we started,)" Korra muttered, almost inaudibly. "Spirits, I did -not- need that image," Minami said with an exaggerated twitch, which her brother mirrored. Rohan coughed, and raised his voice. "Be that as it may," he said, trying to get the conversation back on track, "I have been in discussion with Jinora about your plan to establish a homestead within the borders of the United Republic, and I believe we have a potential solution for you." "Wait, you're planning on moving here?" Minami asked, her previous discomfiture forgotten. "Why didn't you tell us earlier?" "Not full-time, but yeah, we're looking into building a home in the Republic. We just figured it out ourselves this morning," Corwin admitted. "And it might still be a little early to be using words as generous as 'plan'." "Hell, son, if we'd known, we'd have gladly given you the back forty on the ranch!" Ryo added. "It's got a lake, you know..." Corwin laughed. "Thanks, Ryo. I appreciate it, I really do. But I think we want something a little closer to Republic City. Anyway, we can dig into it more later on." He smiled, looking over at Anthy and Annabelle, who were watching the stare-off between Garnet and Makoto. Finally, the dragonet apparently judged the lemur no threat, and moved aside so that Makoto could approach his mistress's daughter. "All right, you can pass. But no funny business!" "Garnet, it'll be all right, believe me," Anthy said with a smile. "Makoto, this is Annabelle. Annabelle, Makoto." Lemur eyes met baby eyes for several moments, and then with a chitter Makoto turned around and scampered over Utena's lap to reach the fruit bowl that had been placed on the endtable there, retrieving one of the fruits within. He then darted back to his place next to Anthy and tried to offer the fruit to Annabelle. "Oh, that's very thoughtful of you, Makoto," Anthy said with a gently reproachful smile as she guided the lemur's paws away from her daughter's face, "but please don't take offense - Annabelle doesn't want that right now." The lemur let out a puzzled chirp, looking around in confusion. Corwin grinned and reached out his hand. "Hey, I do! Is that a lychee? Awright," he said as he accepted the offered fruit and peeled it. Kaitlyn let out a thoughtful hum, and looked over at the Avatar. "Korra, do you still -have- those pictures? I'm curious." "What? Yeah, on my laptop. Ironically enough," said Korra with a wink, thinking of Emily's recently declared distrust of digital photo archiving. "It's in my room, let me go get it," she added, starting to get out of her chair. Meelo stopped her with a raised hand. "Oh, no need to get up, my love. Let me handle it." With that, the aged master pulled out a small cylindrical whistle from beneath his robes, and blew three sharp notes on it. Immediately the lemur on his shoulder came to attention, and three other flying lemurs soared in from the open sunroom windows and perched on his other shoulder and his outstretched arms. "Good, good! Poki, Tosa, Ogo, Limu, if you would be so kind..." he said, and then trailed off into a series of chittering, clicking chirps and whistles. The four lemurs appeared to take this onboard, and as one they leapt off Meelo's robes and soared back out the window, in such a hurry that they didn't even seem to notice there had been a tiger in the room the entire time. "Gonna be honest: That was a little disturbing," Ryo stated. "It is not for nothing that Meelo is called the Master of Lemurs," Rohan stated gravely. "Father always wondered what he had unleashed upon the world when he taught my brother how to train them." "Well, I think it's charming," Anthy replied. "Isn't that right, Makoto?" "Pbrlt," replied the lemur. "She's got you there, Rohan," Korra remarked with a smile. "Mmm, yes," Rohan muttered. "In any case, if you wish, I can take you and your family out to see the site tomorrow, Corwin." "Sounds great," Corwin replied. "Let's all go!" "Actually, I'm afraid I'll have to pass, Corwin. I need to meet with Eitaro tomorrow to let him know we're bringing Emily on board for the Comet case," Korra explained. "And I think Juni-chan and I will be spending most of our last day in town at the Zuko Academy," Kaitlyn added. "So that she can show Master Ito and me just how much she's improved in... gosh, a little under a week?" "Time flies, doesn't it?" Korra asked with a grin. "Aw," said Corwin disappointedly. "I'd love to go, but I'm afraid I just can't," Minami said ruefully. "I'm already skiving off work today. Ryo can go, though!" she added brightly. "His office is just for show anyway." "My loving sister, ladies and gentlemen," said Ryo cheerfully. "But no, really, love to. I can help you size up the site." With a sarcastic look at Minami he added, "I do have a little experience in the building trades." "Sure, glad to have the help." Corwin smiled at Anthy and their daughter. "Annabelle's first big day out!" Utena chuckled slightly. "Man, the poor kid's going to be all tired out, and she was just -born- less than 24 hours ago." Korra looked like she was about to say something, but at that moment, the four winged lemurs returned through the open window, carrying a pillowcase with a blocky item slung within it, grasped by the open end in their lower paws. "Hah! Not bad!" Korra exclaimed, catching the bundle as the lemurs dropped the cloth-wrapped laptop in her hands. "Good work, you four. Have some fruit," she said, gesturing towards the fruit bowl before she extracted her Cabbage Computers laptop from within the pillowcase. The lemurs thought this a fine suggestion, and scampered over to the fruit bowl, ignoring the protests from Garnet in the process. Once they ate their fill, they chittered and squeaked at Makoto as they exited out the window; all save the first ring-tailed lemur, who glided back to Meelo's shoulder to resume his station. "-Very- good, Poki! Here, have another," Meelo said as he produced a lychee from a pouch beneath his robes and offered it to the lemur. "All right!" Korra said as she pulled her armchair closer to the futon, setting the open laptop on the bedspread so that those assembled could get a better view. "Gather 'round, kids, it's Avatar Storytime!" Kaitlyn adjusted her chair as well, while Minami and Ryo got up and moved to the edge of the futon so they could have a better view without crowding those already on it. "Hey, don't go yet," Korra said to the two airbending masters as she brought up her photo application, and started scrolling through the images. "Hmm, hmmm... -hah!-" She grinned and turned the laptop so that the two taller men could see the screen clearly. "Brings back memories, eh, Rohan?" Utena leaned over to take a look at the picture in question. It was faded and sepia-toned, depicting a tall, stern, bald airbending master in his formal robes, standing next to a younger woman in Air Acolyte robes with grey streaks in her hair, clearly his wife. In front of them stood three children: the eldest two were girls, the youngest a boy no older than six, his head shaved bald. The mother of the three held a bundle in her arms, a tiny baby boy, capped with a short ruff of dark hair. "That is one happy-looking family," Meelo remarked appreciatively. "Hey, not bad," Utena remarked, and then looked up at Rohan. "Why'd you get rid of the beard?" Korra blinked. "... no no, that's -Master Tenzin-," she said, pointing at the senatorial figure, then moving her fingertip to the baby in the wife's arms. "-That's- Rohan. The one with the -hair-." Korra smiled up at Rohan, who coughed and stroked his chin, trying and failing to look unperturbed. "Oh, wow," Kaitlyn observed. "This -is- a while back." "Yeah, once digital media really started getting prevalent, I raided all the attics and storage places I could to get all our old photos scanned. I've got quite a few of them from back in the day..." "Seems like a lot of work," said Garnet. "Well, it's either that, or else I haul out about thirty-five three-inch-thick photo albums just to show off some of my pictures. As it is, most of them are stored in the preservation vaults at the Avatar Museum. I've only kept the most recent albums here." "And your diligence in preserving our history is most appreciated, Korra," Rohan added, before directing a bow towards the assemblage. "But for now, we should go inform Jinora of your plans for tomorrow." "Cool, thanks, Master Rohan," Utena replied. "We'll see you in the morning?" "Of course, Prince Tenjou," added Meelo. "Come along, Poki! Let the poor tiger have some rest, eh?" The ring-tailed lemur, which seemed to have decided to play with Sergei's ears for a bit (with a much put-upon look from the neotiger), chirrupped and returned to the aged master's shoulder. Then Meelo and his younger brother exited the room. Korra waved as the two airbenders left, then returned her focus to her laptop. Shuffling through the pictures, she flipped through them in rapid succession, until another photo caught her eye. "Now this, -this- is an old one," she said with a smile. "This has to be in the top ten or so oldest photos I -have-." The picture in question was another black-and-white shot, nearly square, and though its blacks had faded to brown with age, it was surprisingly sharp for its evident vintage. It had apparently been taken under very good light conditions. Neatly framed against a backdrop of wind-sculpted snowdrifts, it contained two figures. One was a teenage girl it took the onlookers a few moments to recognize as Korra, aged about thirteen - smaller and skinnier than she would grow to be just a few years later, more wiry than buff, but with the same signature hairstyle and the same unmistakable grin. She was sprawled on her back in the snow, arms outstretched, as if preparing to make a snow angel. Most of her body was obscured by the second figure: the great, hulking shape of an empty-saddled polar bear dog, lying full- length on the ground with her back legs extended and her powerful forelegs folded at her sides. Her massive block of a head rested on, and indeed almost completely hid, Korra's torso, with her nose nearly touching the girl's chin. "Awww," said Corwin. // XINQISAN, SHIERYUE 9, 166 ASC (WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, SY 2285) THE SOUTH POLE Korra fastened the last of the straps, performed a careful walkaround to double-check that everything was secure, and nodded with satisfaction at her handiwork. "Well, girl, what do you think?" she asked. "Shall we see if it works?" Naga eyed her dubiously before casting a wary glance back over her shoulder at the strange contraption her young friend had just affixed to her back. She gave herself a shake, causing said contraption to rattle and jingle, then turned back to Korra, still looking very unconvinced. "Oh, come on, you big baby, it'll be fun," Korra said, reaching up to pet the broad expanse of the polar bear dog's forehead. Naga sighed, her ears drooping with resignation, but Korra just laughed, put her foot into the near-side stirrup, and swung herself aboard. The maneuver was a little clumsy - she'd practiced it a few times with the saddle affixed to a railing, and the experience was not really the same - but effective, and she figured she'd get the hang of it soon enough. She reached down and rubbed Naga's withers with the palm of a hand, then took up the reins and said, "All right, Naga. Let's go." With a sound that might almost have been a grumble, Naga set off out of the storage building where Korra had prepared her surprise. Outside it was a glorious summer day, clear and bright with nary a cloud in the sky, and Korra's spirits, already high with optimism about her new experiment, lifted further once they were out in it. They took it slowly at first, walking around the little courtyard between the storage area and the living quarters, each of them getting the feel of the new arrangement. Korra had ridden other animals before, of course - you didn't grow up in the South Pole without learning how to stay on an arctic camel at an early age - but Naga's gait was completely different from theirs. At walking pace, her broad back rose and fell a lot more than a camel's, and there was a curious roll to her movement that took a bit of anticipating to ride smoothly. After only a couple of laps of the courtyard, Korra knew her thighs were going to be aching at the end of this test ride, the muscles there having been worked in new and unfamiliar ways, but that was all right; part of the learning process. It would be no worse than learning that one earthbending stance had been, and she got through that all right. After a few more minutes, Naga paused and looked back over her shoulder as if to ask, Can we be done now? Korra grinned at the sight. "Getting bored, girl?" she asked. "Well, this has gone pretty well so far. I guess we can take it up a notch." With a wiggle of her hips to make sure she was fully seated, she twitched the reins in her hands lightly and made a clicking sound with her tongue. Naga's response to this was not to break into a trot, which had been Korra's intention, but to stop altogether. Looking quizzical, Korra tried it again, receiving no evident response. Naga didn't seem to be paying any attention to her at all; the dog lowered her head and shoulders, her front legs bent, giant forepaws flexing in the snow like hands. "Naga?" Korra wondered, leaning forward. "What's the matter? I thought you wanted to go - " With an explosive burst of energy that nearly left her rider behind, Naga suddenly lunged forward, going from a standing start to a run in a second and skipping over anything as weedy as a trot altogether. Clods of snow flew in her wake as her great claws dug into the ground for maximum purchase. " - FASTEEEEER," Korra finished, seizing the saddle's pommel to keep her seat. "Whoa! Naga, whoa! What's gotten into you?!" At this rate they would reach the courtyard fence in seconds. Korra shifted her weight, rebalancing herself, and took up the reins again, thankful that she'd had the foresight to route them through loops at the front of the saddle so they couldn't fall to the ground if she let go of them. They weren't much more than handholds themselves, truth to tell. She hadn't wanted to put a bit or some other similar arrangement in Naga's mouth, as one would with a camel; her teeth weren't suited for that kind of thing, and besides, the principle had always struck Korra as rather cruel. Instead, the reins were attached to part of the rigging that encircled Naga's neck, so that pulling on them would exert mild pressure there. They weren't meant to -control- the dog so much as make suggestions - and it appeared that Naga wasn't really interested in taking suggestions just at the moment. What she -was- interested in, apparently, was jumping over the fence and heading for the White Lotus compound's main gate. For all that Korra had been thinking for -years- at this point about how great it would be to stage an escape, she hadn't really been planning on it -today-, and so it was with more than slight alarm that she realized that was where Naga was heading. Not so much riding as hanging on at this point, she was coming almost completely out of the saddle at the peak of each stride and then jouncing uncomfortably back down again at the bottom. In this condition, she couldn't really see the dumbfounded White Lotus guards in their towers at either side of the gate, but she knew they must be there. "Sorry!" she shouted, doing her best to wave without letting go of anything. "We're not going far! I hope!" Shouts of consternation came from above, and then, to Korra's distinct dismay, the gate started closing. At the rate Naga was going, they wouldn't clear it in time, and plowing at speed into an iron-banded wooden stockade gate was really not on Korra's to-do list today. "Naga, stop!" she cried, tugging uselessly on the reins - - and all at once a profound sense of peace settled over her as she realized what they had to do. She stopped fighting, stopped worrying, and just... let the moment happen. Settling into the rhythm of the dog's strides, she leaned low over Naga's back, feeling the muscles of the dog's massive shoulders bunch and release under her hands, and smiled. "OK, girl," she murmured. "You want to run? -Let's run!-" With the abatement of all resistance from the wheelhouse, Naga seemed to sink lower to the ground, her strides lengthening further, as she put everything she had into a headlong charge for the gate. "Come on, Naga," Korra exhorted her, all but flattening herself against the dog's back. "-Come on,- girl! Let's see what you've got." For just an instant, as they barrelled inexorably for the still- closing gate, Korra feared that she'd left it too late and they'd be caught in the closing doors. She'd almost made up her mind to do something involving waterbending and the snow on the ground to try and jam the hinges, though at this speed that had precious little chance of working, before she saw that it wouldn't be necessary. Grinning fiercely, she settled down again, her body moving in perfect time with her mount's now, and they shot out into the open countryside beyond the compound like a bolt from a crossbow. "Yeah!" Korra cried, pumping a fist in triumph. "Woooooo!" With the immediate goal achieved, Naga showed no sign of slowing down, galloping at full pelt across the open snowfield in front of the compound. At the back of her head, Korra wondered how far they were going to go, but at this point she no longer really cared. She was too caught up in the rush of sensations: the tremendous power of this incredible animal, the wondrous cold sting of the slipstream on her face, the utterly profound revelation that here, HERE was freedom of a kind she'd never tasted before. Transported with joy, she raised both fists above her head, sitting fully upright in the saddle, then opened them to let her fingers catch the wind. And Naga stopped. "WHAAAAAAAA," Korra declared, somersaulting over the dog's head. Her reflexes were so well-trained, and the untouched snow out here was sufficiently soft, that she was in no danger of injury, but she was momentarily stunned as she landed flat on her back in a drift, disappearing in a cloud of powder. Barking happily, Naga ran past her, then made a great paddling turn in the soft snow and raced back to stand over her, wagging and panting, the picture of ursocanine delight. Korra sat partway up, brushing snow out of her face, and tried to give Naga a censorious look, but she was still flushed with excitement from the ride and couldn't keep the grin off her face, which rather ruined the attempt. "You did that on purpose!" she accused the dog. Naga barked again, as if to admit it, then batted at the snow with one huge forepaw, sending a new wave of it cascading over Korra's face. "Ack! Phhht," Korra cried, spitting snow and waving blindly with one hand while trying to cover her face with the other. Naga's response to this was to repeat the gesture with the opposite paw, dousing her from the other side. "Gah! Bad dog! SUCH a bad dog!" Naga growled and struck a playful bow, hindquarters up and wagging, shoulders hunched, head low. Sounding as though she were about to savage and devour her human friend, she waved her great head from side to side so as to slap Korra's face with her hanging ears. "Augh! Murder!" laughed Korra, fending her ineffectually off. "Somebody help, she's gone rogue! Oh, spirits, is this how it ends? Polar bear dog and waterbender, enemies again - OOF!" The last was occasioned as Naga, tiring of the game, took another step forward and then basically collapsed, pinning Korra's legs under her chest and resting her enormous head on the young Water Tribeswoman's body. Only Korra's head, shoulders, and arms were still visible; all the rest was covered by the vast bulk of her companion. She reached up with one hand and made a half-hearted, completely unsuccessful attempt to push the contented dog's head off her chest, then let her arms flop helplessly out to the sides. "Ugh, I am killed," Korra declared weakly. From somewhere off to one side came a soft mechanical click, and then a familiar voice declared with audible amusement, "I can see that." Korra turned her head to see her mother a short distance away astride an arctic camel, a small box camera in her hand. "I guess I picked a good day to come and visit," said Senna, taking another picture. // "Yeah," Korra agreed sentimentally. "That was a good day." She gazed at the photo of herself and her first friend for a few moments longer, then shook off the reverie and went back to flicking through the thumbnails. "Oh, hey, here's a good one," she said after a few moments, pausing and enlarging her next choice so that everybody could see it. "Mom and Dad, their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. I took time off from college to celebrate with them - I'd just started that year." She chuckled fondly, her eyes misting up a little. "Spirits, if I didn't have a normal childhood, I'd at least have a normal college experience." "Such a thing exists? News to me," Kaitlyn quipped with a wink. Gathering around, the group could see what looked to be the interior of some sort of longhouse, decorated with arctic items and the emblems of the Water Tribe. Front and center was the couple in question, both clad in polar finery that called to mind the dress Korra had worn at Utena and Corwin's wedding. The woman bore a striking resemblance to Korra, save for the laugh lines on her face and the fact that her hair was pulled forward over her shoulders into two long tails, kept in place by thin ties. She was dwarfed by the man standing next to and a little behind her, her head barely reaching past his goateed chin. His face was craggy (with a very square jaw), he was built like a linebacker, and he had a hand on the woman's shoulder while she leaned against him, both of them obviously in love with one another. "Is it weird if I say your mom was a good-lookin' lady?" Ryo wondered. Korra snorted. "A little," she said. "But thank you, Ryo. She'd be pleased you think so. Dad, not so much," she added wryly, "but then he had his own fans, so it evens out." Grinning, Kate put up a hand. "Yes please!" "Somehow, I figured... but oh, here's a good one for the rest of us - this was back in 177, 2296 for you galactic people. The recovery coordination aid station in the courtyard of Gaoling's town hall, after the earthquake." With that, Korra brought up another picture. Utena was immediately reminded of the outside of Tau City's Government House. It had the same amount of discord and debris from a major disaster, but the same degree of hope at rebuilding. Rescue workers could be seen in the background, as well as a large, bulky machine that Utena realized was a Mecha-builder; but the primary focus was on the two young men in the foreground, who had gathered at a water station to refresh themselves. They were both caught in the act of looking towards the camera, disheveled yet proud, and smiling at the photographer as they realized who was taking the picture. They were different in build and height and state of dress, but they had that intangible quality that marked them as brothers. The shorter of the two was stocky, his hair and features more rounded than the other's. The muscles of his brawny arms, chest, and abdomen were easily revealed by the construction vest he wore with no shirt underneath, and he radiated a solid bonhomie. Even filthy and sweat- streaked, his eyes dark-rimmed with fatigue, he was grinning broadly and giving a high sign with the hand not holding a paper cone of water. The taller one was leaner in build and face - very fit, but more like a runner than a boxer. He too was smudged from a day's hard work, and wearing a soot-smeared outfit that Utena took a moment to realize was an archaic Republic City Police uniform (modern versions of which she'd seen earlier in the week). He was weary-looking and appeared more reserved in general, yet his smile lit up his face, which looked as if he didn't know exactly what to do with it when that occurred. "My boys!" said Korra cheerily. "The fabulous bending brothers. Bolin - " (she pointed) " - and Mako. To be Sergeant Mako very soon after this picture was taken, if I recall correctly." At the sight of him, Minami's eyes lit up, and she pointed out the taller figure. "So that's the famous Mako, Korra? I -do- love a man in uniform." Korra chuckled. "You're not alone in that, Minami." Garnet peered over Annabelle's head and said judiciously, "Hmm. The one with the -eyebrows?- He's pretty, but the other fella looks more dependable. Or at least sturdier." "Well, of course," Korra pointed out. "Bolin's an earthbender. Mako's the firebender in that team. He's the one who taught me how to lightningbend, among other things." "Eh," said Garnet, unpersuaded. "That's all very well, but I can set stuff on fire -myself,- I don't need the -help- to be able to do that," she said pragmatically. Then, with a wry little dragon grin, she added, "I'd keep that one around to oil my scales, mind, but the short one's clearly the more useful minion," and the room broke up in a laugh. "Anyway, Asami's also there, in the Mecha-builder. In case you were curious. Never let it be said that the CEO of Future Industries was afraid to get her hands dirty," Korra smiled at Minami. "A sentiment that's definitely shared by her heir," Ryo added with a grin, avoiding a swat by his older sister. Korra laughed, and flipped through more pictures, before settling on another one. It was a wide-angle shot, so as to get a frankly gigantic Avatar Yangchen statue in frame. Down below by the statue's folded legs, they could see a row of figures, all of them in meditative postures - Master Tenzin, Korra, recognizably younger Jinora, Ikki, Meelo, and a five-year-old-looking Rohan. "The -second- time we took the Air Temples trip, when civil war -wasn't- raging in the Water Tribes and the world wasn't about to end," Korra explained. "The first one was... rather rushed, as you might imagine." The Satos, Kaitlyn, and Corwin nodded sympathetically, while Utena gave her husband a curious look. "(Later,)" he murmured, and she nodded in response. "Another during my later college days," Korra went on, flipping to another photograph. "We'd pretty much gotten into a routine at that time, but Asami needed to get away from the office for a few months, and well..." She enlarged the tinted picture, which showed a grinning Korra in her signature clothes, wearing a blue bowl helmet and raised goggles, shielding her eyes as she looked off towards an out-of-shot horizon in the pink glow of a late summer afternoon. Behind her a little ways was another woman, fair-skinned and gorgeous, with long dark hair that very much resembled Minami's. Tall and slim, elegant even in rumpled cycling leathers, she stood next to a sturdy-looking motor scooter, looking back the other way with a curious expression. In the far distance behind them was a tall rectangular tower, with the blocky solidity of the Earth Kingdom about it. "Spirits, that IS great-great-grandmom Asami!" Ryo breathed, while Minami stared. "That's her -scooter!-" Minami added. "When was this?" Ryo asked. "Summer vacation during college, couple years before I started my master's. 179, I think? Yeah, that's about right," Korra said, checking the timestamps on the photo. "Or 2298 for you guys. The kind of world trip an Avatar's -supposed- to have, without any unfortunate distractions. Making up for lost time." "Was this the -entire- world?" Utena asked. "Well, not the -world- world. Too much going on for me to get it all done in one go. This one was most of a lap of the Earth Kingdom, which was almost -like- travelling the whole world." Korra grinned. "We managed to get the boys to tag along for legs of it, and Jinora, who was hitting the 'nomad' phase of Air Nomad life at that time - I'm pretty sure she took this photo - accompanied us on her way to the Eastern Air Temple, but for the most part it was just the two of us girls on the road." She let out a satisfied sigh. "Ahh, good times." More pictures flicked by in succession, before settling on one of Korra, in a rather silly-looking voluminous robe and a flat hat, shaking the hand of an educated-looking man as he handed her a rolled-up piece of parchment. Korra grinned with pride. "And they said it couldn't be done," she remarked. "First Avatar with a modern-day advanced degree." She flipped to another picture and laughed. In it, herself, Mako, Bolin, and Asami could be seen in the middle of what had to be the Avatar's graduation party (Ikki and Meelo, now both young adults, could be seen in the background chatting up other people). The expressions on the four could only be summed up as ranging from amusement to puzzlement, as an older man, with truly impressive sideburns and a serious mien, appeared to be lecturing Korra. "I'll never forget Professor Protester showing up at my graduation party. He looked me in the eye and said, 'Let's get something straight, Avatar. I don't like you. You're a pampered, privileged elitist who exists to perpetuate an antiquated and oppressive world-system. But you're not ashamed of it and you work hard. I respect you for that.' I've never been more lovingly insulted. Still makes me feel warm inside." She switched to the next image in the stack, laughed, and then said, "Here's another one for Mom's fans." Utena was vaguely surprised to recognize this photo's setting as the front straight at Future Industries Raceway Park; the grandstand had obviously been rebuilt or replaced since it was taken, but it was in the same place, and the striped curbs were the same. In the foreground, slightly motion-blurred, the photographer had caught an old-fashioned racing Satomobile, like the ones Utena had seen on her own visit to the track, just in the moment it flashed past the infield camera. Two jacketed, helmeted, goggled figures hunched in the tandem seats, the one at the wheel grinning fiercely, the one in back with gleeful fist upraised. The figure in back was unmistakably Asami Sato, looking very much like her descendant Minami did in racing trim. For a second, Utena assumed the one in front was Korra, until she realized that she couldn't be, because Korra was -in the grandstand,- her hands cupped around her mouth as an improvised megaphone, cheering. Beside her towered her father, slightly out of place in formal dress. In contrast to his daughter's broad, delighted grin, his expression was harder to place, a curious and amusing combination of pleasure, pride, enthusiasm, and dismay. "I would just like to note for the record that the first time Asami took -me- out in a Satomobile, -she- drove," said Korra dryly as it dawned on her audience who the woman in the front seat must be. "My reverence for your sainted mother increases apace," said Ryo with a grave seated bow. Korra chuckled. "She was pretty great," she agreed. "This was that same weekend, when they were in town for my graduation." With a sentimental smile, she added, "Dad grumbled about it for the rest of his life. 'That woman's gone and turned my Senna into an -adventurer-. One of those in this family was enough.'" At Anthy's slightly arched eyebrow, Korra grinned and said, "That was just Chief Tonraq playing to the stereotypes. He loved it. Some women in their forties get depressed; Mom... " She clicked to another picture. "Mom did stuff like this." In this case, "stuff like this" involved standing in front of a large twin-engined seaplane at a dock in what looked like the harbor of a major city, dressed in classically styled aviator gear and beaming. Next to her stood a tall, ornately dressed man who appeared to be trying to hide a look of dread, and a serious-looking, bespectacled middle-aged woman who was almost swamped by the enormous military-style parka she wore. The side of the seaplane's fuselage was marked with large, festive-looking symbols, but few of those present could read them. "Departure time for Friendship Flight, the first non-stop flight from pole to pole," said Korra. "For the fifteenth anniversary of the end of the Civil War, Mom flew Dad's new ambassador to the North non- stop up to Sanirajak, partly as a gesture of reconciliation and partly just to prove it could be done." She pointed to the tall man. "That's Ambassador Piuuvik, looking like he's trying not to run away. Wasn't a big fan of flying, poor man. And Zhu Li, of course, her company built the plane." "There was a civil war between the Water Tribes?" Utena wondered. "Yeah," said Korra. "Long time ago. It was basically the second thing I ever had to deal with as Avatar. I know, right?" she said with a laugh to Utena's surprised look. "Most people get easy jobs their first year or so at work. Me? I got a fascist conspiracy-slash- terrorist uprising in Republic City, then a civil war in the South Pole, oh, and when you're done with that there's this ongoing attempt to destroy the world we'd like you to see if you can do something about, after which it would be really excellent if you could take a look at the worldwide spirit crisis. Don't forget to get your parking validated!" "Eh, the deep end's the best place to start anyway," said Utena mock-casually, winking at Anthy, who giggled. Korra chuckled. "Most of the time I'd agree with you," she said. "At the time, though, I think I'd have preferred a slightly shallower learning curve. On the other hand," she went on with another sentimental smile as she selected the next image, "having an uphill climb like that does make moments like this one even sweeter." The next picture was slightly faded, but still quite striking, seeing as it was a full color photograph: Korra, Mako, Bolin, and Asami, seated on a picnic blanket on a grassy rise, with the large shape of a polar bear dog serving as their backrest. Apparently taken in the spring, the photo showed a ready camaraderie evident among the four, as they pointed down towards the water, where a much smaller white shape was seen splashing, trying to catch some fleeing turtleducks. "Is that the island in the park?" Kaitlyn asked, indicating the stone lantern in the right of the photo. "Good eye! Yep, it is. One of Atii's first trips out! That's her, terrorizing the turtleducks." Korra smiled fondly at the scene. "Couldn't wait to get off the island and into the field. That's why she was called Atii. It means... well, you can translate it a lot of different ways, but basically it means 'come on,' 'hurry up,' 'let's go'... that kind of thing." "Huh - I just noticed, this isn't tinted like the one of you and Asami in the Earth Kingdom, it's an actual color photo," said Utena. "Yeah, personal color photography lagged behind commercial color printing for a while. Only the big mover studios and corporations could afford developing and distributing color prints. But once they got the processing time and costs down, then all the papers and magazines were doing it." Korra shuffled through several more photos, before stopping at what looked to be a full-page picture from a sports magazine. "Case in point, this picture here..." This one was also in broad daylight, centered on a grinning Asami and Korra, clad in matching Future Industries racing leathers, surrounded by a crowd of cheering people. Sprays of foam filled the image as Korra hoisted some sort of wine bottle aloft to splash it over a grinning Asami's head. "By popular demand, Asami and me on the podium after winning the first Future City Historic Grand Prix," Korra commented dryly. "Seriously, the fanzines were reading WAY too much into it. I've seen worse at Minami and Ryo's races, for that matter." Minami and Ryo raised matching eyebrows at Korra. "Still, I mean, see what you're doing with the -foam- there?" Corwin pointed out. Kate looked and smiled. "Nope, can't imagine why anyone would read into -that.-" "Not in any way," Utena agreed. "She looks like she's enjoying it, though," Anthy pointed out. "It's a deliberately misleading frame choice!" Korra protested. "I'm just raising the bottle up so that I can pour it over her head. They picked this one on -purpose.-" Kate nodded. "Mm-hmm." Then, sitting back, she mused aloud, "Memo to self: Get Juri into a winner's circle as soon as possible." "MOVING on," said Korra briskly. Without further discussion, she cycled through more photos, before stopping at another photograph of the two. This one was more friendly and casual, with Korra leaning jauntily on Asami's arm, grinning at the camera, while the taller woman, dressed in sturdy caving clothes with elbow pads, knee pads, and goggles, had an expression more bemused than amused. But that was nothing compared to what was behind them - a rippling, shining disk- shaped distortion, floating freely above a rough rocky floor in the middle of a torchlit stone cavern. "Wait... what -is- that?" Utena asked. "It looks kind of like an IPO stargate, but there's no ring around it." Korra nodded. "Close, but not quite. That's the Veil Nexus underneath Crescent Island! It'd been buried for centuries, before the Fire Sages found it. -I- found out about it when Asami and I were scouting out where URSA was going to put its main launch facilities." Utena considered this for several moments. "Why didn't they tell you before?" "Honestly? Mostly because they didn't want to trouble me with it, given everything else on my plate at the time. Zipang was something known among various shamans across Diqiu, but they'd never really made real progress with it. If anything, Master Tenzin was more upset about them witholding information from me than I was!" "Well, you -had- mellowed out a lot by then," Corwin pointed out. "Relatively speaking, of course." // XINQISI, SIYUE 8, 196 ASC (THURSDAY, APRIL 8, SY 2315) CRESCENT ISLAND "... cannot BELIEVE you would withhold information of such importance from the Avatar," Master Tenzin declared, his stentorian voice echoing in the cavernous space. "Once we determined that it was not a Spirit Portal, the elders of our order concluded that it was not a phenomenon with which she should be concerned," the lead Fire Sage insisted. Tenzin waved his arms in frustration. "That is for HER to decide! Not you!" Some distance away from the argument, Korra glanced at Asami; both women grinned wryly, remembering a time when Tenzin's attitude toward the Avatar deciding about things was rather different. Then, with a mutual shrug, they turned to examining the Veil Nexus, leaving the Grandmaster of the Air Nomads to his argument. Tenzin was often happiest when he could have a good argument with somebody, anyway. Sometimes Korra obliged him just to brighten his day; this time, Master Fire Sage Zanei was doing a fine job by himself. For upward of twenty minutes, Tenzin and Zanei argued every- more-vociferously about the role of the Avatar in the investigation of strange spatial phenomena. This led straight into an even louder argument between Tenzin and all -five- present Fire Sages about whether she should be participating, and lending her imprimatur, to a scheme as hare-brained and potentially blasphemous as Ambassador Zuko's mad idea of a rocket mission to Yue. While the Learned Masters were busy with that, Korra and Asami walked around the shimmering portal several times, considering it from all angles. Then, unnoticed by all the red-faced, gesticulating masters, Korra turned to Asami with a twinkle of mischief in her eyes. "Shall we, Professor Sato?" she asked, offering her hand. Asami smiled slyly, lowered her goggles over her eyes, and took it, replying conspiratorially, "Through the looking-glass, Avatar Korra." Not until Tenzin, making some point or another about the Avatar's belief in the NON-blasphemous nature of the Phoenix Flight, turned to solicit her confirmation of the fact, did any of the masters think to look and see whether the woman they were all arguing about was paying any attention. When they did, they discovered to their dismay that not only wasn't she listening, she wasn't even -there.- "... Korra?" said Tenzin, skidding to a mental and verbal halt. "Korra! Where are you? KORRA!" The Fire Sages looked at each other, then at the airbender, and then all started talking at once. This quickly escalated into a shouting match between the Fire Sages themselves, all vying to be the one to say they tried to warn Tenzin, until the sudden reappearance of the Avatar shocked them all into silence again. Well, -part- of the Avatar, anyway. Korra's head and shoulders emerged from the shimmering surface of the Veil Nexus, as though she were leaning out of a window, while the rest of her remained within. "Hey, you guys, come check this out!" she said cheerfully. "It's really neat in here." Tenzin's face, flushed from his argument with the Sages, went bone-white. He stared at her in disbelief for a moment, then burst out in evident concern and panic, "KORRA! What are you DOING?!" Giving him a puzzled look, as if to ask what kind of question THAT was, Korra stepped fully out of the Nexus, then back in, then out again, then in, and leaned back through as she'd done at the beginning. Next to her, Asami's head appeared as well, a curious what's-the-holdup- here look on her face. "Bridging the worlds," Korra told Tenzin matter-of-factly. "You coming or what?" "I - you - " Tenzin sputtered, attempting to appeal to Korra's intermittent sense of caution. "Please, Korra, we need to STUDY this phenomenon MUCH more thoroughly before we can attempt - " Korra rolled her eyes. "Pigchickeeeeen," she said with a challenging grin. "Bawk bawk squeeeal." Then, turning to her fellow explorer, she said, "C'mon, Asami, I thought I smelled something cooking over there," and the two women disappeared into the other world again, leaving Tenzin and the Fire Sages to stand looking at each other in utter bemusement. // "Ha haa, serves them right," Utena chortled. "That was a total dick move, especially given what the White Lotus did to you." Korra chuckled. "Ironically, the White Lotus had -nothing- to do with this one. And for what it's worth, at least I was able to listen to their explanations as to -why- they hadn't told me, and I agreed that they had a point. The world at large really wasn't ready to learn about Zipang yet. People would have to be brought into it slowly." "Besides, Diqiu was in the run-up for their first moon shot! One Weltanschauung-altering event at a time!" Corwin added. Korra grinned, and then hrmed thoughtfully, looking at Minami and Ryo. "You've gone quiet all of a sudden," she said. "Something on your mind?" The Satos glanced questioningly at each other; then Minami said, in a voice that was unusually subdued for her, "Just thinking about Great-Great-Grandma Asami. All the things she saw and did, all the -lives- she touched. I wish I could've known her." "So do I," Ryo agreed. "I've heard so many stories about her, seen so many pictures, that sometimes I almost feel like I -do- know her." Nodding agreement, Minami hesitated for a moment, then said, "OK, this is going to sound crazy, but sometimes when I'm working late, making a technical drawing or prototyping something, and I come up with a -really- good idea... " She paused, looking around at the quietly attentive faces, and with a slight blush went on, "... it's like she's there with me. Giving me that smile from the cover of Innovation Magazine. Maybe a high five." "That doesn't sound crazy at all," said Korra with a fond smile. She flipped through a few more pictures, then smiled a little wider as she found the one she wanted: the magazine cover Minami had mentioned, on which Asami, sharply dressed as ever and about the same age that her descendant was now, stood with a triumphant smile in front of a sleek and powerful-looking Satomobile over a bold Tongyu caption. "What does it say?" Anthy wondered. "'Future Industries: Still Alive'," Korra translated, regarding the image with a sentimental expression. In a quieter voice, almost to herself, she added, "Yeah... Asami was one of a kind." Then, looking up from the photo, she grinned at Minami and added, "Honestly, I think she was the nicest person I've ever known." "I'd say she was a hard act to follow, but I think you've got me beaten in -that- race," said Minami wryly. Korra laughed. "Oh, believe me, I know she was. But y'know, you two do all right," she said with a wink for Ryo. "I don't think she'd have any complaints." So saying, the Avatar flipped over to another photograph. "Speaking of complaints, here's somebody who swore she'd never stop complaining until she retired," she stated fondly. "So, you can imagine how grumpy she got when she finally had to hang up her wire harness." She grinned as she zoomed the image, which was that of a traditional Earth Kingdom tea room, its hallway and courtyard doors open so as to let in the light and air. The decorations of the room itself were sparse, with only a few items along the periphery, the most notable a bronze roundel holding the image of a winged boar. The view from above the courtyard roofs revealed distant metal towers that put those from New Avalon in mind of their home city. In the center of the room sat two people on opposite sides of a low table, a tea service between them. To the camera's right was Korra, clad in her customary outfit, while to the left sat a much older woman, dressed in muted greens and greys. Her posture and bearing were stern, the effect enhanced by the pale iron grey of her wavy hair pulled back, and the two thin scars running in parallel between her visible cheek and jaw. The only thing that kept the woman from being grim (and carrying over into the photo itself) were the slight smiles shared between her and Korra, and the slight twinkle in the older woman's green eyes. An image of practiced, careful emotional armor, only now allowed to show a little more vulnerability after a long, long time. "Whoa, hey, who is this?" Utena asked. Before Korra could answer, Corwin grinned and interjected: "Oh hey, it's Beifong the Younger. As an elder! Or as we know her in Valhalla, Beifong the Kind." "That's one of those -ironic- nicknames, isn't it," Korra deadpanned. "Like calling the big guy 'Tiny'." Corwin nodded. "Yes, yes it is." "That doesn't answer my question, you guys," Utena commented, glancing between the two of them. "Heh, sorry, Utena," Korra replied. "This is Lin Beifong. She was the police chief of Republic City when I first arrived here. Her mom, Toph Beifong, was the one who founded the city's metalbending police force." "Hang on, Toph Beifong as in Eye of Destiny Toph Beifong?" Utena asked. "'It is very dark here' Toph Beifong? -That- Toph Beifong?" "(very dark here?)" Korra mumbled quizzically, looking at Corwin. "(never mind,)" Corwin replied, looking slightly put-upon, then said to Utena, "Yes. That Toph Beifong." "Huh. Hard to picture her as anybody's mother," Utena conceded, then added with a grin, "Particularly Shanghai Lily's." "Heh, Bo was always trying to get her into the mover business, but she wasn't having it," said Korra. "'Ah, who are you kidding, boy?' she'd say. 'I've got a perfect face for radio.'" "Harsh," said Ryo. "Sometimes she even claimed she had a face only a mother could love. Keep in mind that we all knew her mother was blind." "I stand corrected," Ryo agreed. "-That's- harsh." Korra nodded, regarding the picture with an expression somewhere between sentimental and glum. "She was even harder on herself than she was on everyone else. Sometimes that was the only thing that made her bearable. But... " She paused, thinking, then used a phrase she'd heard Corwin's father use many a time. "She was a person who knew what she was doing." Corwin chuckled, nodding, but said nothing. Korra gave him a curious look, realized she wasn't going to get any more out of him right now, and moved on: "Oh, hey, Utena, you may recognize this one from Asami's book." "This one" showed Asami and Mako, standing at the upper level of a large room full of banked electronic consoles and giant video screens. Both were older than they'd been in their last appearances, but they wore middle age gracefully. To Utena, Asami appeared to be about the same age as she had been in that giant crew photo in the Phoenix House lobby, and dressed similarly too, in extremely smart business attire that was mostly a very dark red. For his part, Mako looked basically the same as he had in earlier photos, apart from his hair starting to go silver at the temples. He was dressed in simpler business clothes - a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, dark slacks - and wore slim steel- rimmed spectacles that made him look like a graphic designer. Both of them had on communications headsets of an archaic design. She held a clipboard; he was pointing to something on it with a pencil and holding a coffee mug marked with the United Republic Space Agency logo in his other hand. "We were about halfway to Yue at that point," Korra explained. "The figures they're looking at are for our midrange course correction burn." "See? It's like I was saying earlier!" Garnet said. "You take the -rugged- one with you on the dangerous mission, and you leave the -pretty- one back home to make the coffee for when you get back. It's basic resource management! Your nice-looking friend clearly understood this." Korra laughed. "Mako stayed behind because he wanted to, Garnet. He figured Asami would need his help if... well... if the rest of us didn't make it back. But we did! So it wasn't a problem. Moving on! Lessee... bunch more Phoenix Flight photos, you'll find better ones in the book... I have to see if Meelo's old Moverdisc of the documentary still works or if I've got to track it down on VDC. I haven't watched that in ages, we should have a showing some night soon. Aha, here we go. What do you do for an encore when you've been to the moon? Well, if you're me, someone gives you your old professional sports team as a 50th birthday present and you decide to play again." And indeed, there she was, standing with two other people in Fire Ferrets uniforms that were less archaic than the ones on the dummies at the Pro Bending Hall of Fame, but still markedly old-timey compared to the one Corwin had worn for his own one-game stint with the modern incarnation of the team. He noticed with interest that she was wearing the red belt and helmet, not blue, this time. Her teammates were both women, evidently in their late twenties or early thirties. The one on her right, in blue, was plainly of Water Tribe stock herself, while the one on the left was petite-but-sturdy and pale, reminding Utena a bit of the aforementioned Toph Beifong. With them was Bolin, going grey and sporting a stylish moustache that made him look boyishly mature, and still evidently in good shape. "There you have us, the 202 SCM Fire Ferrets," said Korra. "That's Kina," she added, pointing to the waterbender, "and Xian Beifong. She's from the branch of the family that stayed in Gaoling," she explained. "She was part of the launch vehicle crew on the Phoenix Flight. And Kina was a Senna girl - she was Karana's great-great- grandmother, I think. Might be off a great." She grinned. "And Coach Bolin, of course. Ah, the four of us had some good times that year, once we got used to that newfangled MLB style. Made it all the way to the semifinals! Not bad for two rookies and a retread, as Shiro's color commentator once called us. Hey, and speaking of whom..." She switched to another photo, this one depicting herself in her formal tunic-and-opera-gloves ensemble, presenting a plaque to a white- haired but very spry-looking old man, who was beaming from ear to ear. "Here's me at the 202 Broadcasting Arts Awards," she said. "I had the great privilege of presenting that year's Broadcast Journalism Lifetime Achievement Award to none other than the great Shiro Shinobi himself. The Voice of Professional Bending, the face of RTV's coverage of the Phoenix Flight, a man so dedicated to his profession that he kept reporting the Equalist attack on the Arena in 170 even after the lousy creeps all but -shocked- him to death... Shiro was one of the all-time greats. Even today, most of the people who cover MLB for radio are just trying to be him." "And failing," Ryo put in, drawing sage nods from his sister and Korra. "Yup," Korra agreed. "Shiro was an original." She lingered for a moment longer on the picture, then flipped onward through the list. "Hmm, getting on toward dinnertime, better think about wrapping this up soon. OK, let's skip ahead a little. Here's some of the stuff you missed in the past five years, Corwin. Lessee, c'mon, c'mon... aha! Yes. For instance, I believe you know this lady." It took Corwin a few seconds to process the next image and see that she was correct. For a second, he almost said, "Well, yeah, uh, that's -you,- even wearing a dress I can tell that," but the person Korra was talking about was -not- Korra herself, nor Minami, both of whom were present. They were both standing, Korra in a discreetly glamorous number Corwin had never seen before (but which bore the subtly unmistakable hallmarks of Ming & Daughters, Clothiers), Minami looking movie-star sensational in slinky-but-classy black silk, on what appeared to be the red carpet at a film premiere. Behind them stood a long black Future Industries limousine, surrounded by a crowd of press photographers, over several of whose heads Niri was looking with interest. Standing -between- Korra and Minami was a third woman, and it was she whom Corwin took a few seconds to recognize, because her presence there was at once perfectly in and entirely out of context. The red carpet was Sumire Kanzaki's natural habitat, but Diqiu most certainly was not. "... When was Sumire here?" Corwin asked. "Couple years ago," Korra replied, pleased at having been able to surprise him so completely. "She and a film unit spent a couple months in town shooting a picture - 'The Crimson Lizard and the Case of the Criminal Councilman' - and then she came back a while later for the premiere." "What, she never told you? For shame," Kate added. "I'm always the last to know," Corwin grumbled. "It's so true," said Anthy with a hint of wistfulness, causing Corwin to sigh in a put-upon fashion, Utena to roll her eyes good- naturedly, and Korra to snicker. "It was a whirlwind shoot," Korra went on. "I mean, I thought OUR film industry worked at a fast pace, but I've never seen anybody cut a mover like Sumire before. I'm amazed they got it out the door that fast, and that it was such a success." "It was the foreign director that drew all the interest, you know," Minami pointed out. "Awww, is somebody -jealous-?" Korra replied with a sidelong grin. "Maybe a little," Minami admitted. "Anyway, I -know- Meelo's disc of that one works, we just watched it again a couple months ago. Another thing to put on the list for mover night. Hmm... what else've we got? Boring Avatar business... " So saying, she clicked to a picture of the solemn-faced, grey- clad figure of Inspector Imanishi, standing behind a microphone-studded podium in front of Police Headquarters. The inspector seemed to be speaking, with Korra (in what appeared to be modified police armor, differently colored than the stock gear and lacking the insignia) and a number of cheerful-looking young officers standing in a group off to one side. Behind them, Niri could once again be seen, looking out over Korra's head (she appeared to have slightly startled the cop to the Avatar's right). "Hey, nice," said Utena. "I'm digging the supercop look." "Remember what Minami said earlier about men in uniform?" Corwin mused. "Works for women too. I'm just sayin'." "It's so true," Anthy repeated with exactly the same wistful sigh, making Utena giggle. "Oh, here's a good one, this was the airkids' demonstration for Avatar Day last year," said Korra. "Hey, Nyima still had hair," said Utena. "So she did," Corwin agreed, nodding. Nyima and her sister were both in the picture, as were Tenzin, Gyatso, and a couple of other young airbenders the visitors hadn't seen around. They were playing a game of three-a-side airball on a court that seemed to have been set up in Railway Square, the sisters and Tenzin against Gyatso and the two unknown older teens. Despite being younger and smaller, Nyima and Lhakpa's team was winning, according to the scoreboard visible in the background. Among the crowd at the base of the Fire Lord Zuko statue, the viewers could see Korra, clearly engaged in some (purely non- partisan, of course) cheering. Behind her, Niri's head and shoulders towered over her and the other spectators around her. "Oh hey," Korra said, putting up a picture of a small group of formally robed teenagers grinning and brandishing rolled-up parchments. "Karana and Azana's graduation from Piandao Academy. You missed that too, or you'd have known Azana already," said Korra, nudging Corwin with an elbow. "They've known each other that long!" Anthy said, sounding slightly surprised. "Yeah, they were roommates all seven years at Piandao, starting when they were eleven," Korra told her. She flipped to a second photo, just showing the two of them in their graduation robes (and Niri) - two young women on one of the best days of their lives so far, plainly in love with life and ready to go out and grab it. Their enthusiasm was so infectious that everyone looking at the photo found him- or herself smiling. Korra virtually thumbed through a few more pictures that were pleasant, but of no particular significance - a postcard panorama of Republic City's Harmony Tower; a shot of herself and Niri in front of her house in Senna with the caption "Greetings from the South Pole", made as a humorous seasonal greeting card a couple of years before - and seemed to be thinking about ending the show when Utena realized something and laughed. "Ha, I just noticed that Niri is in -all these photos,-" she remarked. "Yep," Korra confirmed, nodding. "That's her thing. That and eating. She's the South Pole's greatest photobomber." With a wry shrug, she went on, "Don't look at me, I only raised her." She checked a couple more folders, then gave a nostalgic sigh and said, "Well, I guess that ought to do it for now. I really have to sort these better - I know there's a bunch more in here that you guys would be interested in. -You- two, in particular," she added with a wink for Utena and Anthy, "will want to see all my pics of Li'l Corwin." "Oh, you've got -that- right," said Utena, grinning. "I... tell you what, hang on a second, I'm pretty sure I know where I can find -one- of those to hold you for now." Bending to her search with renewed energy, she muttered, "Come on, where are you, I put you someplace where I wouldn't - aHA!" And with a final flourish, she put up the last of the day's trips into memory. It depicted a room that Utena, after a moment's consideration, recognized as the living room of Corwin's father's house in New Avalon. Korra sat beaming in the middle of the brown leather sofa with the unmistakable form of Nall draped on one shoulder and a shyly smiling little girl in her lap. On her left was a cheerfully smirking Kei Morgan, holding a swaddled bundle topped with a shock of red hair; on her right, a somewhat more serenely smiling Skuld Ravenhair, cradling a very similar item whose hair was black. "OH my - is that -you,- Kate?" Utena asked, delight in her voice, as she leaned forward to take a closer look. Kaitlyn nodded. "Sure is." "Awww, you were adorable!" said Ryo. Then, looking thoughtful, he added, "I mean you still are, but... differently." Minami snorted. "And people ask me how it is that you're still single," she observed dryly, but Kate only giggled. "Thank you, Ryo," she said. "And baby Len and Corwin!" Utena added, pointing. "Wow, look how little they are." "Well, they ought to be, they're two days old," said Korra with a grin. "Look, Annabelle," Anthy said. "It's your father and your Uncle Leonard, when they weren't much older than you are." "And there's Nall getting his mack on, two days out of the shell," Corwin remarked, pointing. "So you see where Garnet gets her fast moves from." "I don't know -what- you're talking about," said Garnet piously. "Two days old, really?" Utena mused. "Wow, Kei looks great." Korra laughed. "I actually asked her if she was a goddess too, like Skuld. And she laughed and said, 'Nah, I just cheat like a mofo.'" "Ha!" said Kate. "Yeah, that sounds like Mom." At the mention of Kei, the moment trembled briefly on the verge of sinking from nostalgia to mourning, but Kate, knowing that her mother would never have approved of that, pushed it aside and said, "So you had known Dad for - " Korra nodded. "Two days! We met the day Corwin was born," she added, reaching over to muss the young god's hair. "... Man, that's just addictive," she mused after a moment, then did it again. "I know!" Utena said. "It's my favorite thing about him." Corwin arched an eyebrow at her. "I dispute that assertion." "Ha!" said Minami. "ANYway," said Korra, "it's true, I met Gryph in New Avalon that day - wanted to talk to him about the really loud noise we'd heard in the Spirit World nine months before." "Wonder what -that- could have been," said Minami mischievously. Corwin coughed. "An hour or so later we were on Tomodachi and, uh, Stuff Was Happening," Korra went on. "Two days later, with Kei and Len home from the hospital, and Skuld back on her feet and ready to travel, he invited me over to the house to hang out, and, well, rest is history." She sat back and grinned. "And that's as good a note as any to end Storytime on for today, I think." "No wonder you guys are buddies for life," Utena remarked, and Korra wasn't sure whether she meant herself and Corwin, herself and Gryphon, or both. Then the Rose Prince added, "How long after that was it before Skuld put a Lens on you? Naughty of you, by the way, busting that out on me without warning when I already had all I could do not to witter at Anthy." Korra chuckled. "Sorry. Slipped my mind, believe it or not. It doesn't work across the Veil, and there are only a handful of other Lensmen in Diqiu, most of whom I can get in touch with by conventional means anytime I like, so sometimes I forget about it when I'm not Outside." "What's yours look like?" Utena inquired, pushing back her sleeve to reveal the lambent rose-pink glow of her own. "Ooooh," said Minami, leaning forward with widened eyes. "Now see what you've done, you little showoff," Corwin mock- groused. "Sorry," said Utena, who wasn't sorry. Korra chuckled again. "If you're good and eat your vegetables, Minami, I'll put in a word for you next time Skuld's in town. Which shouldn't be that long from now, actually. When are they getting out here to see their grandchild?" she asked Corwin. "Not sure," Corwin replied. "They probably need a few days to stop freaking out about it," he added wryly. "Ha, probably," Korra agreed, and then said to Utena, "Here, have a look." So saying, she rolled back the bracer on her right forearm to uncover her wrist. This revealed a circular gem set into a blued silver band, similar in setting to Utena's, with curved ribbed elastic metal links. What was different about the gem was its color: Korra's was not one color but three, arranged in a distinctive pattern. Against a backdrop of pure, shining white glowed a curving geometric pattern of a cleanly lustrous blue, similar to the blue Utena had noticed commonly appearing in Korra's clothes, arranged around a narrow, curved-sided diamond of a darker blue. "Wow," said Utena. "That's beautiful. I've never seen one with a pattern on it before." Korra regarded her Lens with a fond smile. "That's Raava," she said. "The Avatar Spirit. The other half of my soul, you might say. When she had a separate existence as a spirit of light, that's what she looked like." "Amazing," Utena said, then quipped, "That must've taken some custom fitting." "Now that's kind of a long story, believe it or not," Korra replied, then added with a wink, "Maybe I'll tell you about it some time." Then, with a last fond look at the photo of herself and what was at the time most of Gryphon's family, she rolled her bracer back down over her Lens and started shutting down her laptop. "Right now, I'd say it's about time for us to think about heading over for dinner." "Now there's a cue if I ever heard one," said Maki's voice from the doorway. She and Izumi, dressed in civvies, entered the room, bearing between them a large, bucket-shaped object. This proved, when set down and unpacked, to be a multi-leveled bamboo arrangement for carrying prepared food. "Master Jinora's kitchen sends dinner for everyone, with her compliments, so that Lady Anthy need not be left alone for the afternoon meal," said Izumi with a smile as she started handing out plates. "Ah, the famous Air Nomad hospitality," said Ryo happily, cracking a fresh pair of chopsticks. "If you don't mind, we'll stay and eat with you," said Maki, only slightly hesitant about inviting herself. "We're heading back to Kyoshi Island tonight," she explained, "so this will be our last chance to see you for a while." With a wry grin for Corwin, she added, "Hopefully not quite as LONG a while this time." "Bet on that," he said. "By all means, join us," Anthy agreed. "There are more chairs in the hall - Corwin, be a dear..." They dined informally in this cheerful, sun-drenched setting, from collapsible tables or plates balanced on knees or just the free end of the futon, making pleasant conversation. Juniper arrived toward the end, virtually bouncing into the room to inform her sensei breathlessly that the afternoon's practice had gone very well indeed. The Ponds checked in shortly thereafter, having been out who-knew-where getting all windswept and picturesque. "So... has anyone seen Nall since this morning?" Amy wondered. "Nope, no sign of him," said Utena. "This is, perhaps, not that surprising," put in Corwin dryly, making her snicker. "What'd I miss?" Ryo wondered. "Uh, he and Lhakpa... sort of..." said Corwin, trailing off with a vague "you know the rest of this verse" gesture. "Ohhh," said Ryo, nodding thoughtfully. "She finally caught him, eh?" he added with a wry grin. "Or he caught her," said Utena. "I'm trying not to look that closely." Ryo nodded again, repeating, "Ohhh." "Well," said Minami pragmatically after a moment's thought, "I hope at least -one- of them has acquired some rudimentary capacity for discretion, or Jinora may become the first airbender in history to kill a dragon." "Be nice, Minmin," Ryo chided her. At meal's end, the party dispersed. Anne excused herself first, remarking that she was beat after a day of throwing her chi at the wall (the phrase made Kate, Korra, and Corwin, all of whom had heard Azana say it, glance at each other with little smiles) and wanted her bed badly. She bade everyone a fond goodnight and took herself off to it. After packing up the dishes in the empty food carrier, Maki and Izumi semi-formally took their leave with bows and polite words, though Maki was hardly allowed to get away with -that- and received a sound hug from both Corwin and Utena before she left. Amy and Rory went along to see them off at the train station, and shortly thereafter, the Satos prepared to depart as well, saying their goodbyes and nice-meeting-yous to Anthy, Annabelle, and Garnet. Corwin and Korra went with them back out to their autogyro and helped them get it untied and ready to go. "I'll see you in the morning, son," said Ryo, shaking Corwin's hand. "What time are you figuring on leaving? I'll see if I can't get out here by nine or so." "Why don't we just pick you up?" Corwin wondered. "I mean, it's Rohan's party, I assume we'll be going by sky bison, wherever we're headed. I'll call you when we leave." Ryo nodded. "OK, sounds good. We're still in the same place as before." "Goodbye, Corwin," said Minami, hugging him warmly. "It's been wonderful to see you again, and I really enjoyed meeting your family. Your daughter's lovely." She kissed him on the cheek and let him go, giving him a twinkling emerald wink. "I was kidding before, but it -does- make a girl think," she added with a grin, then trailed her fingertips along the line of his bearded jaw as she turned away and headed for the aircraft. "Ready to go, Ryo?" Getting an affirmative thumbs-up from the back, Minami climbed into the front cockpit, made certain the prop and rotors were clear, and fired up the autogyro, then spun the rotors up to full RPM, cut the power to the rotor head, gunned the main engine, and took off. The aircraft jumped into the air after only a short run across the grass by the ba gua circle. Corwin and Korra stood together and waved until the autogyro was just a dot and a winking running light, far out across the bay, then turned to each other. "Welp," said Korra, "I've got some stuff I have to do. Besides, you four deserve some alone-together time. It's been a busy day!" So saying, she hugged him the way she had when he was a kid, picking his feet up off the ground, and when she put him down, he did the same in turn to her; then she, too, kissed him on the cheek, murmuring, "G'night, Corwin." "Night," he said, and she broke away and trotted off toward the ladies' quarters, giving him a wave back over one shoulder. He watched her go, smiling to himself, and then turned and walked back to Tenzin's house. Evening was settling in, the shadows beginning to lengthen and a touch of springtime chill to enter the air, but they stayed in the sun parlor all the same, to eke out every last drop of the beautiful day that they could. Having seen to Annabelle's frequent but not onerous needs while Corwin was parting from the Satos, Anthy was sitting up reading as baby and dragon dozed in her lap. When she'd returned to the futon after the operations, she'd settled nearer to the edge. Utena, in the middle, slid over a bit closer so that Corwin, in turn, would have room to lie beside her. While Anthy read, they quietly, contentedly cuddled next to her, discussing the day's events and how well the meeting with Emily had finally turned out. An hour or so later, Anthy reached the end of the hardback volume she was reading, closed it, and asked, "Corwin, dear, would you do me a favor?" "Sure," said Corwin. "What do you need?" "I've finished my book a bit sooner than I was expecting," she said, holding up that item. "Would you please take this one back to the Air Temple's library and bring me back the next volume?" she said, offering him the book. "I can do that," he said agreeably, rising. Walking around to her side of the futon, he bent and took the book. Glancing at the spine, he grinned. "Aha," he said. "Avatar Yangchen's memoirs. I think you would have gotten along with Yangchen..." He bent further and gave her a kiss, then headed off down the hall and out of the house. Despite the Air Nomads' well-deserved reputation for being an orderly and scholarly people, the Air Temple's library was not very well-curated, or at least Corwin had never thought so. If the way it was organized had some underlying logic, it had always eluded his own mind. It took him several minutes to find the rest of Yangchen's memoirs, and they weren't filed in what he would have thought of as order, either, so further hunting was required to find the volume he (or rather Anthy) actually wanted. He was still engaged in that task when he noticed, out of the corner of his eye, that one of the library's side doors was open. He turned to find Nyima standing framed in the doorway, regarding him with a hard-to-read expression. When his eyes fell upon her, she blinked and reddened slightly, taking a half-step back as though she intended to retreat. "Oh, hey, Nyima," said Corwin, preoccupied enough with his task not to notice the details. "What's up?" "Oh, uh, nothing, I - " Nyima began, but then, with a startled yelp, she suddenly lurched into the room, bounding over the threshold to keep from -falling- over it as she was unexpectedly shoved from behind. "Nyima has something she wants to tell you, Corwin!" said Lhakpa cheerfully from the hall. Then she slid the door shut with a bang and could be heard trotting off down the hall, humming tunelessly. Nyima stood a couple of feet inside the closed door, feet a little awkwardly placed where she'd had to put them for balance, her face crimson and grey eyes wide with horror. She looked back over her shoulder, saw that the door was closed, and seemed to be weighing the possibility of just crashing through it to escape, then turned back to Corwin with a look of helpless dismay. For his part, Corwin just looked baffled. He had seen the often contentious relationship between the two sisters take many different turns over the years, but this was a new one on him. Nyima looked terribly perturbed about something, out of all proportion to what Lhakpa had just done. All the calm, easygoing serenity she'd manifested on this visit - the payoff, he assumed, for the diligent study and discipline she'd undertaken to earn her master airbender's arrow so young - had deserted her with her elder sister's precipitous act, and she found herself hovering on the brink of blind panic. He couldn't let -that- go on if he could help it. "Hey," he said, his voice gentle. "What's the matter? You look like she just trapped you in a cave with a wild animal." "I - I," Nyima stammered, her face going even redder. "C'mon," said Corwin, holding out an open hand. "It's just me. I'm not going to bite you." He grinned wryly. "Whatever it is, it can't be -that- bad." Nyima hesitated, her continued impulse to flee warring with her innately honest, trusting heart. She took a slow step toward him, then another; then she paused again and just looked at him, one fist pressed against her lips to stop them trembling. She stayed that way for a few seconds, breathing deeply, visibly getting herself under control. Then, in a tiny, brittle voice, she said, "... i love you." Corwin looked back at her, his ice-blue eyes widening slightly, not with alarm or even particular surprise, but a vast and warm compassion. He didn't flinch from the intensity in her eyes, nor the raw and aching vulnerability of her; didn't recoil from her declaration or seek to distance himself from it, physically or verbally. Instead, with a warm, slightly sad smile, he opened his hands and said softly, "Aw, Nyima. C'mere." She went to his arms, not embracing him in turn, but putting her hands against his broad chest and resting her head between them instead. The wool of his sweater was soft on her cheek and smelled faintly of cedar. Now that she'd made a start at confessing, the rest of it spilled out of her in a low, husky murmur, the words almost jumbling together as they rushed to escape. "I've had a crush on you since I was 10 but then you were gone for six years and now you're back and you have a -child- and you're married and I'm supposed to be a Master Air Nomad and I should be able to move -beyond- all that kind of thing but I just can't I'm so sorry." "Hey, no, shh," said Corwin soothingly, enclosing her in his powerful arms. "You don't have anything to be sorry about." Nyima's eyes were moist as she raised her head (when not ducking against his chest, she was nearly as tall as he) to look at him. "Are you angry?" she asked. "No, of course not," Corwin said; then, downcast, he went on, "I'm a little sad, because..." He hesitated, then went on with regret in his voice, "... nothing I can say right now won't hurt you." Nyima lowered her head, resting her cheek against his chest again. "It's all right," she said softly. "I wasn't expecting... I wasn't even going to mention it." Corwin nodded, holding her a little tighter. "I know. But it still makes me sad. I don't like hurting people I care about. And I do care about you, Nyima. I don't ever want you to doubt that... but I can't give you what you want." Nyima nodded, her face still pressed to his chest, and asked without looking up, "Is it because I'm ugly?" "Stop that," Corwin said, levering her chin up so that she had to look at him. "You're not ugly, Nyima. The only ugly thing about you is your belief that you are. You're sweet and kind and -incredibly- brave and honest. I mean, you could have run away just now, or you could have tried to bluff your way out, but you didn't. No one can ever take any of those things away from you." Corwin saw a shadow cross her eyes then, and couldn't help but smile wryly. "I know. You're thinking 'well, if he thinks I'm so great, then why... ?'" She reddened slightly and ducked her head again. "I don't know," he said. "Not even the gods know how these feelings work. Only that they are what they are." He lowered his own head onto her shoulder, squeezing her in his arms again, and said quietly, "So... I'm sorry." He kissed the top of her head, prickly fuzz and all, and added in a near-whisper, "I hate to let you down." Nyima made a sound that was half laugh and half sniffle, then said quietly into his sweater, "You're not letting me down. I let myself down. Some master airbender I am. We're supposed to be able to let go of earthly attachments, and here I am..." She let out a faint whimper. "Great-Grandmother would be so disappointed in me." "Jinora was 16 once," Corwin said. "Airbending master or not, she knows you're not a machine." With a faint, wry chuckle, he added, "Where do you think your grandfather came from?" Nyima giggled in spite of herself, then raised her red-rimmed eyes to his again. "Even now you can make me laugh," she said. "Well, I'm glad I can help a little bit, anyway," said Corwin. "I'm sorry it couldn't be more. If it's any consolation, I do love you, Nyima, just... not the way you were hoping." He paused, then grumbled self-critically, "That was less lame in my head." Nyima sniffle-giggled again; then she did put her arms around him in turn, burying her face deeper in his sweatered chest, and said in a muffled voice, "I'll take it." He was visibly out of sorts when he returned, later than expected, to the sun parlor of Tenzin the Elder's house. Both Utena and Anthy noticed it; with a shared glance, they decided between them who would raise it, and it was Utena who beckoned him to settle on the futon between them, then asked him softly, "What's the matter?" Corwin gave her a thoughtful, slightly mournful look, considering his reply carefully, and then said, "I just had to break one of the kindest, gentlest, most loving hearts I know." "Ah," said Anthy with an understanding nod. "Nyima." "You knew?" Corwin wondered. "Everybody knows," Anthy replied. "I'm surprised she broached the subject, though. It isn't like her to do something she knows will cause a disruption, however much healthier for her it's likely to be that she's pulled off the scab." "Lhakpa sort of forced her hand," said Corwin ruefully, and he explained what had just happened in the library. "Hnh. Classy," Utena grunted, frowning. "Someone needs to teach that girl a lesson or two." "I intend to let her know as soon as I see her that I don't appreciate the way she treats her sister," Corwin said, nodding. "I mean, they've always had kind of an adversarial relationship, but what she just did was beyond the pale. There's no excuse for treating someone like that." He sighed. "Nyima's three years younger than Lhakpa, Nall and me, so I can't remember when she was born, but I do remember her as a toddler, then a little girl. Lhakpa... and Nall, too, sometimes... used to consider her kind of a nuisance. The tagalong little sister. Me, I never saw her that way. She's always been... she's always been -interesting.-" He lay back against the upright part of the futon and stretched out his arms along the back, one behind Anthy, the other behind Utena, and sighed. "When I was 11 and she was eight, and Lhakpa was out chasing Nall around, Nyima taught me the ancient airbenders' language, Xiaerba. It's nearly a dead language nowadays, but she wanted to read to me from the writings of Gyatso the Wise, Avatar Aang's mentor, and she didn't want anything to be lost in translation." He smiled slightly at the memory. "That's the kind of mind she has." "Huh, wow," said Utena, nestling into the crook of his arm. "How long did that take?" "Three weeks," Corwin said. When she glanced at him in surprise, he shrugged a little sheepishly and said, "I'm good with languages. Get it from Dad. It's a Detian thing." "Well," said Anthy after a few moments' thought, "I hope you were gentle with her... assuming, of course, you don't reciprocate her feelings." "I was," Corwin assured her. "And I don't. Well, I do and I don't. I mean, I do love her, and I don't mind saying so, to you, or her, or anybody. She's an old friend and a genuinely beautiful soul. But I'm not -in- love with her." He sighed. "Philos, but no eros. Standard needs more words." "Mm," Anthy agreed. They lay together, lost in thought, for perhaps half an hour, during which time the last of the sunset filled the room with red light and ever-longer shadows from the west. Nobody bothered getting up to turn on any lights until it was almost fully night, and then only because Annabelle required routine maintenance that could not readily be accomplished in the dark. That homely task seemed to return them all from their respective reveries, though, and - with Annabelle fed, changed, and awake for the moment - the revitalized trio and their offspring and dragon turned happily to piling up some of what used, in Corwin's father's youth, to be called "quality time". A while later, Utena had to retire to the smallest room by herself for a time. When she emerged and headed back toward the sun parlor, she discovered that the hall offered an excellent vantage point on the daybed well before the threshold. From this angle, Garnet was hidden in the covers somewhere, but everyone else was perfectly visible. Utena paused about halfway along the corridor and leaned against the wall, arms folded, and quietly watched with a fond smile while Corwin and Anthy played with their infant daughter. They were such a perfect little picture, the three of them. Mother, father, child. She hadn't anticipated how -right- they would all look together. And just like that, the feeling from last night was back. Suddenly, without warning, she felt like a voyeur, possibly even an intruder, and she knew that walking back into that room in this condition would be both unfair to them and possibly unbearable to herself. They would sense her disquiet; they would ask her about it, all in loving concern; and how could she ever admit to them, these people she had sworn never to lie to or hide things from, that she abruptly felt like an outsider in her own family? Silently, she took herself away - from the parlor, the scene, the house itself. She had to get out, get some air... ... try to figure out what she was feeling, and what in all the worlds she could do about it. Late night on Air Temple Island, and Korra was on the prowl with Niri by her side. This was not an uncommon occurrance. While she had come a long way since her early days at the White Lotus compound in the South Pole, some part of her would always feel more comfortable walking alone with her thoughts, accompanied only by her faithful polar bear dog. It wasn't the healthiest of behaviors, and she well knew this, but it was a long-established habit and she had come to terms with it. She would never feel entirely comfortable bringing certain subjects up with other people until she'd had at least a little time to process them herself. Still, she knew that she was never truly alone, not any more. There were her friends in Republic City and on Air Temple Island, her extended family in the Southern Water Tribe and her surrogate siblings that were the "airbabies" and their multitude of offspring. And that wasn't even factoring her past lives as the Avatar into the equation - while she had not always appreciated their wisdom or presence, she certainly valued their existence and Raava's connection to them all. While many of the people whose lives she'd crossed had passed away, that didn't lessen the impact they had made on her own life, and she treasured each of their relationships in her own way. "In diversity, there is beauty; in diversity, there is strength," the thought occured to Korra as she walked through the bamboo forest to the northeast of the temple's training complex. She forgot exactly where she had read or heard it, but it resonated nicely with a phrase in a text that Gryphon had lent her during one of her prior visits to New Avalon: "Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations". The Avatar reflected on that statement as she climbed over the rocks that defined the northern edge of the bamboo forest, followed by Niri. There was a certain undeniable truth to it, a wisdom brought from a world of logic that she had never seen, but hoped to visit someday. Nobody in Diqiu would even have had an opportunity to learn about the worlds beyond Zipang, if not for the efforts of herself and others in widening the cultural bridge between the two worlds and the galaxy beyond. -That- was what the members of the White Lotus who had perpetrated their ill-timed deception had forgotten, or never really brought onboard in the first place. That their homeworld could only benefit from increased contact and interaction with Outside, that perhaps their world -needed- a little "revolutionizing" every so often to stir things up. Not change for change's sake, of course - that sort of thing rarely turned out well, consider Fire Lord Sozin - but stagnation was death, and it had been both Aang's actions and her own which helped break Diqiu from the stasis that had so gripped the world's long history. And if she got outside help in doing that - and if they were good, dear friends - well, the learned masters would just have to Deal With It. Korra chuckled to herself as she worked her way past the ridge and down to the scrub and brush that clung to its base. She could see the city lights now in the distance to the north and east, and the waning quarter-moon that was Yue, just rising over the far peaks of the eastern horizon. She smiled at the sight, and looked out towards the bay and Aang's statue beyond the cliffs below. All quiet, all well, nothing but the deep blue of the water reflecting the moonlight and city light, the faint pink streak of hair at the cliff's edge... ... wait a second. Korra halted in her tracks and squinted to get a better look. Yes, that -was- Utena Tenjou sitting there, in a heartbreakingly familiar pose, at the edge of the cliff. She couldn't see Utena's expression from this angle, but she didn't need a diagram drawn to figure out what it could be. With a murmured word to Niri, she quietly made her way to the clearing at the cliff's edge. Coming to a halt a few feet away from Utena, Korra was seized by a brief moment of a kind of third-person deja vu. She shook it off, and then quietly stepped the rest of the way to the Duelist's side, Niri hanging back a bit. "Utena?" Korra asked quietly, and then crouched down as the younger woman didn't answer. "Hey, what's wrong?" she asked again, resting a gentle hand on Utena's shoulder. As she did so, she got a good look at the prince's face as she looked out over the bay. Korra blinked. "Are you -crying?-" she queried, with no accusation or censure in her voice, only concern. Utena shook her head jerkily, the first acknowledgement that she had heard Korra at all. "No," she said huskily. "Maybe. I don't know. There are definitely tears happening here." She gave a helpless shrug as she gestured aimlessly toward the water. "Honestly? I've got -no idea- what's going on in my own head right now." "You picked a good place for it," the Avatar nodded quietly, and she settled herself down next to Utena in a similar posture. "Trust me, I've been there, sister, and you're not alone." Utena glanced over at the shorter woman as she pulled one leg up to her chest. "Yeah?" "Oh yeah," Korra confirmed as she earthbent a few pebbles between them, then chucked one of them into the waters of the bay. "I was a real -mess- back in the bad old days. Seriously... but I doubt you want to hear about that. If you -did-, there's books in Jinora's library that -really- go into depth about my psychological foibles. 'What Was the Early Avatar Korra Thinking?!' is practically an academic category in and of itself." At Utena's dubious look, Korra caught herself, coughing into her fist. "Sorry, I know what that sounded like, and that wasn't what I meant. -My- issues were due to upbringing and circumstance, which are a different barrel of cuttlefish." She looked at Utena in profile, studying the drying tear tracks on her cheeks. "I get the feeling your worries are a lot closer to home." Utena made a halfhearted nod. "So look," Korra went on, "just... say what you want to say, however you want to say it. It won't go beyond these ears, unless you wish it. Avatar's honor." "All right," Utena replied, and then her brow furrowed and she directed a curious glance at the Avatar. "What did you mean by, 'a good place for it'?" Korra smiled faintly and gestured for Niri to approach. Lying down behind them, the polar bear dog made a quiet, solid presence at their backs. Thus situated, Korra leaned against her companion's warm side, and looked out across the bay at Aang's statue. "Once... longer ago than I want to admit..." she began quietly, "I came up here and sat right about where you are now, looked over at that big crazy city that I didn't even -slightly- understand, and thought, 'Great spirits, I cannot do this. This is so much bigger than I can be.'" With a sigh, Korra flung another pebble into the water below. "Believing in myself had never been a problem for me before, but up to then it was mostly bravado, and that night, alone in the dark, it was all just falling down around my ears. I was a sham. A failure. I was the worst Avatar ever and pretty soon everyone was going to know. "I wanted to quit. Run away. Just crawl back to the South Pole with my tail between my legs and admit that everyone who said I wasn't good enough was right. I sat right there and I knew, I -knew,- that whatever it was going to take to cope with my situation, it just wasn't in me." Korra took a quiet breath and let it out, briefly lost in an old memory. Utena waited a few moments before asking, "... And then you found it?" The Avatar came back to herself, and shook her head. "No; it found me. Or rather they did. See... I had forgotten for a second that I -wasn't- alone. I had friends." Utena considered this, and nodded. "They must've been really good friends. I saw the way you looked at their pictures earlier." "They were the best," Korra said with a smile. "Oh, we had our ups and downs and weird communication problems and stupid fights and ill-advised intersections at first. We were just kids, after all, trying to navigate uncharted waters, at the same time we were all up to our eyebrows in stuff real grown-ups would have had a hard time coping with. Of course it was all going to go wrong sometimes - it was like ice dodging with blinders on. But at the end of the day, Asami and the Bros were the best friends anybody could hope for. We could tell each other anything." Utena managed a smile, the first of that night. "Heh. You just reminded me of something I said to Himemiya years ago." Korra looked puzzled. "Who?" Utena glanced at her, then chuckled at herself. "Anthy. Himemiya is her maiden name. I got in the habit of calling her that when we were at school - before we were even really friends, much less... anything else. That was the kind of school it was." She took a deep breath, and continued. "Anyway, when we were -becoming- friends, I realized that she was keeping a lot of secrets. Painful ones. And I thought it was because she didn't have anyone who... who cared enough about her to hear them. To... to -be there- for her. I didn't think that was right, so one day I told her that -I- wanted to be there for her. 'Whatever's bothering you, bring it to me. That's the kind of friends I want us to be.'" Korra took that onboard for a moment, then smiled. "I like that. That works for me." She gave Utena a gentle, playful nudge to the shoulder. "So bring." "... OK." Utena turned her eyes away from the Avatar and gazed out to sea, falling silent as she gathered something inside herself. Then, without looking at Korra, she said as if confessing a terrible crime, "I didn't want this." Utena cringed inwardly for a moment, but no reaction came from Korra except for a quiet, gentle, "Go on..." At the Avatar's nonjudgemental tone, something inside Utena just broke loose. The sluice gates were open, and the words poured out. "I don't know how much Corwin's written about me in his letters to you, but I'd never really thought about having a child before Anthy brought it up. I didn't have any idea Anthy was even interested in having children of her own until she raised the subject last year, which shows how much -I- was paying attention at the time. I mean, Juni-chan had just come into our lives; she was enough of a kid-raising experience for me as it was, and she's more Kate's student than mine, anyway. Then there was Corwin's graduation, and the whole 'Big-Fire-Invades-the-Prom' thing that happened - I assume Corwin told you about -that- at least." Korra gave Utena a wordless nod, and motioned for her to continue. "Huh, now that I think about it, that night might've been the point where the idea started to germinate in Himemiya's mind. Allfather knows -I- was worried about him when the big throwdown in New Avalon happened, and I wasn't even thinking 'father of my potential future child' like she probably was by then... " Utena trailed off, then shook her head. "Sorry, that just -clicked- for me, right now." The Avatar smiled slightly. "No problem. Happens to the best of us." Utena managed a dry chuckle, took another breath, and continued. "-Anyway.- I've never had any desire to bear children myself (and quite frankly, having seen it happen, I now have -less- than zero interest), but if Anthy wanted to go through with it, who was I to stop her? And if Corwin was OK with it, sure! It's his DNA, after all. So I... went along. It's just, now that it's -happened-..." She paused, trying to regain the thread of the conversation as her confused thoughts intruded once more. Korra waited patiently as Utena re-gathered herself, and took a different tack on it. "I mean, look. A lot of my life has been stepping up to the plate, even if I have no idea what the batting order is, and giving it my best, swinging for the horizon. Kate and the Duelists, Dad and the IPO - full steam ahead, doing the best I could, no matter how much I stumbled along the way. Thanks to them, I think I've done a lot of good in the world, and even if my life path isn't anything you'll hear about in a college career center, it's been pretty satisfying. "The thing is, -parenting- definitely didn't factor into it. At least, not for a good long while! Building a family with Himemiya and Corwin - sure, I didn't have any problem with -that-, I proposed to -both- of them in the first place!" At Korra's curious eyebrow, Utena coughed and blushed slightly. "Well, not at the same -time-. It was three years apart, give or take. There was a long time there where Corwin and I... sort of held ourselves back, until Anthy finally got fed up with it, sat us down, and told us we didn't have to." Korra made a wordless "ah" and nodded. "Please don't think I'm hating on them - on US - having had a child," Utena said, her scattered mind scampering back to the previous thread. "I mean, Annabelle's -wonderful.- She really is, she's amazing, and I'm glad that she's here with us now. You've seen how everybody's taken with her, and the joy on Corwin and Anthy's faces when they look at her... " She shook her head. "It's a -marvel.- The only times I've seen them come close to that were the days when we got married. I'm -not- envious, and I -know- they're still a part of my life, and always will be, but..." Utena trailed off, then went on in a quieter voice, "... but that's -Corwin's daughter- there. And they look so -natural- together. So -right.- And however much they say I am, however much they want me to be, on some fundamental level I'm not really part of that. That's just biology. We can't change it." She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, and another tear trickled down her cheek. Korra reached over and rested a gentle hand on Utena's shoulder, patiently waiting for her to continue at her own pace. After several sniffles, Utena brushed the tear-streak away, and looked down at her hands with a mixed expression. "I didn't -want- this," she gestured with her right hand, "but I didn't -not- want it either," she added with her left hand. "I don't think Corwin could even -work out- the logic for that. I'm not sure even -Aunt Bell- could!" With a cry, Utena threw up her hands and looked up at the night sky. "Aaagh, this is confusing enough already!" With an angry sound, she snatched up one of the pebbles that Korra had earthbent, and flung it out into the bay. The Avatar didn't have any time to appreciate the Rose Prince's throwing arm, however, for just then Utena turned where she sat, facing Korra fully for the first time that night. Her eyes were intense, her face serious as she sat up straighter, no longer slouching towards the cliff edge, but leaning towards Korra as she gesticulated. "There's something you've got to understand, Korra... Himemiya spent -years- being denied any agency whatsoever, partly by -herself.- But only partly. The situation she was in... I can't even -describe- it properly right now, at least not with a level head! One of the main things Corwin and I fought for was to give her control of her life, restore her sense of... of her own -identity.- Her value as an individual. Back when I was in school at Ohtori, and when Corwin came to Cephiro for his Trial. And always, ALWAYS afterwards, we did everything we could to enable the opportunites she didn't have when she was in her 'birdcage'. And she loved them! And we loved her having them! When she came back to Midgard with me, she fit in with the rest of us like she was always -meant- to be there!" Korra nodded, unperturbed by Utena's intensified, rather disjointed explanation. "So," Utena went on, "when she came to me and said she wanted a child... I mean, what was I going to do, tell her no? 'You can't do that'? After we fought the whole damned -world- so that none of us would ever have to hear that again?" She threw up her hands again and slumped backwards against Niri's side. The polar bear dog accepted the treatment without complaint as Utena crossed her arms. "I was kind of trapped by my own principles. Corwin and I moved -heaven and earth- to win her freedom. Naturally that included the freedom to have aspirations I didn't share. If it didn't, that would mean I was a liar." She turned her head to look directly at Korra. "-I'm not a liar.-" Korra met Utena's blue-eyed gaze with her own. "I know you're not, Utena," she said with such direct earnestness that it calmed the Rose Prince somewhat. Utena relaxed slightly as she returned her focus to the sea, sky, and statue beyond, and gained a newfound appreciation for the warmth of a polar bear dog's sides. She let out a long sigh, and stretched her arms back against Niri's fur before lowering them again. "It's just I'm not sure -what- I'm feeling," Utena admitted quietly. "And Emily's words didn't help any. 'Sometimes crazy works.' I quipped it at the time, but... -are- we crazy for having done all this? What's -wrong- with me, for thinking this in the first place? Why couldn't I tell Himemiya and Corwin about it?" She looked up at the fully-risen quarter moon, the moonlight reflected in her eyes. "Our entire -relationship- is based on being able to tell each other -anything.- Me and Anthy, me and Corwin, Corwin and Anthy, all three of us together... we're the the -Trinity-, for pete's sake!" She shook her head. "I just feel like I'm letting them down, -twice-." With that, Utena let out another long sigh, her energy spent. She and Korra sat there in silence for several drawn-out moments, the only sounds between them that of Niri's heavy breathing and the surf below. "Mmm. Heavy stuff," Korra finally said once she judged enough time had passed. "I admit, it's a bit of a puzzle, but I'll give it my best shot." She stretched her arms back (much like Utena had earlier), then relaxed, and looked over at the pink-haired Duelist. "Okay, first off - I assume you've already internalized the whole 'a person's body is her own, nobody else has the right to dictate what happens to it' thing, right?" A nod from Utena, and Korra continued, "Good, good. Well then, take Azana, for instance." Utena raised an eyebrow. "What about her?" "Well, she's a career woman, like you. One of our best and brightest, and I doubt she'll be playing pro-bending forever - not that I think she'd fail if she went for the long haul, but... She's got the knowledge and the skills to really make a career out of teaching if she wanted, and if not, there's always other places that could make use of her talents to protect others. "Despite what her -mom- might want," (at this Korra rolled her eyes,) "Azana doesn't see herself ever bearing a child either. She's comfortable with that - happy about it, even. And that's perfectly fine by me." "How do you know about this?" Utena wondered. "After-game beers with the Fire Ferrets after the championship last year. Wan and I were the most sober people in the room, and that's not saying much." Korra picked up a pebble and tossed it into the bay before continuing. "So, not seeing yourself raising a child (however you do it) at this point of your life - perfectly understandable. Child-free's a completely legitimate life choice." Utena nodded slowly. "All right... but that's not really my problem. I don't feel pressured to... uh... join the club myself. I just... where do I fit? How do I -react?- Knowing my own choice is legitimate doesn't help me address any of that," she pointed out. Korra considered this fact for a moment. "True. Hrm. Well, there's always sparring..." "Wait, what?" Utena asked, briefly derailed. "Get the blood flowing, all the negative energy out and spent. I'm sure you and Kate've gone a few rounds to settle matters or clear the air before, right?" "Well, -yeah-, but that wasn't involving stuff between me, Anthy, and Corwin. Also, would that even be fair? I mean, you're the Avatar, and I'm, well... -me-." "Well, sure, if we set a few ground rules," Korra said with a grin. "No bending, no blades, no magic, no Avatar State. Just you, me, the ground, and the bay beyond." "Thanks for the offer, Korra, but... I'm not sure that'd help," Utena admitted. "Besides, I've never really learned -how- to fight empty-handed." "Really?" the Avatar replied with raised eyebrows. "I thought that was standard training for IPO agents." She shook her head, quietly amused. "First Anne, now you. Man, do I need to tutor -everybody- here? Ah well, another time, then." The two of them looked out toward Aang's statue in silence for a while, until Korra spoke again. "Anyway, to address what Emily said, I don't think you're crazy. But you've gotta be willing to take time for -yourself-. 'Cause believe me, buying too much into your assumed self-perception as 'The Rose Prince' or 'The Trinity'... or 'The Avatar'... can get painful." She closed her eyes briefly at an old memory, before opening them again to look at Utena. "You're all connected, and that's -wonderful-, I've rarely seen anything like it... but you're all -human- too. "And being human means you're gonna stumble sometimes. There's gonna be doubts, things you fear you can't tell anybody else, for whatever reason. But that's -OK-. And you don't have to worry about negative reactions from Corwin or Anthy whether you bring it up or not. If you tell them about it, or don't tell them about it, they won't turn you away or censure you. That's not the people you and I and Kate and all the rest know. It's not the Anthy Jinora's grown so fond of, and it's for -damn- sure not the Corwin I've known all his life." Seeing the slight fierceness in Korra's eyes as she said the last part, Utena couldn't help but smile a little, even under the circumstances. "I like how sure you are of that," she said. "Y'know, it occurs to me that you basically knew him for all the time I didn't, and vice versa. Between us we more or less cover his whole life, apart from a few months... " She trailed off, looking thoughtful, then said, "I never thought about it before, but there must be a big adjustment happening lately for -you,- too. Those were pretty important years." Korra chuckled. "Eh, not so big," she said easily, then admitted, "I -was- a little worried that it might be. I mean, I had his letters, but still - before I left for Cephiro, I tried to prepare myself in case the boy I knew so well had grown up to be a man I didn't recognize. Maybe even didn't particularly like... " She shook her head with the same sentimental smile Utena had seen during their conversation with Emily, when the reporter had asked Korra what she was to Corwin. "But he hadn't. I mean, yeah, obviously in some respects he's -very- different from the last time I saw him... but in all the ways that MATTER he's exactly the same as he always was." "'And Corwin will always be Corwin, even on Judgment Day,'" Utena quoted. Korra nodded, recognizing the line. "Yeah, exactly. So no worries there. Heck, he's better than before. All that realized potential. Remember the photo I showed you earlier of my original crew? Grown-up Corwin is like somebody made the greatest hits album. Bolin's effortless charm and his huge heart, Mako's bravery and dedication to his work, Asami's amazing brain and her spirit of adventure. Having him around is... " She grinned. "Not hard work." Utena surprised herself slightly by coming up with a genuine giggle for that. "That's good, I have to remember that." "ANYway," said Korra. "The point is, you know these people better than anybody. Maybe better than you know yourself. So if you stop and take a deep breath, you'll know: They're not going to push you away or come down on you for having normal human feelings about such a huge change in your life. I mean, you tell me... -does- that sound like your family? Judging without cause?" Utena blinked. "No, of course not!" "Well, there you go, then," Korra said with a smile as she leaned back against Niri again. "I think it'll work out... and I think you'll do fine." The Rose Prince brought that onboard with a "-huh-," and then chuckled a bit. "I think you've got a point there, Korra." "I generally try to," the Avatar grinned, and gently bumped her hand against Utena's at her side. "Funny thing about families, Utena - they may start with blood, but they don't end there. Heck, sometimes they don't even -start- there. Karana and Azana are family by their own choice; have been ever since they were twelve. And Aang, Katara, Sokka, and the rest of the Gaang - they were family long before Aang and Katara got married." "You know, that sounds familiar," Utena mused with a smile. "I know, right?" Korra agreed. "So yeah, Annabelle may be genetically Corwin and Anthy's kid, but -family- wise, she's just as much yours too." "So... what do we do now?" Utena asked after mulling it over. "Well, our doors are always open here, you know," the Avatar offered. "Even if you don't technically have a place in Republic City yet, Jinora and the rest would be more than willing to host you for as long as you need. Give you a little more time away from the rest of the outside galaxy, to get some more breathing room and find a new balance." "Hm, I don't know... I wouldn't want to impose, but it -is- tempting," Utena admitted. "I'd have to discuss it with them." "Well, there you go!" Korra proclaimed with a playful tap on the shoulder. "Heck, stay long enough, I could even take the three of you ice dodging. I kinda was planning to take Corwin all those years ago, but then you happened, and well... " She gave Utena a sheepish grin. "Sorry about that," Utena replied with one of her own, her hand behind her head. "Believe me, it wasn't planned!" She then paused, as something from earlier linked up with what Korra had just said. "Wait a second, what's ice dodging? You mentioned it before." Korra answered with a smile. "It's a Water Tribe rite of passage, one of several that we have. You basically have to show that you can command others in treacherous water conditions - it's a big way to demonstrate mutual trust. When people outside the tribe do it, they'll often be made honorary members - that's how Aang got formally recognized as part of the Southern Water Tribe, for one." "Wait, so that means..." Utena said, eyes widening. Korra nodded. "I intended long ago to make Corwin part of the Tribe - MY tribe. And I would be more than pleased to extend the same invitation to you and Anthy." "I... wow. We'd be honored!" "Sounds like a plan, then." Korra grinned, and held up a fist to Utena. Grinning, Utena held up a fist of her own, and bumped it against Korra's. "I'm proud to be a part of it." With all that worked out, Utena at last began showing signs that her mind was spinning down enough that she could rest. Falling silent, she leaned against Korra's shoulder for a while. Eventually, her head nodding, she began drifting gently into sleep, sliding slowly to one side and down as her body relaxed. Korra sat looking out to sea, a thoughtful look on her face, while Utena semiconsciously made herself more comfortable alongside her. She probably ought to have packed the younger woman off to bed, but it would have broken the moment somehow, and besides, after all they had just challenged together, she was content to let her be. The Avatar sat for a minute so, reflecting on all that had just passed, while the surf washed against the rocks far below and Republic City gleamed on the disance. As she did, the sights and sounds and scents of her surroundings called a bit of a favorite "big universe" poem to her mind: The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks: The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world. Without really thinking about it, she began to sing, the well- worn words of a lullaby in her native tongue rolling softly and sweetly from her lips: By the time she finished, Utena was fast asleep, her head pillowed on Korra's thigh, one fist drawn loosely up under her chin. Looking down at her sleeping face, Korra found that she was one of those people who sleep like children, all their cares erased from their faces in repose. She smiled at the sight. Korra mused, mostly to herself, as she looked up at the quarter moon. replied the moon, the Avatar's dear friend, her face reflected in her own light. said the Moon Spirit. Korra yawned deeply, relaxed further back on Niri's side, resting a hand on the sleeping Utena's shoulder. replied the moon spirit with a fond smile, before withdrawing fully to her celestial abode. Korra waved with her free hand as she departed, then gently rested it on the side of Utena's head and very slowly, carefully straightened her legs, so that she could fully relax, without disturbing the younger woman. As she drifted off to sleep herself, running her hand through Utena's hair, she gave the Duelist one last look, and smiled softly as she murmured, "Unnukkut paniga Utena." FRIDAY, MARCH 19 Utena returned to Tenzin's house not long after dawn, feeling surprisingly good considering she'd slept on the ground. In the opening light of what looked like being a gorgeous day, the shadows - outer and inner - of the previous night seemed as though they belonged to a time much longer ago. Roused by the sunrise, she and Korra had parted without exchanging a word beyond morning greetings. In one moment the two women had shared, smiling silently at each other, hands still clasped where one had pulled the other to her feet, they felt as though they had known each other for -years-, not a week; and having known each other for years, they had no need of conversation on an occasion such as this. The smiles, and the hands, said whatever needed saying. She entered the house quietly, assuming the others would still be asleep, and indeed, she was 75 percent correct; entering the bedroom, she found Corwin sprawled on one side of the bed, one of his hands outstretched and resting on the edge of Annabelle's cradle, while their daughter and her dragon slept within, Garnet coiled protectively around Annabelle's body. The only evidence of Anthy, though, was the mussed covers on the empty side of the bed. Utena kicked off her shoes and went into the bathroom, unbuttoning her wool shirt as she went. Anthy was in the bathtub, sunk down to her shoulders in suds. She looked up as Utena entered, an expression of relieved concern on her face. "We missed you last night, darling," she said, without aggression. "Yeah, uh... sorry about that," said Utena. She shrugged out of the shirt, balled it up, and put it in the corner hamper, then went and sat on the wide coaming around the capacious tub, peeling off first one sock, then the other. "I went for a walk. Had a... lot of stuff on my mind." She looked up, meeting Anthy's eyes, and smiled. "I think I'm OK now. I'm sorry if I worried you." Then, looking around the room (for what, she wasn't sure), she said, "Come to think of it, I'm a little surprised you didn't come looking for me. Or, well, that Corwin didn't. Or at least Lens me." "I asked him if he thought we should," Anthy said. "He just shook his head and said we ought to leave you be; that if you were in any difficulty we could help with, you would call for us." Utena's cheeks colored; she glanced away, abashed. "Damn," she said softly. "I didn't think I was that obvious." "You wouldn't have been," Anthy said gently, "to anyone who didn't know you so well or love you so much." Utena hung her head. "I'm sorry," she repeated. "I didn't want to worry you." "It's -all right,- my love," Anthy insisted. "We're all going to have moments when we need to step back and gather ourselves. I hope you don't think I have -ever- assumed that no adjustment would be required on your part, or that it would be easy for you to make." Utena looked up at her, then gave a wan smile. "Thank you." She really did feel better about the things that had been bothering her the night before; now she was just working on the revelation that she hadn't been as discreet about them as she thought. Recovering something of the equanimity she'd come in with, she chuckled wryly and quipped, "You give birth and I get post-partum depression. That seems fair." Thus restored, she rose and said with a grin, "I don't suppose I can interest you in switching to the shower." "Plenty of room in here," Anthy remarked, indicating the size of the bathtub. "I've kind of gone off tubs at the moment," Utena replied. She reached into the shower cubicle, turned it on, and left it for the hot water to start coming while she took off the rest of her clothes. Then, turning, she saw that Anthy had pulled the draincock and risen from the tub while her back was turned. "Wh - " Utena blinked, resisting an urge to ostentatiously rub her eyes. "You... where's..." She looked suspiciously around the room again. "Is this -real?- Did I -dream- the last year?" Smiling just a little wickedly at her confusion, Anthy stepped out of the tub and walked over to her - right up to her - draping her arms around Utena's neck and pressing herself as close as if they had been slow dancing. Slender and athletic, honed by the Duelist training regimen she'd adopted not long after their wedding, Anthy's body fitted almost perfectly to Utena's when she stood on tiptoes. This had not been the case for some time now, and, Utena had been given to understand, should not reasonably have been expected again so soon. Forehead to forehead, so close Utena could feel her lips moving as she spoke, Anthy murmured in a low, amused purr, "I'm a witch, darling." With that, she kissed her dumbfounded husband thoroughly, then guided her into the shower and closed the glass door behind them. As if to make up for her disappearing act the night before, Utena took her first turn at minding Annabelle alone (apart from Garnet) so that Anthy could go with Corwin to breakfast. She regretted missing the stir Anthy would cause, turning up looking as though nothing much out of the ordinary had happened to her at any time in the past year, but on the other hand, she'd seen it first and, as it were, in the greatest detail. Besides, she'd gotten to see Corwin's reaction when, at length, they emerged from the bathroom and found him sitting on the edge of the bed, smilingly contemplating his sleeping daughter. Glancing up, he'd performed a double take for the ages, the thought of which could still make Utena giggle twenty minutes later. As they were preparing to leave, Corwin drew Utena aside and asked quietly, "Are you OK, elskr?" "Yeah," she replied, nodding. Honestly, she added, "I wasn't? But I am now." Smiling, she added, "Thanks to your imaginary friend." Corwin gave her a thoughtful smile, but didn't press for details; instead, he kissed her gently, said he was glad, and then he and Anthy went to breakfast. In the dining hall, just as Utena had predicted it would, Anthy's transformation stopped the breakfast conversation dead upon her entrance. None of the clothes she had brought with her fit any longer, of course, so she was wearing Utena's - a pair of her cargo shorts and a Fire Ferrets T-shirt - which made the change doubly impossible to miss. Everyone, from the young Air Nomads to the aged masters, stopped talking and eating to gaze at her in dumbfounded silence. Silence which, after a second or two, was broken by Master Ikki declaring flatly, "-That- is -cheating.-" Then, grinning broadly, she applauded, as did several of her fellows. With a slightly blushing, self-deprecating smile and wave, Anthy went to take a seat at Korra's table. "How did you do that?" Rory wondered, not incredulously, but in a tone of simple curiosity. "Magic," Anthy replied cheerfully. "Ah," he said matter-of-factly, "that'd do it," and he returned to work on his pancakes without another word. "That's a spell every woman should know," Amy quipped dryly. "Just in case." "As far as I know - oh, thank you," said Anthy as an Air Acolyte brought her a tray of food. "As far as I know, my mother's people invented it," Anthy said, then smiled a touch darkly and added, "Most magical researchers probably don't know about it because they're looking in the wrong grimoires. Its name hasn't anything to do with pregnancy or childbirth. It's called 'The Assassin's Last Surprise'." Amy tilted her head curiously, then smiled a little cruelly herself as the scenario unpacked in her imagination. "Ahhh," she said. "Clever." "Good grief, where did your mother come from? Renaissance Florence?" Rory wondered. "Svartalfheim," Anthy replied blithely. "Almost as bad. Amy, would you pass the lychee jam, please?" After breakfast, Anthy went off to the Air Temple, deep in consultation with Jinora. Corwin didn't mind being abandoned; he had business of his own to attend to anyway. He found Lhakpa alone on the pavilion at the southwest corner of the island, meditating with her back to the morning sun. A westerly sea breeze was blowing across the island, wafting her waves of dark hair gently behind her, her profile perfectly composed and serene, but at the moment, Corwin was unusually indifferent to the aesthetic value of his surroundings. He mounted the steps to the pavilion, stopped a few yards away from her, and spoke her name. She ignored him for a few moments, perhaps finishing a sutra internally; then she opened her eyes, turned her head, and regarded him quizzically. "What?" she asked. "Don't play the innocent," Corwin replied. "You know very well what." Lhakpa rolled her eyes. "Oh, is this about Nyima? Sorry, was she very awful?" She rose to her feet and inquired casually, "Did she get clingy? Spirits, she didn't try to kiss you, did she? Ugh." "What she did or didn't do is none of your damned business," Corwin snapped. "Much like her feelings. How -dare- you?" He shook his head, his face part angry, part sad. "I've watched you take your little shots at her for years, but there was a line I never saw you cross before last night. That was -cruel,- Lhakpa. There's no other word for it, and there's -no- excuse for it." "Oh, you think so, do you?" Lhakpa shot back. "Well, -you- haven't had to live with her. My sister the prodigy, Great-Grandma's favorite, the great scholar. Breezing through all her trials and getting her arrow at 16, and all the time dragging around her big fat crush on you that was only a secret from the -old- people." She folded her arms across her chest and gave him a scornful look. "Earthly detachment, my ass." Corwin scowled at her. "So you figured you'd throw it in her face in the most embarrassing way you could think of? That's real mature. And don't even get me started about -your- detachment," he added pointedly. "-I- am not a master airbender," Lhakpa said. "I don't even -aspire- to be a master airbender. Besides - our parents, their parents, -their- parents?" she added with a sweeping gesture. "How detached were -they?- Not very, obviously, we're here now." She folded her arms again and gave a derisive snort. "That whole thing is a scam designed to keep us in line. Anytime we take a fancy the elders don't approve of, they can trot out the detachment sermon. Well, I'm not buying it any more. It's not my fault if Nyima still is AND she's crap at it. It's actually kind of refreshing that there -is- something she's crap at in the -first- place," she added with a faintly malicious little smile. Corwin just stood looking back at her for a few moments, not trusting himself to speak. Lhakpa took his silence for conceding the point and sat back down, facing away, to resume her meditation. "So hey," she said over her shoulder. "I'm sorry I put you on the spot, but if you're looking to give me guilt about poor little Nyima and her feelings, forget it." At that point, Corwin became aware that he had two, and only two, options: Go over there, haul her back to her feet, and slap her across the face; or walk away. He walked away. It's just as well Nall doesn't seem to be around just now, he thought as he walked back to Tenzin's house. If he had been, he'd probably have felt obligated to take her side, and at that point, I don't even know what. This just won't do. "So what do you kids do for fun around here?" Rory inquired of Sita as he, the young Air Acolyte, and Amy sat by the ba gua circle and watched Master Meelo put a group of other youngsters through their paces. "Yeah, really. It can't just be train train train all the time," Amy agreed. "It feels like it sometimes," Sita replied. "The airbenders have -their- training, and we Acolytes do most of the physical forms too. And then there's all the maintenance and housekeeping. Between that and our studies, the days are pretty full." "Oh, c'mon," said Amy, elbowing the girl gently. "You must have some time for games. You'd all go -mental- otherwise." "Well... I mean, there's pai sho, and that other game from Zipang," said Sita, uncomfortably aware that the visitors probably didn't mean sit-down-and-think-type games. On the circle, Meelo dismissed the students, who scattered almost at once. One of them, young Tenzin, crossed to where they sat. "What's up?" he wondered. "Amy was just asking if you guys ever have time for games," said Rory. "Sure," Tenzin replied, nodding. "Meelo just gave us the rest of the morning off, as a matter of fact." "You -should- spend that time working on your reading," said Sita primly. "She's probably right," said Amy; then, with a slightly wicked little smile that raised a blush in the boy's cheeks, she asked him, "So what're ye gonna do instead?" "Do you have any sports on the island?" Rory wondered. "Well, we don't have room for a baseball diamond," said Tenzin. "We have to go to town and use one of the ones in the park if we want to play that, and that's a whole afternoon. But there's airball!" Amy grinned. "Aha, now you're talkin'." She rose, brushing imaginary dust from the knees of her black tights. "What d'ye say the four of us play a little two-a-side? Shirts v. skins, sorry lads, you're skins," she added with a wink, making Tenzin blush again. Sita blinked. "Tenzin's the only one of us who's an airbender," she said. "That wouldn't be fair in any way." "Pff," said Amy dismissively. "We can take 'em." With a conspiratorial, eyerolling smile for her newly declared teammate, she added, "They're only -boys.-" Corwin's lingering dissatisfaction began to dispel when he reached the house. From the front steps, he could see that the expedition was almost ready to depart over in the courtyard. Under Ikki's cheerful supervision, the Air Acolyte ground crew was saddling up two sky bison, Mogi and Rohan's mount, Pivi. At the speed with which they usually worked, they'd be finished in minutes. Corwin smiled, his good humor mostly restored, and went inside. In the front room, he found Anthy just completing preparations as well, putting the finishing touches on getting Annabelle neatly swaddled. To his surprise, she (Anthy, not Annabelle) was dressed very like an Air Acolyte, in a robe-over-dress combo not unlike her anniversary outfit from Ming's, but all in shades of red. "Where'd you get this?" he wondered, brushing the crimson outer robe with his fingertips. "Jinora was kind enough to let me borrow a few things, until I have a chance to get home and unpack my old wardrobe again," she replied, smiling. "She says I've done enough reading over the last few days that she practically thinks of me as a novice Acolyte anyway." Corwin chuckled. "Well, the look does suit you," he said. Then, crooking an eyebrow, he said as if he'd just noticed it, "No sash, though?" "It's there," said Anthy, indicating a neatly folded bundle of scarlet cloth lying next to Annabelle. "One of its many uses is as a wrap for carrying babies. Would you care to try it out? I thought you might carry her on the flight out, and perhaps Utena would like to give it a try on the way back." "Uh, sure," said Corwin. "If you don't think - " "Wonderful," said Anthy, beaming. "You just get that sorted, then, and I'll go and pack some things we'll probably need once we get there." Addressing Annabelle, she declared, "It's all very exciting, isn't it?" "Um," said Corwin, but she had breezed off to the bedroom to collect the required items by that point and left him to his work. Utena emerged from the same room a minute or two later, togged out in one of her jacket-and-tie rigs (having felt that the occasion called for a dressier touch), to find Corwin... well, she wasn't really sure -what- he was doing. While Garnet watched with an air of deep bemusement from the sideboard, he and Annabelle appeared to be in the process of losing an argument with several yards of red silk. "Well -that- can't be right because now I can't see," Corwin muttered, unwinding a coil of fabric he apparently had expected to settle somewhere other than around the top of his head. "I don't - hang on. No..." "What are you doing?" Utena wondered, unable to keep from giggling at the look of comical bemusement on his face. "This is evidently supposed to be configurable as some kind of baby-carrying device," Corwin said, momentarily losing one of his hands into an unexpected fold. "I can only assume," he added, turning completely around, "that it's intended to be set up by someone with four arms. Maybe Avatar Yangchen invented it." "I see," said Utena, folding her arms with a smile and watching him work. "This is just a piece of cloth," Corwin remarked a fruitless minute or so later, sounding slightly desperate. "Yes," Utena agreed. "It doesn't have any buckles... it doesn't have moving parts of -any kind,-" Corwin went on. "No," Utena agreed. "It -can't- be this hard." Corwin winced a little as Annabelle, slightly caught in a twist of silk, made a mild noise of protest. "Sorry." Utena, unable to help herself, started giggling again. "Yes, yes it can," she observed. Corwin mock-glared at her. "Stop laughing and come help untie me before I drop her." Utena complied, still giggling. "How did you get into this predicament in the first place?" "Anthy asked if I wanted to carry her on the flight out. I don't know, it seemed simple. Maybe you should try it." "Ohhh no, not without expert help I don't," Utena said, unwinding the cloth from around his middle. "If the Norse God of Mecha can't make this work without help, I'm not dumb enough to try it by myself." "This isn't mecha, this is a textile," Corwin protested. "Well outside my field. Although I -will- build a baby-carrying robot if I have to." He tugged his free arm out of a loop. "I swear they must airbend this on." "We don't, as a general rule," said Jinora from the door, "but it does help sometimes. Would you like assistance?" Corwin rolled his eyes at the once-again-giggling Utena, who said, "Yes please. I believe we will stop and ask for directions now." When Anthy returned, carrying a small bag over one shoulder and Makoto on the other, she found Utena knotting the ends of the sash neatly at her waist, just below the folded pouch where Annabelle was tucked securely against her chest, facing her. Corwin was standing back, looking impressed, while Jinora fussed with the details, precisely arranging the way the wide, many-folded fabric lay on Utena's shoulders and back. "There's also a version of this method with which you can secure her to your back, which is useful if you need your hands free, and more comfortable for long stints - particularly once she starts to get a bit heavier," Jinora explained as she tidied up the folds over Utena's left shoulder. "That's probably the one you and Corwin will be using most often, but I thought it best to start with this one." She smiled slightly. "The other is a more advanced technique." "Thanks, Jinora," said Utena, twisting her waist this way and that, then raising her arms a couple of times. "All right?" she asked Annabelle, who made a sound that might've been approval. Garnet coiled around Utena's neck and draped her head over one of her shoulders, looking down at their infant charge. "She seems comfortable enough. Are you sure this thing is safe?" "She's quite secure, I assure you," said Jinora. "This technique has been used for thousands of years all over the world. Ikki and I carried all our children this way, and never once dropped any of them, even when sorely provoked," she added with an arch little smile. She double-checked Utena's knot. "Good. There! Snug as a rabbaroo joey." She smoothed Annabelle's violet hair with a kindly smile. "Her first flight. That's a particularly momentous day in the life of an Air Nomad child." The elderly airbender kissed the infant gently on the head, and then, rather to Utena's surprise, her bearer on the cheek; then she wished them all a happy flight and departed. "I guess she likes us," Utena remarked to Annabelle. Then, turning to Anthy, she asked, "So, uh... how do we look?" Anthy smiled. "Very good together," she said. Then, with a slightly arch look at Corwin, she said, "Defeated?" "I'll try again, have no fear," Corwin replied, smiling. "Utena -is- better at textile management than I am, though." Anthy laughed. "You should have known that would be the case," she told him. "I'm sure she's told you about the time she made a dress for me out of a tablecloth." Corwin grinned wryly. "I always assumed there was a bit of poetic license going on there," he admitted. "Wait, did you just call me a liar?" Utena wondered, eyeing him narrowly. "No, elskr, I called you a poet," he said, giving her a kiss. "Besides, I'm driving," he added, making both women wonder briefly what that had to do with anything, before they realized he'd gone back to why he wasn't the one wearing the sling. "Speaking of which - shall we?" Corwin and Mogi led the way for the first leg of the trip, out over the southern corner of Republic City and to the Sato family estate in Future City. There they collected Ryo, who bounded out of the enormous manor house at the sight of the bison landing in the courtyard, carrying with him a small toolbag of the kind used by surveyors and architects. "Morning, all," he said cheerfully as he clambered up Mogi's side. Reaching the top, he climbed over the gunwale onto the saddle platform itself, put down his bag, and grinned around at his fellow passengers. "Good morning, Ryo," said Anthy cheerfully. "And how's everybody doing to - ..." Ryo paused, raised a thoughtful finger, lowered it, scratched his chin, and then said chidingly, "Now, ladies... this is just not fair to poor old Ryo." "Hey, don't look at me, -she's- the one who cheated," said Utena, angling a thumb at Anthy with a grin. "You weren't complaining before breakfast, my love," Anthy replied serenely, making Utena snicker and blush. "All set back there?" Corwin called from the "pilot's seat". "Corwin?" said Ryo. "Yeah?" Corwin replied. "Your ladies are very charming, but your daughter's mother, in particular, passeth understanding," said Ryo matter-of-factly, drawing giggles from both. "Ha, tell me something I -don't- know! Mogi, yip yip!" From that point, Rohan took the lead; he guided the little convoy northeastwards, skirting Republic City's sprawling suburbs, then into the jagged and dramatic mountain range that ringed the city. Utena, now sitting Indian-fashion at the front of Mogi's saddle, smiled at the memory of the drive she and Corwin had taken up into these same mountains during their honeymoon, then glanced down to check again how Annabelle was taking the aerial experience. She was pleased to see that the baby seemed delighted, looking around as best a person could before she developed much in the way of command of her neck, with no fear or dismay in her emerald-green eyes. Utena was vaguely surprised to feel none of the misgivings she'd grappled with the previous night attempting a reprise. Being out here with an infant lashed securely to her chest was an utterly unfamiliar experience and not one she had ever even daydreamed about having, but now that she was doing it, it just seemed... -right- somehow. She still felt emotions she couldn't describe or catalog when she looked down at this tiny person's face, but none of them was alarming or disturbing. It was a very warm and pleasant experience - though she supposed part of the warmth came from Garnet, who had insinuated herself into the wrap as well and was now, apparently less interested in the aerial experience than her human comrade, fast asleep. She wondered idly if this was what awakening maternal instincts felt like, then decided it probably wasn't. She still didn't feel particularly nurturing. That remained a task best left to people more qualified to undertake it. After mulling it over for a while, she decided that what she felt most was -protective.- She knew, of course, that mothers felt protective toward their offspring too - sometimes epically so, she well remembered Kaitlyn's nearly going on a rampage once - but there was a difference. She couldn't put a name to it right now, but nor did she feel she had to. She wasn't explaining it to anyone else, after all. Utena shrugged inwardly and ducked her head to give Annabelle a kiss on the forehead. "OK, kiddo," she murmured privately to the child, "I can do this. I'm not cut out to be a mom, but your father could be right - I might just be able to handle the dad thing." She didn't get an answer - it would've been more than a little startling if she had - but she liked to think that Annabelle didn't mind the idea. A moment later she felt Anthy's hand on her shoulder; turning, she saw her wife settling down alongside her with a smile. "You look comfortable," she said, snuggling against Utena's side. "Is she enjoying her flight?" "Seems to be," Utena replied. Sensing a change of course, she looked up and saw that Pivi was descending toward one of the mountains, with Mogi turning to follow him. Within a few more moments they had swept through a cut and were skimming over a meadow at the bottom of a short valley, the mountain's crags rising on three sides. Ahead, the valley ended in a jagged cliff face, down which a waterfall streamed into a small, irregularly semicircular lake. Pivi flared and landed near the rocky lakeshore; Corwin set Mogi down alongside him. "-Wow,-" said Corwin as he slid down from Mogi's neck. He went aft to help first Anthy, then Utena descend from the saddle; Ryo, his wits recovered, was so gallant as to hand them down from above, then jump down after them. Once regrouped at ground level, they all went around to join Rohan and Ikki at the edge of the lake. "This is -amazing,-" Utena agreed, gazing around at the scene. The mountain's grey-blue flanks rose all around them, rearing to snow-capped peaks to left, right, and center. They gave the valley a sheltered, secure feeling. It would only be approachable on the ground from the west, up the cwm that led to it, and even coming in by air from any other direction would be a challenge with that ring of peaks in the way. There was plenty of sunshine, though; the thriving meadow grasses and wildflowers, and the lack of snow in what was, after all, early spring in the mountains, attested to that. They were just below the treeline, with only a few hardy pines standing here and there. And yet, despite the site's splendid isolation, Republic City could still be seen, a distant blur of buildings and streets, down below, rambling down to the bayshore. Utena guessed that it would be a blaze of golden light at night, far enough away not to be bothersome, close enough to provide a comforting sense of community. In the far distance, just barely visible, she thought she could even make out Air Temple Island itself as a speck on the blue arc of the sea horizon. "Not -bad,-" Ryo declared. "Minmin'll be jealous when she sees this. Our mountain retreat hasn't got anything like that view of the city." Rohan beamed like a magician who has just pulled off what he knows is a really good trick. "This is Mount Weitang, the Three Brothers," he said, gesturing around them. "So called because of its triple peak. Legend has it they were first climbed by three brothers from Omashu." Anthy smiled in recognition. "The Weitang brothers - great explorers from the time of the Western Emperors. I read about them in Avatar Jangbu's History of the Earth Kingdom." Rohan gave her a smiling salute-and-bow. "You're becoming quite a scholar of our history, Lady Anthy." "I have to congratulate you," Ikki agreed, then grinned and added, "Not everyone has the stomach for the Blessed Jangbu's prose. I never got through volume one!" Utena walked a couple of paces to the lakeshore, then turned and looked back at the Air Elders with a baffled look. "You're -giving- us this place? It's - real estate like this must be worth a -fortune.-" "Oh, at -least- one," Ryo put in. "I daresay it may be," Rohan agreed, "but we have little use for money. Jinora and I agreed, once we determined to grant the four - " "Five," said Garnet. " - five of you one of the Central Air Temple's holdings in the Republic, that it had to be this one. The other parcels we still hold are either too far from the city, too -near- the city, or so utterly inaccessible that not even we could make worthwhile use of them." "How did the Air Temple come to own such a place?" Anthy wondered. "Grandpa Aang was originally going to build Republic City's new Air Temple up here," Ikki said. "It's a much more typical spot for one than the island. Eventually, though, he decided it was too isolated and grand - would send the wrong message, like the Air Temple was meant to lord over the city rather than be part of it." "Some say Gran-gran Katara was the one who actually made that decision," Rohan put in with a little smile. Corwin laughed. "I'd believe that," he said, causing the two elders to exchange a slightly puzzled look. "At any rate, the temple was never built," said Rohan. "At various times one or another of us has given thought to building a retreat up here, but that's never come to pass either." "We believe Grandpa would want you to have it," Ikki concluded. "After all, you're among his next life's dearest friends." Utena's smile had a dimension it wouldn't have had the day before as she replied sincerely, "Well, I think I can speak for all of us when I say we're deeply honored, and very grateful, to accept your gift. This is... beyond generous. You've all done so much for us in the last few days already..." "Great-Uncle Sokka once said that if a man doesn't have his family, he has nothing," Ikki said cheerfully, which didn't really seem to be a reply at first. To her distinct pleasure, Utena got there before Anthy for once, giving the airbender a sage little smiling nod a full second ahead of her wife. "Well, son, what do you say?" Ryo asked Corwin, clapping him on the shoulder. "I brought my tools - let's survey this bad boy." "No time like the present," Corwin agreed, nodding. "Rohan, Ikki... Utena -does- speak for us in this, I think, but let me just add my own thanks anyway. This is amazing." "And mine as well," Anthy added with an earnest nod. With gracious goodwill all around, Rohan and Ikki pitched in to help Ryo and Corwin perform a full survey under Garnet's aerial supervision, complete with a set of topographical scans that could later be converted into a holographic mockup of the entire site, suitable for construction planning. Utena and Anthy sat down on a boulder by the lakeshore and gazed out at the waterfall, smiling at their private thoughts. Presently, both were roused from their parallel reveries as Annabelle stirred, waking from a nap, and began diligently investigating Utena's shirt front. Anthy watched closely, a little smile playing at her lips, to see how her husband would react. To her delight, Utena's response, once she looked down and twigged to what the infant was doing, was to grin wryly and say, "Nope, sorry, kiddo. Barkin' up the wrong tree there." She reached to her waist and began to untie the knot of her Air Acolyte wrap. "Himemiya, I believe this is your department." Anthy smiled, both at the mirth in Utena's voice and the evidence it represented of a better, easier frame of mind. "I believe it is," she said. Just as they were finishing up the transfer (with the sash in the same configuration), Corwin arrived; he smiled at the sight of Utena in pit-crew mode, making sure, as Jinora had for her, that the knot was secure and all the folds and pleats correct. Once all was arranged to specifications, Anthy moseyed off along the lakeshore, talking quietly to Annabelle about how lovely their home was going to be while they took care of business. "I guess you -are- feeling better," said Corwin with a smile as he and Utena stood by the rock and watched their combined figure recede. "Yeah," Utena agreed. "I don't know as I'm completely done adjusting yet? But it's a lot less..." She considered her phrasing for a second. "... up on top of me than it was last night." She leaned against him, looping an arm around his waist. "I told Annabelle on the way out here - I'm not the mothering kind, but you might be right about the dad thing," she said wryly. Corwin chuckled and leaned down slightly to kiss her. "I'm glad to hear it. Like I told you yesterday morning, I think you'll be good at it." He looked around for a moment, making certain that the survey team didn't need him just now (which they didn't - Ikki and Rohan had taken Ryo up on Pivi to get a comprehensive aerial scan), then turned back to Utena, his arm around her shoulders, and said, "While we've got a minute to ourselves, I have something for you." Utena raised her eyebrows. "Oh?" Corwin nodded. "Do you remember when we met Korra's cousin Kemba at the market? She gave you something to give to me." "I've been wondering about that," said Utena with a smile. "I assumed it had something to do with the thing she was giving you a hard time about." "It did," Corwin confirmed. "She though I might be from the North Pole. See, in the Water Tribes, it's traditional for a man who hopes a woman will marry him to make a special kind of necklace for her. He carves the necklace with a unique design that identifies it as his work; if she accepts it and wears it, that's an announcement to everyone who sees her that she's chosen him." "Nice," said Utena. "More personal than a diamond ring." "Yeah, the Water Tribes are big on that," Corwin said. "Historically, they haven't had much in the way of material wealth - there aren't a lot of resources on the ice caps - so they make up for it with a lot of personal investment in the things they make." Utena considered certain of her own possessions that had been made by Corwin's hands, and her smile became a little sentimental. "I can see where that's an ethic that would appeal to you," she said. "Probably at least partly where I -got- it," he agreed. "Anyway, that being the case..." He unfastened one of the top pockets of his wool jacket, reached into it, and removed a small item, then took a step away and turned fully to her so that he could offer it on an open palm. "I don't expect you to wear it, but I hope you will accept it," he said with a little smile. Across his palm lay a length of blue fabric about an inch wide, the same rich royal blue as the Water Tribe blanket Utena had bought from Kemba on that same visit to the Railway Square market. Affixed to the middle of it was a circular piece of some finely translucent gemstone, similar to the brooch Utena remembered on the formal dress Korra had been wearing at their wedding - like a piece of smooth pale- blue ice. This had been carefully carved and polished, its edge notched into a bas-relief of gearteeth. The center, slightly convex, was crossed by the same circled-lightning-bolt symbol Belldandy had painstakingly drawn on Utena's forehead for both wedding attempts. She took it up and examined it closely, a broad smile coming onto her face, then closed her fist around it and hugged him tight, saying quietly, "Corwin, it's beautiful. Thank you." "You're welcome, Utena," he replied, returning the hug just as tightly. "I'm glad you like it." "Show me how you put it on," she said, and while Corwin was reasonably sure she could have figured that out for herself, he certainly didn't mind complying. Quickly and deftly, he snugged the necklace gently around her slender throat, choker-fashion, and tied the ribbon in a flat bow knot at the back, so that the gem was centered in front. "There," she said with a satisfied smile, touching the gem with her fingertips. "Now I'll at least look like an honest woman to Kemba and Korra," she added with a slightly wicked grin. Back in town, Anne Cross spent the morning training with Azana in a corner of the Zuko Academy's vast main dojo. This was the first time they had done that, instead of going up to the roof or meeting in one of the practice gyms at Shiro Shinobi Arena. It was Anne's first real experience with communal training at all. Her studies with Kaitlyn were necessarily one-on-one now that Kate's other student had gone walkabout, and even before he had done, Kyouichi Saionji had not exactly been a crowd. Of course, they weren't all training -together-, strictly speaking; the other students and their instructors were scattered around the huge room in little groups, ranging from pairs like Azana and Anne up to clusters of four or five, and each group was pursuing its own agenda. Still, all being at work in this same space conveyed a sense of community that Anne hadn't really felt before while training in a martial art. She quite liked it, at least as a change of pace. She would never want to trade her solo sessions with Azana for training in here all the time, but as a special-occasion kind of thing, it worked. On the downside, one of those other instructors was Deng, and he would occasionally take a moment out from berating his students in slightly shrill drill-instructor Tongyu to give Azana and her student a baleful glower; but that meant nothing in the grand scheme of things, and Anne found herself fairly well able to tune him out most of the time. She was much more interested in what Ito-sensei and Kaitlyn- sensei were making of it. They, in turn, were making a great show of -not- observing, though both Anne and Azana knew very well that they were. The two masters, with Sergei sprawled at their feet, were sitting at a pai sho table in the very back of the corner where their students were training, pretending to be so engrossed in their game that they were paying no attention at all. Anne's developing zanshin, though, told her plainly that her every move was being scrutinized, and Azana clearly had a similar sort of facility. Such was the rapport that they had developed between them, to boot, that each knew the other was aware of it without asking. All in all, a very nice set of feelings, even marred by the occasional searchlight-beam sweep of Deng's disapproval. "All right! Very good," said Azana, squaring up to trade bows and firebender salutes with her student. "You're coming along in great bounds, Juni-chan," she went on, smiling. "It won't be long before you're taking my place on the Fire Ferrets." "Don't lay it on -too- thick," Kaitlyn cautioned her with a grin. "She still needs to be able to get her head through doors." Anne gave a self-deprecating laugh. "No, sensei, I'm OK. I know she's only joking." "Perhaps," said Ito, "but I have to say I'm also impressed. You do learn quickly, and I can sense your respect for the craft. It's a rare thing in someone who comes to it as late as you have." He smiled. "I'm satisfied. If you wish to return this summer and train with Azana, you'll be most welcome. I may even take it upon myself to show you a trick or two, if your sifu doesn't object to an old man's meddling," he added, his smile becoming a grin. "That depends on whether they're -firebending- tricks," said Azana wryly, "or your infamous practical jokes. I'm not having that." Ito laughed. "I suspect this young lady could come up with pranks of her own that would leave my feeble repertoire in the shade," he said, giving Anne a wink. "I don't know what you mean, Ito-sensei," Anne replied with unconvincing piety. Azana smiled fondly at the pair of them. "Right, you, let's hit the showers and get some lunch before Grandfather corrupts you further," she said, tagging Anne's shoulder. Ito and Kaitlyn watched them pass through the side door to the ladies' changing room, then turned to each other and smiled. "Korra was right to send you here," said Ito. "She'll be a credit to my granddaughter's name." "I hope so," said Kaitlyn. "Shall we go in search of lunch ourselves?" "Let's have one more game before we go," said Ito. Kate considered that, then nodded. "Very well." Ito sat back in his chair. "It's your turn to make the first move," he said. "Hmm, so it is." Kate considered the tiles for a moment, then picked one up and placed it in the exact center of the board. Ito raised an eyebrow. "Hmm," he said. "I see you favor the White Lotus gambit..." Firetown, Republic City's original "little Fire Nation" district, was one of the city's oldest neighborhoods. Technically speaking, it predated Republic City itself, having been the core of the wartime Fire Nation colony chosen by Avatar Aang and Fire Lord Zuko as the hub of their bold experiment in nationbuilding - the capital of the United Republic of Nations. While they walked the three blocks from the late Fire Lord's eponymous firebending academy to the Firetown street market, Azana explained all this to her student. Any firebender from Republic City or the Fire Nation would know it already, but Anne was, after all, from out of town. Way, way out of town. She liked Republic City, though, that much was obvious from the spring in her step and the brightness of her eyes as she took in the view. Though listening attentively, she was looking around at everything, trying to take it all in - the colorful banners hanging from telephone wires above the streets, the shop fronts, the bustling stalls, all the sights and sounds and smells of a cheerful Friday lunchtime in Firetown. She seemed delighted just to be alive and abroad in such a place as this, on the latest in a long string of beautiful spring days. For her part, Anne had a special reason for her especially buoyant mood today. Yes, Firetown was bright and cheerful and boldly drawn, and yes, it was a lovely day; and yes, if she was honest, she'd have been happy walking along any reasonably safe street in any reasonably clean city with this particular person by her side. Today, though, she'd had a thought that colored everything she experienced a special shade of pleasant. That thought, running through her head as they entered the marketplace's first block, had been: A year ago I was up to my shoulders in trouble (and usually in filth). Nobody gave a damn about me except the people who wanted to strip away everything that makes me who I am and use my body as a weapon. I had no idea this amazing world was here, and even if I had, I would never have dared imagine I might come here someday... or that I'd be welcome if I did. And now... eleven months later... ... here I am. That thought, and the sense of wonder that came with it, were not entirely unfamiliar. She'd experienced them often, with various modifications to the count of time, since she'd literally run into the arms of the IPO on Carida last April and found herself abruptly whirled from the (second-)worst of lives to what she was fairly confident was among the best. The feeling was especially powerful on days like this, though, when vistas opened up before her that she'd never even dared to dream of in the bad old days. Azana guided her to a sidewalk cafe at one corner of the market, where they found an empty table under an umbrella at the back. A waiter came and gave them menus, then whisked off into the attached restaurant to tend to some other bit of business. Anne consulted her menu and found that it was in Kokugo, the very-Japanese-like language of the Fire Nation. She could understand a fair bit of spoken Japanese, and speak it a little, but its written form was beyond her. Azana saw the train of thought cross her student's eyes and smiled. "Do you trust me, Juni-chan?" she asked, a little mischievously. "Of course, Azana-sensei," Anne replied at once, blushing ever so slightly. When the waiter reappeared with a pot of hot tea and a couple of little ceramic cups, Azana handed him back the menus and ordered for both of them. When he had gone again, she turned back to Anne and said, "You're in unusually good form today. Not that your form is ever -bad,- but there's a special spark about you today." Anne's blush deepened a little; she glanced away, smiling her crooked little smile, and mumbled thanks. "Are you happy to be getting back home?" Azana wondered. "It's normal to get a little homesick, even in a place like Republic City. I often find myself yearning for Shu Jing at least a little. If only my mother didn't live there," she added with a wry smile. "Not at all," Anne said, and then admitted, "Well, OK, a little. It's not so much that I'm homesick for New Avalon - we just moved there a few months ago, it's not really home to me yet - but I'm looking forward to fourth quarter at school. It'll be nice to see my friends again." She grinned. "And tell them about what an amazing spring break I had! But I know as soon as I'm there I'll be counting the days until I - until I can get back here." Azana regarded her thoughtfully for a moment, then asked, "May I ask you a personal question, Anne?" "Sure, but only if I get to ask you one first," said Anne with a mischievous twinkle of her own. Azana raised an eyebrow. "Dare I even wonder what you want to know? Very well, fair's fair. Ask me anything you like." "Why does Karana call you 'Princess' sometimes?" To Anne's delight, it was Azana's turn to go a little red, as with a faintly embarrassed little smile she replied, "Heh, well, there's a tale attached to that... do you remember when you asked me if I was related to Fire Lord Zuko?" Anne nodded. "Mm-hmm." "Karana is convinced, or claims to be convinced, that I am," said Azana. She paused to take a sip of tea, then went on, "She nearly got us arrested in Caldera City once, for demanding that we be admitted to the Royal Palace in the middle of the night, on the grounds that I was 'the rightful Fire Lord'." She rolled her eyes slightly at the memory. "-That- took some fast talking to get out of... " Anne couldn't help giggling at the image. "How -did- you get out of it?" "I -may- have claimed that she had suffered a head injury," said Azana thoughtfully; then she shook her head. "I don't really remember. I was none too sober myself." She sighed nostalgically. "Ah, those were wilder days. Before we had professional reputations to look out for." Then, after taking another sip, she said, "Zuko had a younger sister named Azula. She's the great enigma of the Fire Nation's royal family, but that's neither here nor there; the point is, Karana thinks I resemble her." Her wry smile returning, she added, "It's the one thing about which she agrees with Mother, in fact. Mother wanted to -name- me Azula when I was born, but Father wouldn't have it." She touched one of her long, center-parted bangs, which hung to her jawline and framed her face attractively, and said, "I do wear my hair similarly most of the time, I admit." With a self-deprecating little smile, she added, "My own little touch of vanity, I suppose. Say what you like about Princess Azula, all the artists of the age agree she was a very beautiful girl - even the ones going out of their way to depict her as a monster, which should tell you something." Anne looked intrigued. "Tell me more about her?" she asked. "There's not a lot to tell, really," Azana replied. "As I said, she's the royal family's great mystery. She's said to have been brilliant but unstable and cruel; she backed their father against Zuko in the brief civil war that ended the Hundred Year War, and it's said that she lost her mind when they were defeated. Not longer after the war, she disappeared. "Some of Zuko's detractors claimed he'd had her killed, or banished her to some spiritsforsaken corner of the world - because she was a threat to his rule, or simply an embarrassment to the family." Azana shook her head. "I doubt that myself. My senior thesis in school was a biography of Zuko. I've... " She reddened slightly again, then admitted, "As a girl I was a bit in love with him. As such, I did a great deal of research, and I came to the conclusion that - in spite of everything - he loved his sister, missed her, and always regretted that they were enemies. That their father's malign influence had poisoned their childhoods and turned them against each other." The waiter arrived with their starters then, forestalling further investigation. When he had gone, Anne asked, "Did anyone ever find out what happened to her?" Azana folded her hands on the table before her and said with a knowing little smile, "I think you're stalling in hopes that I'll forget my question." "Of course not!" Anne protested. "I'm just interested. Go ahead, ask." "How did you come to be with Master Kaitlyn in the first place?" Azana wondered. "She's not related to you, is she? I wouldn't ordinarily pry," she said, "but if we're going to spend the summer together, we should probably get to know one another better, and I get the impression that there's much more to your story than a chance meeting with Avatar Korra." Anne had begun to blush again in the course of that disclaimer; now she hesitated, covered it by sipping her own tea, and then said slowly, "That's... that's fair. Sorry, I... it's just that I don't know quite where to start. Have you heard of the Psi Corps?" She had, as it turned out, but only vaguely - the Corps was a matter for the Big Universe to contend with, and Azana only knew it as one of the things the Ministry for Interstellar Relations maintained a constant vigil against. From that and the fragmentary things she'd heard, she had gathered that dealing with it was not an experience to be sought. She hadn't realized quite how bad it was, though, until Anne explained, in slightly subdued tones, about the policy of universal conscription, her own narrow escape, and the relentless way in which she had been hunted for her rare and powerful talents - and the use to which she had been told, to her face, those talents would be put if and when they caught her. "That's horrible!" Azana said. "It's nothing but - " She hesitated, frowning, and shook her head. "I was going to say 'nothing but slavery', but it's really very much -more- than simple slavery, isn't it? It's... it's a total negation of -selfhood.- It's -revolting.-" Azana reached across the table and placed a cool, gentle hand on Anne's where it lay slack beside her teacup, making the girl glance up from her pensive reverie, startled, and blush slightly once more. "I'm so sorry to have dragged that out of you when you were having such a good day," she said. "I'm afraid I've completely ruined the mood." Anne's crooked smile returned as she said, "It's OK. It's a bad memory... actually it's a LOT of bad memories... but they lead to good ones." So saying, she began the next part of her narrative, outlining her rescue at the hands of the IPO and the brilliant new life she'd found herself thrust into. From there she came to her first Valiant summer, her friendship (first through Kaitlyn, and then in their own right) with Corwin and Utena, and on to her meeting with Korra at their wedding - and Azana knew the rest. "And here we are," said Anne, her good humor fully restored. She ate a bite of the starter Azana had selected for her, eyebrows going up. "This," she declared, "is amazing. I don't know what it is, but it's amazing." "It's - " Azana began, but before she could say what it was, someone abruptly slid into one of the vacant seats at their circular table, to Azana's left and Anne's right. "Good afternoon, ladies," the new arrival said in a smooth, pleasant voice. He was a tall, slim young man, maybe Azana's age, maybe a little bit older, with similar coloring - a Fire National, or a Republican with mostly western ancestors. He was dressed well, but gaudily, in a three-piece suit of slightly-too-bright-red and black satin, with a brick-red shirt and a bolo tie whose clasp was an enameled medallion with a symbol similar to that on the Fire Nation flag. Besides the tie, he had an ostentatious gold watch chain across his waistcoat and a lot of gold-rimmed mother-of-pearl buttons, and wore what looked like snakeskin cowboy boots. He had his hair in a pompadour, slicked up with something shiny and smelling powerfully of musk, and his easy, lazy smile revealed a couple of gold teeth. "Kaiten," said Azana, a porcelain mask of cool civility dropping over her face like a blast shutter. "Curiously, I don't remember inviting you to join us." "Now, Princess, that's no way for you to be," said Kaiten smoothly. Azana's eyes narrowed fractionally, the only outward sign of the resentment that welled up in her, so powerful Anne could feel it from her seat as clearly as she could smell Kaiten's reeking hair goop. "Don't call me that," she said sharply. Kaiten drew back slightly as if in surprise, then grinned insincerely. "Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot. Only your chunky little pal from the South Pole gets to call you that, right?" He spread his hands in a gesture of mocking surrender (Anne noticed that his nails were varnished the same red as his suit), saying in a conciliatory purr, "Won't happen again, baby. Won't happen again." Well-dressed and well-groomed Kaiten might be, but Anne's street-honed instincts instantly caught a whiff of wrongness about him, quite apart from the eye-watering pong of his pomade. He was sharp- featured, just on the right side of what could be called "rat-faced", and somehow the gauntness of his narrow cheeks seemed a bit unnatural. His nose didn't quite look in proportion to his face, like the noses of mummies Anne had seen in books. His eyes were that stereotypical firebender amber, but murky, without the sharp clarity of Azana's, and one was open ever so slightly wider than the other. Anne would have instinctively disliked him anyway, on the basis of his oily manner, his fake smile, his central-casting-gangster clothes, his intrusive rudeness, Azana's obvious distaste, and the fact that he called women who obviously did not like him "baby"; but those little details set her fight-or-fly response to yellow alert. This guy is on something, she thought. Maybe he's not high right this minute, but he's definitely a junkie. He could go off any second. She wished there were some way she could communicate this intelligence to Azana, but her telepathic power was far too weak to convey an understandable message even to another teep, let alone a non- telepath. All she could do was give her sifu a vaguely alarmed look, tilting her eyes meaningfully toward their uninvited lunch guest, and hope she'd get the idea that Anne wasn't just generally freaked out, but wary of him for a very specific reason. Unfortunately, though they had developed quite a good rapport in the short time they had known each other, it was not yet operating on that sort of instinctive level old friends achieve, and so Azana seemed to miss the nuance. She only nodded slightly, as if to tell her student not to worry, she'd handle it, then said coldly to Kaiten, "You will note at this point that I am not asking you whether I can help you." "That's OK, baby, I'm not here looking for help with anything," said Kaiten casually. "Fact of the matter is, I'm here to help -you.-" "I find that extremely unlikely," Azana replied. "Unlikely or not, it's true. In fact, you might think about showing me a little gratitude, or at least a little respect. I stuck my neck way out for you." Drawing himself up with a broad grin, he spread his hands grandly as if pulling off a magic trick and said, "Thanks to my intervention, the boss has decided to give you one last opportunity to join us." Azana gave him a flat, cold look for a moment, then decided not to dignify that remark by even responding to it, instead returning her attention to her starter. "Go ahead, think it over for a minute," said Kaiten magnanimously. "Oh, hey, your lunch is here, even better." He collared the waiter, who had attempted to deliver their dishes and beat a quick retreat, and said, "Hey, don't run off, pal, I haven't ordered yet." "Kaiten will -not- be joining us," Azana contradicted him. "Sure I will," Kaiten said, his tone remaining light and casual. Anne could see - and feel - that the waiter was utterly terrified; the man had broken a sweat, and he flinched outright as Kaiten reached up and patted his cheek. "Just bring me what the kiddie's havin'," Kaiten added, "and put the whole thing on my tab, willya." "That is -not,-" Azana began, but the waiter stammered, "O-o-of course, M-Mr. Kaiten. R-right away." With an apologetic look at Azana, he turned and scurried back to the kitchen. "Kinda rude of you to put that poor sap in such a bad position," Kaiten observed. "I mean, on the one hand, he wants to make every customer happy, but on the other hand, his boss knows better than to cross one of us," he said, flicking a thumb against the medallion of his bolo tie. "'Course," he went on, "we wouldn't be at cross purposes if you'd just relax that stiff neck a little." He leaned back in his chair, hooking one arm carelessly over the high back. "C'mon, baby, you know it's the right thing to do. A person with your background, your talent, your bloodline - you -belong- with us." He grinned at her in what Anne figured he probably thought was a seductive way and went on, "Joining the Agni Kai is your patriotic duty." Anne had heard of the the Agni Kai, and its appearance in this context gave her an added pulse of concern about where the conversation was heading. It was the name of a traditional firebender dueling form, yes, but it was -also- the name of one of Republic City's Triads, the criminal gangs against which the Republic City Police fought a constant low-grade war, often with Korra's assistance. She wasn't sure how many there were - in the course of the week's conversations, mainly with the Fire Ferrets, she had heard the names of three or four - but she had formed the impression that the Agni Kai was among the worst. Azana was unmoved by Kaiten's appeal to her love of country; she sipped her tea, put down the cup, and said simply, "Hah." "Don't you want your countrymen to have a fair chance in this city?" Kaiten inquired. "Or do you -like- seeing us kept down by the dirt merchants and ice babies?" Azana's eyes flicked to his face, just for a moment, then away again. "Those of us who conduct ourselves like decent people are doing just fine, thank you," she said. She ate a bit of her lunch, and Anne had to admire the way she did it: even that simple, mundane act seemed like a dismissal. Something in the way she handled her chopsticks, perhaps, elegant and precise, or the very pointed way in which she barely ever looked at him, and then never for more than a half-second. It was the most poetically administered cold shoulder Anne could remember witnessing. Unfortunately, it was entirely lost on Kaiten, who shook his head, his glib facade beginning to slip just a bit. "Should have known that wouldn't shift you," he said, sounding faintly disgusted. "You're practically an ice baby yourself these days." Then his grin returned and he said, "OK, here's somethin' else to think about. We got a -new thing.- Comin' in from out west. It's gonna give us the upper hand in this town, baby, once and for all, and I'm offerin' you a chance to get in on the ground floor. You don't wanna help your own people, fine, but you're a smart gal. You can at least see the value in bein' on the winning team. Yeah? Oh, and just incidentally?" The grin widened, becoming just a little salacious. "It is one -helluva- rush." Azana unhurriedly finished the culinary operation she was engaged in, put her chopsticks down next to her plate, and turned an icy glare to him. "You're wasting your time, Kaiten," she said. "More importantly, you're wasting -my- time. I have no more intention of discussing this matter with you now than I have had on any of the other occasions when you've seen fit to pester me about it. Now -go away- and -leave me alone.-" When he didn't move, she stood up, dropped a few yuan on the table (having no intention of letting Kaiten buy her lunch, even a lunch he had ruined), and made to leave herself. "Come on, Juniper. We'll go somewhere else. The feng shui in this place is all wrong today." Kaiten's lazy arrogance turned suddenly into something not too removed from fury. Bolting to his feet, he seized her forearm before she could step past him and leaned toward her, his muddy eyes boring into hers. "Now you listen here, little princess, and you listen good," he growled, all the oily charm gone from his voice. "You've gotten away with disrespecting the Triad before now because the boss was afraid of the old man and the Avatar, but that's all over now. We don't need to worry about Ito any more. We don't have to worry about -anybody- any more." "Let go of me, Kaiten," said Azana, meeting his gaze unflinchingly. "Now." "Uh-uh, not this time, Princess," Kaiten replied, leaning so close Azana had to lean back a bit to avoid being touched by his nose. "It's time for you to quit acting like you're better than us and do the right thing. The game's entering a new stage and there ain't room for loose pieces on the board no more. You'll either join us... or we take you outta play. You get me?" Then, glancing to the side, he seemed to notice Anne; a sardonic version of his fake smile stealing onto his face, he turned back to Azana and added, "And the same goes for the kid, if she's any good." Azana's face flushed scarlet. She'd been perfectly willing to let him make remarks about her all day - it wasn't worth even breaking a sweat over - but her student was another matter. Part of her reflected wryly that this was rather ironic behavior, considering that a week ago she hadn't thought she even wanted to be a teacher, but the rest was too furious to find the humor in it. Her free hand flashed to the table, picked up her partly-emptied teacup, and dashed its remaining contents into Kaiten's face. It wasn't particularly hot any longer, having been cooling for the better part of his sales pitch, but the suddenness of it startled him. He recoiled, crying out with expected rather than actual pain, and released her arm. She took a step back, putting the cup down, and told him in a coldly precise voice full of falsely cordial loathing: "Kaiten, you were not invited to join us. You are not welcome at our table. Your manner is offensive, your remarks are inappropriate, and your criminal enterprise does not interest me in the -slightest.-" She waited for him to finish wiping tea out of his eyes, so she could be entirely sure of his undivided attention, and then fixed him with her amber glare and went on, "Now get out of my sight. If ever you choose to approach me again, or if you so much as -think- about my student at any future point, then you will learn what the phrase 'Agni kai' -really means.-" Oh don't do that, thought Anne, but it was far too late. Kaiten's response was to gather himself up with exaggerated dignity, straightening his lapels and brushing droplets of tea from his shirtfront. Then he pulled the item at the end of his watch chain from his waistcoat pocket, revealing that it wasn't a watch, but rather a small silver vial. With a casual ease that spoke of long practice, he held the vial in his left hand, unscrewing it with thumb and forefinger, then tipped a quantity of some bright red powder from it onto his right fist, into the crook at the base of his thumb. Raising his right hand to his nose, he closed his eyes and inhaled violently. Keeping his eyes closed, he screwed the vial carefully shut and replaced it in his waistcoat pocket, then licked the residual powder off his hand. "Ahhhhh," he said, giving a sort of full-body twitch - if a person could shiver only once, Anne figured it would look something like that. Around their table, people began edging away. They'd started drawing attention when Azana had risen and Kaiten had jumped up to confront her, and a couple of people had actually applauded when she'd thrown her tea in his face, but everyone in the vicinity could sense the vibe going bad now. That could have something to do with the giant hit of some obvious drug he just did, Anne remarked wryly to herself. She edged around the table toward Azana, but her teacher - looking more and more alarmed now - waved her back. /* Ministry "Just One Fix" _Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs_ (1992) */ Kaiten opened his eyes. Their pupils had all but disappeared, but Anne was mildly startled to see that the murkiness had gone from the irises; they were now jarringly bright, their color so exaggerated they almost seemed to be glowing orange. "Bad play, Princess," he said, and then he snapped into a fighting stance and launched an enormous gout of fire across the space between them. Azana was stunned, caught almost completely flat-footed, by the size of the blast he'd just produced and the simple fact that he'd done so here. Of all the things she had expected him to do, actually starting a fight in broad daylight in the middle of the Firetown street market hadn't been on the list. Even the Agni Kai were usually subtler than -that.- She backed away, her hands instinctively moving in the circular pattern meant to block and dissipate another firebender's attack, but there was so -much- of it in this case that she was blown backward, scattering tables, chairs, and frightened fellow diners in all directions. Twisting away from the worst of it, she rolled across the sidewalk, then sprang to her feet. Anne had to admire her aplomb as she batted out a small fire on her right shoulder with a casual flick of her left hand, as if her shirt being aflame were only a minor annoyance. "Sensei!" Anne cried, making as it to dart to her side. "Stay back, Juni-chan!" Azana snapped, holding up a hand. "I don't want you anywhere near this. Leave him to me!" "Listen to the Princess, kid," Kaiten agree, his gold teeth glinting as he bared them in a slightly feral grin. "Plenty of time for us to get acquainted later. Better say goodbye if you're gonna, though," he added, tossing their table casually out of his way as he advanced toward Azana. "There ain't gonna be much left to talk to later." He ignored her after that, concentrating all his attention on Azana, and she, in turn, couldn't spare anything for anyone but him. Amped on whatever he had just snorted - presumably this was the "new thing" he'd been talking about - he was -shockingly- powerful, able to produce larger, hotter, more sustained blasts of flame than any other firebender Anne had ever seen. That included Azana. In the Major League Bending arena earlier that week, Anne had seen her generate bolts of fire so hot they seemed to bend the air around them - so concentrated they had charred the fireproof canvas covering of the playing surface - but she might as well have been throwing snowballs for all that her best efforts matched up to Kaiten's prodigious output now. The only reasons Azana was able to survive his onslaught at all were her superb training, her exceptional agility, and her ironclad self-possession. Faced with this terrifyingly powerful berserker of a foe, hemmed in by streams of fire that seemed like they should be coming from giant industrial machinery rather than a human being, she didn't panic. If she had, she would have been undone in moments. She kept her defenses up and tight, all her movements precise and controlled, and put the acrobatic skill she'd learned in the MLB ring to full use. Ducking, dodging, occasionally cleaving his attacks with pinpoint bursts of her own, she showed a physical precision and an understanding of fire itself that were far beyond Kaiten's. Her heart hammering in her chest, Anne tried to think what she could do. Her own pyrokinetic power could occasionally approach something like the intensity Kaiten was wielding here, but only if she all but abandoned any semblance of control over it. If she had attempted to fight his fire with hers on anything like a level field, she could only hope to destroy everything in the vicinity - which, she saw, Kaiten was seriously threatening to do anyway, as he hosed down shopfronts and upper-level windows in his efforts to barbecue his opponent. Telekinesis might do the trick, but could she focus tightly enough on what she was doing with him throwing fire all around like that? She wasn't sure. She'd grown accustomed, over the last couple of years, to being unconcerned about the possibility of getting burned - no normal fire could touch her if she didn't want it to - but this... this was reminding her of what it had felt like to be a child and understand, for the first time, that this strange and beautiful light was -not- to be touched. Her hand went automatically to the grip of her sword, but Kurenaikaze wasn't there. As a journeywoman of the Asagiri Katsujinkenryuu, Anne was obliged to carry steel everywhere it was allowed, but third-century Republic City (outside certain greenspaces designated for martial arts practice) wasn't one of those places, and she and Kaitlyn hadn't bothered investigating the bureaucratic labyrinth to see if there was an exception available. Not when she was only going to be in town a week; it was on their to-do list of preparations for her summer return. Nor had she brought along her bokuto, Tonerikoken, which, even in this situation, would definitely have been a lot better than nothing. Amid her desperate efforts to stay alive, Azana glimpsed her student hovering on the periphery, obviously trying to work out a way in which she could help. Summoning up all her strength, she blocked Kaiten's next attack and counterstruck through it, blasting one of his giant gouts of fire into a diffuse cloud of hot gas and punching her own bolt of yellow-white flame through the middle to take him in the chest. Yelling, he fell back, tearing at the persistent flames as they took hold of his gaudy satin jacket. That won't hold him for long, Azana told herself, and then she turned and shouted to Anne, "Juniper! Stay away from Kaiten!" Spotting the frightened crowd of people back by the cafe entrance, not all of whom had been able to fit into the building, she pointed and went on, "Find a way to get those people out of - damn!" Kaiten had recovered through the simple expedient of ripping off half of his clothes. With his skinny but well-muscled chest bared, dressed only in his baggy zoot trousers and his genie-toed cowboy boots, he looked the part of a -real- Agni Kai duelist now. The next stream of fire, which Azana barely dodged, roared like a freight train as it splashed against the curbstones and across the sidewalk. The thick stench of molten asphalt rose as the pavement bubbled in its wake. Unhesitating, Anne turned and ran toward the onlookers. "Not through there - this way!" she said, pointing up a side alley. Where the hell are the cops? she wondered - not a sentiment she was accustomed to feeling - as she did her best to master people's panic and hustle them out of harm's way. A couple of the other people in the crowd were firebenders - this was Firetown, after all - and she corraled them as the rest of the civilians lit out for the safety of the next street over. "Come with me," she said. "Are you crazy, kid?" demanded one of them, a young man in less gaudy clothes than Kaiten's had been, but still bearing obvious hallmarks of a certain streetwise style. "That guy's on Comet. I'm not goin' anywhere -near- that." "Seriously," said the other, a woman of about 30 who looked like she might be a shopkeeper. "He's an Agni Kai, they're nuts anyway, but, well, -look- at him." "We're not going to go -fight- him," Anne snapped, frustrated. "Look at what he's doing to the street! If someone doesn't do something about the fires he's starting, this whole block is going to burn down!" When that got her only blank so-what-are-we-supposed-to-do-about-it looks, she resisted an urge to facepalm and shouted, "Are you firebenders or aren't you?!" Then, with a fine-the-hell-with-you-then wave, she turned and headed back toward the edge of the battle zone. By this time, several of the buildings' facades had started to catch - with the intensity and volume of fire Kaiten was throwing around, and the abandon with which he was doing it, there was no way it could have been avoided. Anne stopped about halfway to the epicenter, far enough back that she was reasonably sure she was out of direct danger, and centered herself, concentrating. Focus. Breath. Control, she thought, drawing on lessons she'd learned from both Kaitlyn and Azana - and, in her way, from Azalynn dv'Ir Natashkan, who had indirectly taught her the first vestiges of control over her gift's more explosive manifestations, as well. Then, moving to the firebending starting stance Korra had first shown her, she reached out with every metaphysical faculty she had at her disposal to get hold of the stray fires, keep them from spreading, start drawing them down. At first she didn't think it was going to work. Then, when it started to, her first thrill of accomplishment was immediately muted by the return of an old foe she had thought vanquished. Doing it like this, effectively running fire in reverse, she could feel that first ticklish knot of pain start to form, just behind the bridge of her nose. The pain that had always come in the days before she had known how to live with her gift - when it had been more of a curse. In those days, every now and then, the pain would build over the course of a day or three until Anne's whole head was pounding like one of those giant Japanese drums. Until she could think of absolutely nothing else. Until she was literally blind with it. Until eventually her endurance would fail and - with a sharp spike of even -greater- agony - it would all come screaming out, destroying everything around her, and leave her a pale and shuddering wreck. A deep, reflexive terror of ever experiencing that again grabbed her guts and twisted at the first twinge, but she gritted her teeth and pushed it away. You are not my master, she told it sternly, I am yours. We are doing this now. We have to. Behind her, the two firebenders stared in awe at the foreign girl who had shouted at them. She stood in a recognizable firebending stance, but unmoving, and for a few moments it seemed like she wasn't doing anything, but then... incredibly... the wild flames tearing at the storefronts around her began to cool and die down. A few of the spot fires went out altogether. Unfortunately, the raging battle at the other end of the block was always making more, as bolts and streams and sheets of fire burst uncontrollably out, virtually all from Kaiten's increasingly frenzied attacks, and involved new patches of the streetscape. The girl started moving now, using more readily obvious firebending techniques to pull the new fires toward her, break them apart, weaken them any way she could. The punk looked at the shopkeeper, who looked back at him with a virtually identical look of amazement. Then, without exchanging a word, they turned and ran toward the foreigner, taking up positions to either side of her and applying the same methods. At the far end, Azana found her task getting easier and harder at the same time. Easier because Kaiten was clearly losing control of himself: he'd become almost completely unintelligible now, ranting about something to do with firebender superiority and his own invincibility, and how no one was ever going to stop the Agni Kai. His attacks were growing increasingly wild, without anything like finesse or technique about them. On the other hand, he seemed to be getting even more powerful, if such a thing were even conceivable, in direct proportion to his loss of coherence; and she was tiring. Soon they would reach a tipping point, where his sheer power and her fatigue crossed over, and she could no longer rely on her disciplined defenses and superior mobility to hold him at bay. Where are the police? Azana wondered, but she decided it didn't really matter. The metalbenders would be virtually useless in this situation (Karana maintained that they were virtually useless in any situation, but Azana suspected that was a waterbender thing), and any of the few firebenders on the force would be just as outmatched as she was. What she really needed, she decided, was - ironically enough - the Fire Department. A dozen waterbenders with a tanker would sort this out in a hurry. Or one big lad with a fireman's axe, if he were crazy enough... As it happened, the police had arrived by this point - but, like the people Anne had appealed to for help, they had taken one look at the situation and decided there was no way they were getting involved in that action. They concentrated instead on maintaining a cordon so no one would blunder into the middle of the chaos unawares, evacuating the buildings in the area, and generally securing the scene while they waited for reinforcements. Lots of reinforcements. Karana and Pabu emerged from the Firetown North subway station, unaware that anything out of the ordinary was going on. She suspected that Azana and her student would be getting lunch someplace in Firetown Market - Azana had told her the previous evening that they probably would - and she hoped to catch them there. If not, her backup plan was to grab a quick bite herself, then head for the academy and hang around until they were ready for dinner. "Hold it," a metalbender cop told her, blocking her way at the top of the stairs. "This area's off-limits right now. Disturbance in progress." "What kind of disturbance?" Karana asked, interest piqued. "Maybe I can help," she added, showing him her Fire Ferrets challenge coin. Major League Bending teams, of course, had no particular civil defense or law enforcement powers, but everyone in Republic City knew that the Fire Ferrets were the Avatar's team, and that tended to give them a certain quasi-official status at moments like this. The cop was very young, probably younger than Karana herself, and consequently hadn't been on the job very long. He frowned at the coin as if not sure what to make of it, then said, "Uh, I doubt it. We're not sure what's going on over there, but, uh, it's pretty crazy stuff. We're waiting for Special Detail. Or Avatar Korra. You don't happen to know where she is?" "We all have to be together for that to work," Karana said seriously. "Only by all our powers combined can we summon the Avatar." The cop blinked. "Really?" Karana snorted. "No," she said. "Don't be a dope." She came the rest of the way up the stairs and looked around him. "So what's the big emer - ... " She trailed off, peering down the street, trying to make sense of what was going on down there. Two people fighting, that much was clear; both of them firebenders, by the looks of things. But one of them was throwing -way- more fire than any single firebender, apart from maybe Korra on a serious, -serious- tear, should've been able to come up with, and the other... "-Azana!-" Karana cried, her sky-blue eyes going wide with dismay. Shoving the cop out of her way, she bolted down the street toward the fight. He yelled for her to stop, and considered cabling her back, but decided that if he did that, she'd probably clobber him, and besides, she was a Fire Ferret - they had to know what they were doing, right? Halfway there, she came upon Anne and a pair of civilians, doggedly trying to cope with the ever-shifting constellation of collateral fires the furious battle at the end of the block was causing. At the sight of her, Anne cried, "Karana! Am I glad to see you - give us a hand with these fires!" "But - Azana - " Karana sputtered, gesturing to where her best friend was clearly fighting for her life. "Look at this place!" Anne declared. "You'll never even reach her if we don't get these fires out! Please, Karana. I don't think we can do this by ourselves for much longer." Karana hesitated for an agonized moment - but only a moment, becuse she knew the girl was right. Then, her face hardening into a look of determination, she turned and yelled back to the subway station, "Yo! Beifong! Little help here!" The metalbender cop jogged up, looking puzzled. Karana pointed to the hydrant on the corner. "Open 'er up!" "What?" said the cop, confused. Growling in frustration, Karana grabbed him by the breastplate of his armor and shook him, then kept hold of him with one hand and pointed to the hydrant again with the other. "Valve! Metal! Bendy- bendy!" Letting him go, she clonked him on top of the helmet. "NOW, son!" He blinked, then caught on. "Oh! Right! Sure!" he said. Turning, he gestured, and the hydrant opened, gushing water out onto the street. Catching it up, Karana was surprised at how hard it pushed back; she'd never actually worked with water-main pressures before, being more accustomed to handling water that was static until she put it into motion herself. After one false start, she figured out how to harness its momentum to her own end, whirled a great stream of it into the air, and directed it against the hottest of the hotspots Anne and her colleagues had to contend with. After watching for a couple of moments, the metalbender cop had an idea; turning toward a nearby alley, he upended a dumpster, pouring its contents out on the ground, and then dragged it out into the street. Grinning in spite of the situation as she caught his drift, Karana directed water from the hydrant into it, and together (with a discreet boost from Anne's TK, what little of her mental bandwidth she could spare for it) they lifted it into the air and dumped it over the biggest of the collateral fires, summarily snuffing it out. With a rending crash, the facade of the building on the right peeled away from the rest of the structure and fell into the street. The cop slammed the dumpster down beside them for cover, and the rest of the impromptu firefighters jumped behind it as fragments of glass and burning scraps of the shop's awning filled the air around them. Anne nearly lost her concentration as one of the flames licked her cheek, but held grimly on, feeling more and more like she was stuffing a hundred pounds of something springy into a fifty-pound sack. Crouching next to the dumpster, Karana turned and saw the stony look of suppressed pain on Azana's young student's face. Putting a hand on her shoulder, she asked, "Hey, are you OK?" "No," Anne replied, "but I can't let that stop me right now." Karana smiled slightly - she had heard, and said, similar things many times before - and squeezed the girl's shoulder gently. "Right on," she said quietly. Sensing an opportunity to provide a service, Pabu scampered down Karana's arm and around to Anne's other shoulder, licking at the tears tracking her cheek with a concerned little noise. "Good boy, Pabu," Karana added, petting first the ferret and then, almost as a matter of course, the girl; then she raised herself and looked around their makeshift cover. The rubble from the collapsed facade lay strewn across the street, some of it still on fire, all of it forming a jagged barricade between them and the battle still raging at the end of the block. With a frustrated snarl - so much for getting over there and helping Azana now - Karana turned back to the hydrant. "Good thinkin' with the dumpster there, five-oh," she said to the cop as he righted it and got it ready for another load. "What's your name? You guys gotta go back to wearing nametags." "Chuzan," the cop replied, a little breathlessly. "Nice to meet you." On the other side of the wreckage, Azana and Kaiten reached the opposite corners of their respective envelopes at virtually the same moment. Azana felt her guard break. Pushed to the end of its endurance, her body simply failed her, ceasing to obey her commands with sufficient dispatch. Her timing slipped, then fell away entirely. At the same time, Kaiten was reaching such a pitch of fury that he no longer required anything like proper timing in the first place. It was like he was everywhere, his attacks coming from all directions at once, as if the whole -world- were filled with nothing but heat and flame and his hate-fueled malevolence. She staggered, beset from all sides, unable to do anything more than keep from being burned to death outright. Eventually even that ability would desert her, if the shockwaves and pulses of heat didn't finish her off long before he had a chance to burn her flesh. Trying to lunge away from yet another crackling crescent punch, she lost track of where she was and slammed backward into a wall, starbursts of color erupting behind her eyes as the back of her head hit brick. Roaring, Kaiten swept down on her from above, so fully engulfed in his own fire that it was trailing from his very -hair.- He grounded in front of her, reached out with one hand, and seized her by the throat. His face distorted in a hideous sneer, he drew the other hand back and shaped it into a blade, yellow-orange flame crackling all around it, and held it for a moment before her eyes. "You're done, Princess," he said (his voice raspy but almost conversational - a shock after all the guttural screaming he'd been doing), and he hoisted her off the ground by her throat, slamming her back against the wall behind her again. More explosions of color burst in her vision as she clawed at his hand ineffectually with her own, struggling to breathe. At that moment, with her life beginning to slip from her grasp, Azana achieved a new understanding of a truth she had always taken for granted: She wanted very, very much to live. Tunnel vision began to set in, the blackness creeping in around the edges of her field of view. Kaiten shifted his stance slightly, snickering at her efforts, and Azana's eyes were momentarily blinded by the reflection of the early-afternoon sun in an upstairs window across the street. For just a moment, she was bathed in the full light of the sun, its heat on her face so gentle and kind compared with the vicious bite of Kaiten's fire, and darkness warred with light in her eyes. As the dazzle filled her world, she felt warmth flowing through her hands, down her spine, to coil at its base like a serpent ready to strike - The little red dragon hatchling, Corwin's daughter's companion, grinning sleepily at her from her nest amid the child's bedding. "Oh hey, before you leave - you might like this." Color and light, so beautiful, so perfect, so... true. - and the sun rose inside her. In spite of Kaiten's grip, she drew a deep breath, feeling the Fire Within blaze up again like a blast furnace. When she let it out, her eyes snapped open, clear and bright once more - and the fire that suddenly wreathed her hands was a clean incandescent blue, like the flame of an acetylene torch. With one hand, she seized the base of Kaiten's thumb at her throat and squeezed. With the other, she hauled off and punched him full in the face. Kaiten howled in painful dismay and dropped her, reeling away and flailing as the blue flame lashed him from chest to eyebrows. By the time he was able to dispel it, he -had- no eyebrows any longer, and the rest of the area had been roasted a delicate red. Shaking his head and blinking - only by throwing up an arm had he saved his eyes - he stumbled back and tried to regroup. Azana lunged away from the wall, the blue flame crackling around her fists and feet, and surged into a renewed counteroffensive. The raw volume of flames she could produce was still nothing like equal to his, but hers were far hotter now. Without any technique to draw upon, he was helpless to protect himself from them. His defense by overwhelming offense availed him little now. Revived by her sudden insight, Azana was back at the peak of her own defensive powers, and her new cerulean firebolts simply blazed right through his own huge but relatively cool and diffuse streams and gouts of flame. With cool precision and superior control, she began to pick him apart. "This can't - this isn't right!" Kaiten screamed as Azana broke the back of his floodgate-style assault. "Nobody can beat me! I'm invincible! YOU CAN'T DO THIS!" Azana said nothing. She had nothing -to- say. Not to him. Keening with frustration and fear, Kaiten put everything he had left into a single furious stream, a thundering cataract of flame that engulfed Azana completely. Veins bulging, eyes popping, he held it on her for several seconds, pouring all his hatred and disbelief and rage into a torrent of flame that blotted his foe entirely from sight. Seeing the fiery flood approaching, Azana knew she wouldn't be able to avoid it, and that there was far too much of it to counter conventionally. Instead, she reacted by instinct, launching herself into a variation on an airbender's whirlwind kick. This was a maneuver she'd first seen Avatar Korra perform during a demonstration at bending camp, the summer when she (Azana) and Karana had both turned fifteen - when they had first started seriously thinking about taking up sport bending as a professional career. As part of Korra's arsenal, this visually spectacular move combined airbending and firebending to surround her in a spherical shell of hurricane-force wind outside a spinning six-foot circle of compressed flame. The combination rendered her all but invulnerable for a few seconds while it raced around her, the fire incinerating anything that managed to punch through the wind barrier. Azana's version lacked the outer shell, of course, but the ring of fire formed for her just as it did for the Avatar, and its azure brilliance split and threw aside Kaiten's fountain of flames, leaving her unscathed as it roared past all around her and obliterated the bus stop behind. Kaiten couldn't see that happening; he knew only that she had vanished utterly within the torrent of his last-ditch attack. Finally, unable to sustain the assault any longer, he broke it off and sagged backward, smoke rising from his forearms and hands. Blinking away the dazzle of his own firelight, he looked into the column of smoke rising from the charred surface of the street in front of him, expecting to see nothing remaining of his foe but possibly her shoes. An instant later Azana burst out of the smoke, streaking toward him like a meteor. Blue fire trailed from her fists; a tight, seething ring of it whirled around her, then burst outward with a firework crack, shedding the last dull sparks of Kaiten's orange flames. Throwing up his hands to protect his face as the wave rocked him back on his heels, he only had time to make a small, disbelieving noise before she was upon him, plowing through his feeble defenses like a brick through a plate- glass window. When her open right palm struck his chest, it felt as if he'd been hit by an artillery shell. Screaming, he went flying across the street to crash into a lamppost, bending it almost double, and rebounded, somehow managing to stay on his feet. Shaking his head, Kaiten staggered toward her, trying to raise his hands, but now -his- body wouldn't obey, his fuse burned far beyond its limit by the drug and his panic. His eyes clouded again, pupils almost lost in the muddy haze even as they opened wide; he blinked at her, looking utterly confused, and then pitched forward and sprawled face-down in the street. Azana stood over him for a moment, breathing hard. Then, with the finality of a slamming door, she turned her back on him and walked slowly away, up the street, around the fallen facade. She found Karana and Juniper there, along with a couple of civilians and a metalbender cop she'd never seen before. They were all dirty, sweaty, and weary-looking. Anne, in particular, looked like she'd just fought a battle every bit as grueling as the one Azana had faced; she was drawn, her face white and pinched with pain, eyes reduced to narrow slits. On her shoulder, Pabu looked just short of frantic. Sensing someone's approach, Karana looked up from trying to comfort the young girl. At the sight of Azana, her face broke into a look of delight and relief so profound it nearly hurt to see. Then, turning to Anne, the waterbender said, "Look! She's OK!" Azana's apprentice looked up, blinking tears from her narrowed eyes, and smiled wanly. "Sensei... you're all right," she said. "More or less," Azana agreed. "What's wrong, Juni-chan? Are you hurt?" "No... not physically, I... I just... absorbed a little more fire than I probably should've," said Anne. Seeing that Azana was perplexed by that, she tried to explain, though putting words one in front of the other was a monumental challenge right now: "Remember... the tea? Turns out I can do that... the other way around, too. But... it hurts." She put her hands to her head, pressing their heels to her eyes, and said in a voice not far from a whimper, "It -really- hurts." Pabu chirped worriedly and pressed his face to her cheek. "Can we help you?" asked Karana, but Anne shook her head. "No, I just... I need to let it out again. But I can't do that here." With a wry, crooked smile despite the pain she was in, she said, "Not burning down this whole neighborhood was the point of the exercise." Azana considered that for a second, then smiled slightly herself and took a couple of steps back. "All right," she said. "Let it out." Anne's eyes opened slightly wider. "Uh... what?" "Let it out," Azana repeated. "I'll deal with it." "It... doesn't really -work- that way - " "Juni-chan," said Azana gently; then, with a mischievous smile, she added, "Do you trust me?" Certain members of the Republic City Police Department's Special Detail, approaching the site of the reported disturbance in Firetown by airship, were taken aback to see a column of fire shoot into the sky from the approximate location of the incident, like some kind of bizarre signal flare. So large and strange a display was it that most of them assumed it meant the Avatar was on the scene already; but when they arrived, all they found was an unconscious man in the tattered remains of some expensive pants, a number of deeply bewildered civilians, one slightly shell-shocked Patrol Division rookie, and three women (and a fire ferret) having the most tearfully relieved group hug any of them could ever remember witnessing. After spending a couple of hours surveying, examining, considering, reflecting upon, and just generally enjoying the site on Mount Weitang, the party broke up and returned to town by two different routes. Rohan and Corwin ran Ryo home on Pivi, then went into the city proper to register the transfer of ownership formally at the Republic City land office. Ikki, meanwhile, saw Utena, Anthy, Annabelle, and Garnet back to the island on Mogi, though, to her glee, Utena got to drive - or at least sit there looking like she was in charge while Mogi found his own way home, which she acknowledged was probably closer to the truth. Having completed their task at City Hall, Corwin and Rohan were having a spot of lunch (well, Corwin was having lunch; Rohan was having tea) at the nameless sushi joint around the corner when someone approached their table. Rohan noticed her first; glancing up, he blinked in surprise at her approach, then rose from his seat and said, "Er, I'll just... go and... make certain Pivi is comfortable," before beating a hasty retreat. "... Rohan?" a puzzled Corwin inquired of the space where the airbender had been; then he looked up and saw the person standing in front of him, and his confusion only deepened. It was Zanya, the firebender from the Frostbite Point Ice Wraiths - a ruthlessly competitive, dirty-fighting professional bender with whom Corwin had had a difficult time a few days before, while subbing for the Temple Island Fire Ferrets' absent regular earthbender. She'd evidently taken some kind of personal dislike to him (possibly because she seemed to have a particular hatred of Karana, the Fire Ferrets' waterbender and a childhood friend of Corwin's), and had blatantly fouled him twice. Now she stood before his table, dressed in civilian clothes with only a faint Fire Nation flavor about them, and glared at him with arms folded across her chest. Taking his first really good look at her, Corwin was mildly surprised to discover that, with her dark hair cropped as if by a prison barber, the willfully undecorative patch over her left eye, and her perpetual glower, she was effectively compensating for the fact that she was really not a bad-looking woman. The silence stretched awkwardly for a moment. Zanya didn't seem to be looking for a fight - they were in a very public place, after all, and Major League Bending had very strict rules about that sort of thing. She just stood there, regarding him with a sort of neutral hostility, until finally he decided -someone- had to say something and asked, "... Can I help you?" Zanya kept her glower fixed on him for a moment; then - surprising him again - she sighed, dropping her arms to her sides. "I don't know," she said. "Can I sit down?" Corwin gestured to the seat Rohan had vacated. "Please," he said. As she seated herself, his natural hospitability kicked in, such that even though he had no reason to suspect her of any friendly intent, he automatically asked, "Have you eaten? The maguro is excellent today." Zanya eyed him narrowly. "Are you for real?" she asked. "I'm no more than 25 percent imaginary," Corwin assured her. Looking more closely, he saw the dark circle around her one visible eye and her generally worn appearance, then added, "You look like you've got something pretty heavy on your mind." "You could say that," she replied sourly. "Well, there's no sense dealing with it on an empty stomach, whatever it is," said Corwin pragmatically, signaling for the waiter. Zanya protested, but only half-heartedly, and when he went away again it was with a substantial order in hand. "So," said Corwin. "What's up? I would have thought you'd be back in Frostbite Point by now. Don't you have preseason training to do?" Zanya sat looking at her knuckles for a minute, as if gathering her thoughts, or possibly mustering her courage. Then, looking up at his face, she said, "The Ice Wraiths are finished." Corwin arched an eyebrow. "Oh?" "Well, Kassa still owns the name, and he might put another team together under it," she allowed, "but Rockalanche and I both quit after our match against the Ferrets." "Hmm," said Corwin. "I can see why he would have, he was plainly what they call 'not a good fit for the organization,'" he went on dryly, "but you..." Zanya sighed, slumping back in her seat. "I know. But..." She looked up at the ceiling for a second. "I'm not sure I can put it into words. I'm not sure why I even -want- to put it into words." Fixing him with a one-sided amber gaze, she asked him in all evident seriousness, "Are you a witch doctor or something?" "Well... not as -such,-" Corwin said, then added, "I've certainly made no effort to bewitch -you.-" Suddenly animated, Zanya leaned forward, her elbows on the table, and said intently, "Look. All my life I've had to fight for what I had. You understand? I wasn't a little rich girl like Azana or a scholarship kid like Karana. And I didn't lie down for it, either. I earned everything I've ever had in my life with my fists. In -my- world, there were two kinds of people: victims and victors. Kindness was either weakness, or a ruse to get your guard down. To survive, let alone come out on top, I had to strike first. Always." "I'm sorry to hear that," said Corwin sincerely. "I think you really are," Zanya replied. Then she put her forehead in her hands and groaned, "And it's -messing- with my -head-." "Oh, come on," said Corwin sharply, making her glance up at him in faint shock. "You're what, twenty, twenty-five? I cannot possibly be the first nice person you've ever met. In fact I -know- I'm not; I can think of at least three you met before me." "Maybe," Zanya allowed. "But you're the first one I can remember really believing in. And now I can't help wondering if I was wrong about the others." She shook her head. "You don't understand. There was never any place in my world for doubt. I knew - I -knew- - that I was only doing unto others before they got the chance to do unto me. But then you came along. You and the Ferret girls, you'd never worked together before, and you were making the most -pathetic- rookie mistakes..." "Thank you," Corwin put in dryly. "... well you -were,- and then... the three of you, you just... turned it around. Turned it -right- around and whipped the three of us like we were kids on a playground. I didn't even go home that night. I just walked around and around the city, trying to figure out how you had done it. At first I assumed you had cheated. Because I would have. Because that's how the world works, right? Except however I turned it around in my head, I couldn't work out how you could have done it. "Sometime around dawn, I finally realized that you hadn't," she admitted, sounding strangely crushed by the realization. "You three had just... beaten us. You got hold of yourselves and came together as a unit without any practice or training because... you trusted each other. We could never do that. Kassa and I worked together for years, but we - never- trusted each other; we were just reasonably confident that we had more to lose than gain by turning on each other. And Rockalanche, well... you saw." The waiter arrived with her order then; only when he had laid it out before her and withdrawn did Zanya continue speaking, in the hushed and vaguely awed voice of someone who has just recognized a great and terrible truth: "You didn't beat us by being better benders... you beat us by being better -people.-" Corwin frankly thought that might be overselling the issue a bit, but he was hardly going to split that hair. She did have a point, and at the moment he couldn't grudge her a little hyperbole. Instead, he said nothing, only made a noncommittal grunt, covering his lack of a response by taking a drink of water. She didn't seem to be expecting one, anyway. She sat looking at her food as though not certain what she was supposed to do with it, then began to eat mechanically, like a hospital patient who has little interest in food, but has been ordered by her doctor to get some on board. After a few minutes of this, she put down her chopsticks and asked him abruptly, "Who are you?" Corwin looked up from his own meal and smiled slightly. "Everyone seems to want to know that lately," he said. "Please don't play games with me right now," Zanya told him, surprising him yet again with her use of "please". "I need to know. You're obviously a foreigner, and you bend earth like no one I've ever seen before... where did you come from? Where does Karana know you from? Who -are- you?" she repeated, now sounding slightly desperate. Corwin considered her for a second, then said, "OK. I'll tell you. But you might not believe me, and I want to ask you something in return." Zanya hesitated, but only for a moment; then she nodded, looking determined, and said, "OK. Anything you want to know. Just tell me who you are. Maybe if I know that, I'll be able to figure out how you were able to turn my whole world upside down." So Corwin told her. Not the complete and unexpurgated version, because that would have required complicated adjustments to her cosmic - Weltanschauung- he simply didn't have time to make, but the version that included his being from the Big Universe and his lifelong association with Avatar Korra, anyway. Zanya took it all in, not interrupting, and then sat in thoughtful silence for a few moments after he'd finished, picking at her food. Then she said slowly, "You're right, that's hard to believe. But then, I've had trouble believing a -lot- of stuff that's gone through my head since Tuesday night." She sighed, a long, deep sigh, and looked glumly at the table again. "I don't know what to think. For the first time in my -life,- I don't know what to think." Then she looked up and said, "All right. You answered my question. What I do with the answer is my own problem. Your turn." Corwin looked thoughtfully back at her for a second. She probably expected him to request more information about the difficulties of her childhood, or to investigate further her behavior in the bending arena. Instead he asked her point-blank, "Why do you cover your left eye? I know it works." Zanya went pale and actually drew back slightly, her uncovered eye going wide and its pupil contracting with shock. For a moment she looked like she might bolt; then she got hold of herself with a visible effort, clenching her fists on the edge of the table and reining herself in. "No," she said quietly, as if to herself. "A deal's a deal." Then, looking him in the face, she said, "But you've got to promise me you won't tell anyone. -No one- knows about this. Not even Kassa." Corwin nodded gravely. "Done." Looking slightly afraid now, Zanya glanced furtively around the restaurant. The lunch rush was over now; empty tables had appeared all around the dining room, and none of the others near the corner where Corwin sat was occupied. Only a couple of the staff were in sight, and they were off tending to other matters. They were as alone as they could get in a public place. Moving slowly, almost as if unwillingly, she reached up and lifted the patch away from her left eye, flipping it up onto her forehead. This revealed the fine mesh, much more obvious on the inside, that made it so she could see out with it in place. Then, after steeling herself, she raised her face and looked him in the eyes with both of hers. The right one, as he had noticed before, was that distinctive amber-brown color, bordering on orange, that was stereotypical of firebenders... and the left was a clear, bright blue, not too unlike his own. Corwin looked momentarily confused. "Why would you hide that?" he wondered. "It's beautiful." Zanya blushed flame red - it might have been the first time she'd ever been complimented on anything other than her ruthlessness or her bending technique - and hurriedly snapped the patch down, covering her blue eye again. "My mother came from an old Fire Nation family," she said, her voice hushed and hoarse. "Maybe even older than Azana's. So did her husband." She let that sink in for a second, then added with cold emphasis, "Obviously my -father, didn't.-" "... Ah," said Corwin, and then, "That's hardly -your- fault." "Apparently my mother's people disagreed," said Zanya with a bitter smirk. "She might've gotten away with it; I turned out pale and black-haired, like her... but the eye gave her away. They sent her to a sanatorium and me to an orphanage in the North. Not Fire Nation enough for my mother's family, but to the other kids there I was - well, I won't trouble you with the details." "It's no trouble," said Corwin, and he was faintly surprised to discover that he meant it. Why his heart should go out to this willfully unpleasant creature he wasn't entirely sure, but there it was. She reminded him a little of Liza Broadbank, in that brittle and precarious time before she had gone away and become Liza Shustal, scourge of the spaceways. With Zanya there was that same sense that her malformations of character might not entirely be her fault; and that she could go a number of different ways from here, not all of which boded well for her future. He still wasn't attracted to her - he'd never had a thing for Bad Girls - but he did feel an undeniable compassion now. "Look," she said, though there was little heat in it. "Don't try to be my buddy all of a sudden. I didn't come here hoping you could fix me. It was just an impulse. I saw you and I wanted to try and find out how you got inside my head so easily... and I still don't know. This was a waste of time." She got up from the table. "Thanks for lunch. If I find out you told anyone what I just showed you, I'll kill you." "Zanya," he said, but she left without looking back. A few moments later, Rohan reappeared, seating himself and pushing the remains of Zanya's lunch discreetly aside. "Since the restaurant isn't on fire," he said dryly, "I'm going to guess that went relatively well. What did she want?" "I'm not really sure," Corwin admitted after a few seconds' thought. "Maybe just... someone to talk to." He sighed and signaled for the check. "I guess we'd better get back to the island." Upon his return to Air Temple Island, after making certain Mogi had been unsaddled and returned to the bison caves when Utena and company got in (which of course he had), Corwin poked around a bit, but found no sign of Nall. He would've liked to get the dragon's take on the strange conversation he'd had over lunch; besides which, he knew they would have to discuss his confrontation with Lhakpa sooner or later. He'd been hoping to get to it before Nall had a chance to hear about it from her and form a solid opinion, but it was what it was. Truth to tell, he was a bit weary of the whole business anyway, so he gave up after a single sweep around the dragon's usual haunts and returned to the house instead. There, he found Utena and Anthy under Jinora's supervision in the front room, experimenting some more with the length of silk that had so summarily defeated him that morning. Not very to his surprise, it seemed Utena had decided to attempt the alternate configuration Jinora had described as an "advanced technique" - though at the point in the process where Corwin came in, she appeared to be regretting her rashness very slightly. "You're spotting me, right? I don't want to drop her," she said, glancing hesitantly back over her shoulder at Anthy. Anthy nodded. "Of course I am. We're not terribly practiced at this yet, any of us." "Oh, I can't watch," said Garnet, but she kept watching. "Relax, Garnet. Nothing will go wrong. Have faith," said Jinora sagely. "OK, here goes, then." Utena tucked the fabric up, looping one end over her back and shoulder and the other around Annabelle and her own chest. She bent down, and with Anthy's help, scooted the baby high up onto her back, keeping the fabric as taut as she dared. "You can snug it tighter, dear," Anthy said from behind her. "She doesn't seem to mind." Utena glanced at Jinora, who nodded slightly with a little smile. Thus reassured, she pulled the sash's long edges - rails, to use Jinora's word - more, until the fabric felt like it didn't have any more give. "Corwin, give her a hand with the next part, won't you, while Anthy keeps everything steady," Jinora prompted. Under her direction, they got everything wrapped up and tied securely, using a general technique very like the one she'd learned that morning. With everything folded and knotted just so, Utena found that Annabelle was situated neatly between her shoulder blades, with the child's head resting on her (Utena's) shoulder, and the whole rig felt snug and tight and very, very well-balanced. "Say," she said, "that's not bad." After walking around in a little circle and testing the range of her shoulders - largely unimpeded - she tried an experimental lunge; Annabelle made a faint noise of approval, squirmed just slightly, and hiccuped. "I... think I could probably even -spar- wearing her like this," said Utena, blinking in surprise at Anthy. "I, wow. This is actually pretty comfortable." "I'm pretty sure she'd enjoy it if you did, actually," Corwin said, then grinned. "I'm told I loved bouncing around on Mom's back while she was training with the Valkyrie back in the day." "Somehow, I'm not surprised," Anthy said wryly. "Once you're more used to her, love, by all means, wear her through your workouts. As she grows, you'll get some extra leg strength from the added weight, and as long as you don't think she'll slip, she should be fine." "I'll check with Kaitlyn," Utena agreed. "She can keep an eye on her too, and we can stop if anything slips." She tried another lunge, deeper this time, and laughed at the cheerful sound it elicited from the baby. "You like that, eh?" she said, turning her head to catch Annabelle's face in the corner of her eye. "Want to go for a little run? Maybe check out the view from the meditation pavilion? C'mon, Corwin, you can spot me. Let's give this rig a proper test." "Not without me you don't!" Garnet objected, darting after them. "This from a woman who said yesterday that she wasn't sure how to react," Jinora observed dryly when the four had gone. "That's our Utena," said Anthy with a smile. "Her engine room telegraph has only one setting: 'damn the torpedoes'." Jinora nodded. "Mm, yes. I begin to understand why she and Korra have taken to one another so quickly." YUGODA MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER Korra stood by the window looking into the observation room, watching Kaiten's chest rise and fall in time with the hissing and clicking of the ventilator, a pensive frown on her face. Turning to the white-coated figure next to her, she said, "You're sure? There's nothing to be done?" Doctor Kuva shook his head. "Nothing, Avatar. He's suffered extensive neurological trauma, both chronic and acute. He'd obviously been abusing the drug we found in his system for some time, and the trace levels he showed when he got here indicate that he took a massive dose of the stuff just before his fight with your friend." He closed the chart he held and shook his head. "That young man will never regain consciousness. In layman's terms, the Comet, and the exertions it drove him to commit, burned out his brain. He can't even breathe on his own. By most standards, he's already dead." "Hm," said Korra, not really in reply. She turned and gazed through the window for a few more seconds, her face glum. "What a waste," she murmured, shaking her head sadly. "What a damned, sorry waste of a life. This has to be stopped." "Hnh," the doctor replied. "Natural selection in action, if you ask me. One more ashmaker who thought he could be the next Sozin. His kind get what they deserve." Korra rounded on him, her eyes angry and intense. "That's enough, Doctor!" she snapped. Holding him mesmerized with the fury in her gaze, she raised one arm and pointed to the slumped figure in the bed. "That is a human being in there, a young man in the prime of his life, and maybe he did bring this on himself, but does ANYONE deserve a fate like that?" she demanded. Then, shaking her head in disgust, she shouldered past him, muttering, "You're supposed to be a physician. Show some respect." "I - " he said, raising a hand, but she stormed off down the hall and through the stairwell door at the end, never looking back. Not until she reached the street had she cooled off enough to speak to anyone. Taking out her GearPhone, she pressed a speeddial code and said, "Eitaro. It's Korra. We were wondering what the Monsoons' angle was? Well... I think I know." The rest of the conversation took only a few moments. Then, sighing, Korra put away her phone, swung up into Niri's saddle, and said, "Let's go home, girl. Last thing I want tonight's to be alone." AIR TEMPLE ISLAND They came back together at dinner, those who had ventured into town and those who had gone for experimental jogs - everyone but Nall, who remained curiously absent, and the sisters, who sat at opposite ends of the main table with the rest of the airbenders and paid as little attention to each other as possible. This gave the occasion a slightly frosty undertone, for those conscious of the subtext, but no one else seemed to notice. Most were too busy cooing over Annabelle, who, freshly cleaned, fed, and securely affixed to her mother, was making her debut at Korra's table. Kaitlyn and Anne arrived a little late, the latter a trifle singed; this gave people a new thing to exclaim over, though she turned aside their concerns as gracefully as she could. "I'm fine, it's nothing," she said. "Training accident?" Rory wondered, examining her scorched cheek. As always, he looked decidedly un-medical, a teenage boy in Dockers, sneakers, and an unzipped hoodie over an old T-shirt emblazoned with an outdated Sirius Cybernetics Corporation slogan ("Your Plastic Pal Who's Fun to Be With!"). In spite of his perpetual need of a shave, he was obviously little, if any, older than the girl whose injury he was inspecting; but word of his calm competence in attending Annabelle's birth had spread, and Anne was prepared to take his credentials as a matter of faith. If Anthy and Utena believed he was a doctor, that was good enough for her. She shook her head. "No," she said. "Sifu Azana and I had a little, um, problem at lunch." "Not with each other, I hope," Amy put in, a bit startled. "Oh, no, no," Anne hastened to assure her. "No. We're..." She smiled a little abstractly. "We're great. No, this was a, um, a third party. I probably shouldn't say any more, the police are looking into it - " Korra arrived then, striding over to the table with a purposeful frown. "Anne, are you all right?" she asked without preamble. "I'm fine," Anne repeated, looking both pleased and a bit exasperated at all the attention. "Really, it doesn't even hurt." "I take it you heard?" Kaitlyn inquired. Korra nodded. "I just came from the scene," she said. "Eitaro and I were having lunch with Emily when he got the call. Is what Dispatch told him true? The man who attacked you was hopped up on Comet?" Anne shrugged slightly. "Well, I'm no expert," she qualified, "but he was hopped up on -something.- And technically he didn't attack -me,- he attacked Azana-sensei." She indicated her own most visible burn and added ruefully, "I got this from falling rubble." "It's not very serious," Rory agreed, "but I'd still like to get a little Dermatrex on it after dinner, just to be on the safe side." "I'm not gonna argue with that," said Anne; then, taking a closer look at him, she noticed the jaunty American Civil War head bandage he was sporting and asked, "What happened to -you?-" Amy giggled. "Girls 21, boys seven," she said. Despite her serious mood, Korra couldn't help but snicker at that. "Nice," she said, bumping fists with the young Scotswoman. Then she turned her attention back to Anne. "Did you give the investigating officer at the scene a statement?" she asked. Anne nodded. "I didn't see most of the actual fight, I was too busy trying to keep the block from burning down." "Mm. Well, from what I saw, it looked like you did a pretty good job," said Korra with a distracted smile. "Inspector Imanishi will want to get a more detailed account from you - it's a Comet incident, so his task force is taking over the case... hmm. Aren't you guys leaving tomorrow?" "That was the plan," Kate confirmed. "We're both supposed to be in New Avalon first thing on Monday." Korra thought that over, then nodded. "I'll see if I can get him to come out and talk to you tonight, then, just to get that loose end tied up before you leave town." "OK," Anne agreed; then she smiled crookedly and added, "I'm not used to being so comfortable about talking to the police." Korra chuckled. "Well, Eitaro's a sweetheart, you won't have any problems with him. He just wants to make sure the record is as complete as it can be. -You're- certainly not in any trouble." "Well, that's good to hear," said Anne. At the far end of the main table, Lhakpa ate her dinner as quickly as she could, then excused herself and slipped quietly away. No one seemed interested in her departure; the youngsters were wrapped up in their own matters, the elders as well, and Nyima had done an extremely convincing job of acting as though she hadn't noticed her sister was even in the room throughout the meal. She found Nall exactly where she'd left him - exactly where he'd been all day long: on the topmost level of the Air Temple's tower, gazing meditatively out not at the Republic City skyline, but rather at the jagged mountain peaks to the north of the city. He didn't seem to hear her coming up through the trapdoor; only when she slipped up behind him and put her arms around him, her hands sliding across his chest, did he acknowledge her presence, raising a hand to grip one of her wrists gently. "Hey," he said. "You've been up here all day," Lhakpa pointed out, entirely unnecessarily. "Mm." "Why?" she wondered. "What are you looking at over there?" "The mountains," Nall told her. "They remind me of... a lot of things. Draconia... and Hyeruul." He sighed. "Where your last girlfriend was from," said Lhakpa. "Where I lost her," Nall replied. Lhakpa held him a little tighter and asked quietly, "Do you wish she was here now?" "Not really," said Nall, squeezing her wrist a little in response; then he added wryly, "If she was, and she saw us like this, there'd probably be a godawful fight." Lhakpa snorted. "That's not what I meant." "I know. I was dodging the question," said Nall matter-of- factly. Then, before she could press the matter further (if indeed she planned to), he took a deep, slow breath and said, "I dreamed about Nax last night. He wanted to know if I had enjoyed killing him. If I understood yet that a real dragon would have." "Nall, stop it," said Lhakpa. "Just stop it. Dragons -don't- have to be cruel. You should read Avatar Roku's book about his travels with Fang. They were best friends all of their lives." "Wasn't Roku's -other- best friend Fire Lord Sozin?" Nall asked skeptically. "That doesn't really recommend him as a judge of character." He sighed. "I'm sorry, Lhakpa. I know you're trying to help." He turned around in her arms, so he was facing her, and put his hands on her shoulders. "I'm not very good company today. Maybe you should go hang with the rest of the crew instead. They're heading back in the morning." Lhakpa glanced away. "I... don't think that would be such a good idea," she said. "Corwin's pretty mad at me right now." Nall quirked an eyebrow. "Uh... why?" She told him - about both her prank on Nyima the night before, and her defensive reaction to Corwin's displeasure with it in the morning. "... Oh," said Nall. He took another deep breath. "Yeah, I could see where that would tick him off. Twice, even. Once because you were mean to Nyima, and once because you copped an attitude when he called you on it." "I know," Lhakpa said, resting her head on his shoulder. "It's been nagging at me all day. I didn't want to admit he's right, but... he kind of is. I mean, everything I told him was true. But..." She sighed. "It's not Nyima's -fault- she's so damned perfect. She just is. The spirits favor some people. It doesn't do any good to envy them for it." Nall chuckled wryly. "Nyima's probably telling herself the same thing about you." "Me?" Lhakpa stepped back to regard him quizzically. "What in the world would she envy about me? She's smarter, stronger, a better airbender than I'll -ever- be, graceful, confident... the -one- thing I've got that she hasn't is my looks, and Nyima doesn't care about appearances." "She knows she -shouldn't- care about appearances," Nall corrected her. "But sometimes we can't help ourselves." "Hmm," said Lhakpa, as though the possibility had never occurred to her before. "I mean, -you- know better than to get attached to -me,- but... here we are," Nall went on. "Here we are," Lhakpa agreed, and kissed him. "At least until tomorrow." "Actually, I think I'll stay," said Nall. Lhakpa looked pleasantly surprised. "Really?" "Not right -here,-" he qualified, "but in Diqiu. Maybe I'll see if I can find a proper dragon peak over there," he added, gesturing to the mountains that were now behind him. "Stop pretending to be a man for a while and see where that gets me." With a sardonic grin, he added, "You can come visit when you get your bison license. Venture into my lair and risk your monastic chastity." "Bah," she said, "I only -dress- like a monk," and she kissed him again. After their own dinner, the rest of the visitors and Korra retired to the parlor of Tenzin's house for a low-key last evening of team togetherness. Those who hadn't made the trip to Mount Weitang oohed and aahed over the photos Corwin and Ryo had taken. All agreed that it was going to be a -dynamite- place for a vacation home. "The hard part's going to be access to the site," Corwin observed, looking over one of the aerial shots they'd taken upon departing. "We'll either have to build some kind of a road or bring everything in by air. Either option could get complicated." "Well," Korra mused, "a rough construction road is just a matter of a few days to a week with an earthbending team. Anything more refined than that, you'll have to go to the roadbuilders' union. And probably the Republic DOT, if you want it to tie into the public roads. The Planning Office probably has some information on that. You should check with Chin, he'll know who you should be talking to over there." Corwin nodded. "Mm. Man!" he declared, shaking his head and flipping through a couple more of the images. "Wish I had a couple more weeks, at least, to really get started on this." He looked up from a panorama of the falls and grinned at her. "It's exciting!" "Actually, Korra and I were talking about this last night," said Utena. "Why -don't- we? I mean, we haven't got anything really pressing to rush back to, have we?" She gestured to her wife, who was giving her an interested look, and went on, "Anthy and I don't have to be back at NIT until the fall semester starts, and you're pretty much completely at liberty, Corwin." "And that being the case," Korra added, "why don't you guys stay a while longer? Stay right through the summer if you want!" "We can actually -build- the house!" Utena declared. "People can come visit us once their spring semesters and whatnot end. It'll be good times!" She picked up the nearest book and gestured with it. "We are grown-up people with a child and everything and we can do whatever we darn well want. It says so right here in the handbook." "That's my copy of Love Amongst the Dragons," Kate pointed out with a little smile. "Details," Utena replied. Corwin's grin widened. "You're not gonna get any argument out of me," he said cheerfully. Then, his brow furrowing, he went on, "Although, hmm. No Valiant summer tour this year?" Kate gave him a lovingly indulgent look. "Did you think I've been planning on one this whole time, knowing there'd be a newborn in the captain's family?" she said, reaching to ruffle Utena's hair. "That'd be pretty optimistic even by -our- standards. We can find something else to do with ourselves for a summer..." "We have got rock 'n roll in Diqiu, y'know," Korra pointed out with a grin. "Alternate-reality world tour, anyone?" Kate laughed. "I bet the guys would love it. We've never done a proper one-planet world tour, and it's always fun to break in new audiences." "Oh man," said Anne. "Do you think Diqiu is ready for Azalynn?" "She's been here before!" Kaitlyn said. "Nobody went to jail... although admittedly it was only the one time." "Anthy? You haven't had much to say," said Utena. "What do you think?" Anthy smiled. "I've just been enjoying all your reactions," she said. "I think it's a fine idea, so long as Jinora doesn't mind us staying in her house for a while longer. I wouldn't want us to overstay our welcome." "Oh, don't worry about that," Korra assured her. "I ran it by her while you were all up checking out Mount Weitang this morning. She likes you guys. Particularly you, Anthy," she added with a grin. "You'd better watch yourself, if you stay here all summer she's liable to try and recruit you." Anthy chuckled. "It'd be an honor," she said. With that, the Trinity started discussing the particulars of extending their stay, trying to anticipate anything that might need doing either back in the "big universe" or in Cephiro in the next few months. Getting back and forth wouldn't be a particular problem, nor would communications, but it would be important for people to know where to find them if there were issues, and there were a few logistical matters that needed handling. They'd only packed for a few days, for instance. While they were working on sorting all that out, there came a knock at the door, and Korra got up from where she'd been lounging against Niri's side to admit a middle-aged gentleman in a crumpled grey suit and overcoat. "Hey, Eitaro, c'mon in," she said, gesturing him inside. "Meet my new team. Everyone, this is Inspector Imanishi, you've heard me talk about him." She introduced him around; Imanishi greeted everyone politely, bowing to all, and then asked if he might have another word with Miss Cross before she left his jurisdiction. "Of course," she said, rising. "Let's go to the front room." Imanishi's manner, once they were settled in armchairs in the front room, was calm, affable, and soothing, putting her immediately at ease. "Let me just assure you again, Miss Cross, you're not in any trouble," he said while he got out his notebook. "Far from it. By Fire Marshal Kaziro's estimate, your actions most likely saved a half-dozen buildings, and perhaps three times as many lives, today." Anne felt herself blushing slightly; she glanced away, grinning crookedly, and said, "Well, uh... I was... I'm just glad I could help." "You certainly did. There's no doubt about that, and it is a thing you shouldn't hesitate to be proud of. I know that the temptation is always there to assume that no good deed will go unpunished," he added with a small smile, "but we try not to operate that way in Republic City." Opening his notebook, he went on, "Now, let's just go over what you saw and heard one more time, and I'll let you get back to your evening." It took Imanishi only about ten minutes to take a second statement from his witness, since her initial statement had been very comprehensive and his few follow-up questions were direct and easily answered. At the end, he rose and closed his notebook, saying, "Well, thank you, Miss Cross. I think that's all I'll need from you. I'm sorry this happened; I hope it won't color your impression of our city too badly." Anne gave her crooked smile again. "I wouldn't worry about that," she said. "Even given this afternoon, I think there's a lot more good than bad in Republic City. Believe me, I've seen -so- much worse." Imanishi smiled. "I'm pleased to hear it," he said. "Not that you've seen worse, but that you find Republic City agreeable in spite of your experience today." Tucking his notebook away in his coat, he bowed to her. "Have a safe journey home. I understand you're planning to return in the summer?" "That's the plan," Anne confirmed, standing to return his bow with a firebender salute. "Probably in early June. Do you think I'll need to come back before then to testify at the trial? I can if I have to, but I'll need a little advance warning." Imanishi's face was solemn as he shook his head and replied slowly, "I... doubt there will be a trial, Miss Cross." Anne looked a bit troubled when she returned alone to the sun parlor, but no one noticed. The mood was dispelled almost instantly, anyway, by the sight that greeted her when she arrived. Niri had shifted her position, sprawling on her side and taking up most of the floor space between the futon-daybed and the sofa. Serge had positioned himself alongside the futon, more or less at right angles, so that the two lay almost nose-to-nose, and both were dozing contentedly while their mistresses brushed them. "-Look- at all these orange hairs," Korra remarked, scraping her brush. "People are going to -talk,- girl!" "They do make a genemod that would turn his orange parts white," Kate said cheerfully, "but then you'd still have the black ones to deal with." She looked up and smiled at Anne. "All set?" Anne nodded. "No problems," she said, and at this moment, in this room full of friends and love, she meant it. SATURDAY, MARCH 20 The next morning saw a bustle of activity after breakfast, as most of the visitors prepared to leave and just about everyone else got ready to see them off at the station. In the foyer of Tenzin's house, Utena - by now feeling like an old hand - was getting Annabelle prepped for the field while Corwin sorted out the travel kit. They were in a slight hurry, as there was a ferry to catch, but everything appeared to be going smoothly and there was no cause for concern. "Where'd Anthy get off to?" Utena wondered, looking around. "We can't wander too far without her, now can we?" she inquired of Annabelle. At that moment, Anthy appeared on the landing at the top of the stairs overlooking the entryway, dressed for the excursion in her borrowed Air Acolyte clothes again. "Corwin, would you come up here for a moment, please?" she asked, smiling. "I need your help with something." Corwin glanced in faint puzzlement at Utena, who shrugged. There wasn't anything up there, as far as either of them knew - they hadn't used any of the upstairs rooms apart from stealing the futon daybed out of one - but neither was inclined to argue, so Corwin said only, "Sure, be right there," then zipped up the bag, put it next to Utena, and trotted up the stairs. By the time he got up there, Anthy had turned and now led the way up the hall into one of the side rooms. More puzzled than ever, Corwin followed her inside; it was the room they'd taken the futon from and now lacked anything much in the way of furniture. "What do you - " he began, but before he could finish the question she had turned, shut the door, and then backed him up against the inside of it, kissing him with a sudden, unaccustomed ferocity that brought Titan instantly to his mind. "Oh 'ello!" he remarked quietly when, at length, she partly relinquished him, her hands still framing the sides of his face. "Do you remember," Anthy asked a trifle breathlessly, "when I said 'this is only for today'?" "Yeeees?" Corwin replied, arching an eyebrow. Anthy gazed into his eyes for a second, then smiled wryly and said, "I've changed my mind," before setting back to work. They nearly missed the ferry, arriving dockside at a run just before the boat was to sail, and received some deeply skeptical looks from some, and deeply amused ones from others, of their party; but no one said a word as they scrambled aboard and the boat set off for the mainland. The timetables lined up such that they had ten minutes or so to kill at Central City Station before the Saikyo Limited (doing business as the East Bao Sai Limited until the Veil) departed. Azana and Karana arrived at almost the same time as the party from Air Temple Island, and Master Ito as well, and they had a sort of miniature going-away party on the concourse. "A gift for you, from one peer to another," said Ito. Bowing, he handed Kate a polished wooden case, like a small and unusually ornate fishing tackle box with a cylindrical scroll case attached to the lid. "You will have to find a craftsman to make the table for you," he explained, "but everything else you need to continue your study of pai sho is there." Kate smiled and put the box down on top of her suitcase so that she could return his bow properly. "Thank you, Ito-sensei. I shall treasure it." "Health and happiness to you, Master Kaitlyn, until we meet again," said Ito. Glancing a few yards down the platform to where Azana, just out of earshot, was seeing Anne off, he smiled sentimentally and went on, "Thank you for allowing your student to enrich my granddaughter's life. I believe that in teaching her, Azana has found something she didn't think she was missing." "Well, I guess this is goodbye for now, Juniper," said Azana, who seemed none the worse for her adventure the day before. "Do keep me apprised as your travel plans for the summer solidify - we have a fair number of road games in June, and we'll need to coordinate our timing carefully." Anne nodded. "I'll do that." Then, composing herself, she saluted and bowed, saying, "Thank you, Azana-sensei, for agreeing to teach me. I've learned so much in just the first week." "As have I," Azana replied, returning the salute. Then the elder firebender hugged her, adding in a much less formal tone of voice, "Stay safe, Juni-chan. I hear it's dangerous out in the big universe." "It has its moments," Anne conceded, returning the embrace. "But so does this place. You watch out for yourself too." "Ah, no worries," Karana said, putting a proprietary hand on her bending partner's shoulder with a grin. "With the MLB season starting, she'll be too busy to get into any more fights with those assholes from the Agni Kai - and I'll be around to put out any new fires that might start," she added, winking. She hugged the younger girl as well, then trotted off to give her regards to Kate and the Ponds. "One more thing before you go," said Azana. So saying, she unslung the small black leather valise she was carrying from her shoulder and offered it to Anne, who took it with a puzzled expression. "The books I promised you," Azana explained. "There ended up being four, so I thought you would appreciate it if I included something to carry them in," she added, smiling. Anne examined the bag for a moment - it was a soft briefcase with a top flap, like a messenger bag, and was obviously well-traveled. Embossed on the front of the flap was a seal or crest, bearing Tongyu writing she couldn't read. With a smile, she shouldered it opposite her small duffel bag, then bowed again to her teacher. "Thank you," she said. "I'll try to have read them by the time we see each other again." "There won't be a quiz," Azana assured her. "Safe travels, Anne. I'll see you in June." "Well, well, look who finally came up for air," said Amy with a grin, a short distance away, as Nall and Lhakpa entered the concourse from the street doors and hurried toward them. "As it were," she added playfully. "We were beginning to think you weren't coming with us," Rory put in. "Actually? I'm kind of not," said Nall. "But I wanted to see you guys off and thank you for coming. I hope you had a good time." "Are you kidding?" Amy asked him. "We've had the -best- time. Thanks so much for inviting us." "You're welcome back any time," Korra told her, then grinned. "The airkids'll be talking about you guys for months." "What do you mean you're kind of not going with them?" Corwin wondered. "I, uh... can we not talk about this right now?" Nall replied. "It's complicated. Later." "OK..." said Corwin, drawing it out a trifle skeptically. Then he added, "Anyway, you probably hadn't heard - we're staying too. Utena, Anthy and me. And Annabelle and Garnet, obviously. Building a house up on one of the mountains outside the city. Man, you should've seen the place. Rohan and Ikki took us up yesterday. You'd like it, it's all dragony up there." Nall looked somewhere between pleased and awkward, an anomalous expression indeed for him. "That's... great," he said, sounding as if he wasn't quite certain of that. The conductor shouted for all to board the East Bao Sai Limited. With final hugs, kisses, handshakes, and whatever else was warranted, the party separated into two, one boarding the train, the other standing back to watch it depart. As it pulled smoothly away, Rory leaned out a window to call a last bit of medical advice to Anthy, but his message was damaged somewhat by the Republic City Railway Authority's safety regulations: "If she starts - " SUSTAINED TRAIN WHISTLE " - worry, it's perfectly normal!" "I'm always going to wonder now," Utena observed matter-of- factly in the quiet that settled once the train was gone. Niri watched the train disappear around the bend just beyond the switchyard with a downcast expression, then sat down, raised her nose to the glass-and-steel latticework above, and uttered a mournful howl. Korra blinked in surprise, looking around, as people paused in their comings and goings to stare in alarm. "Oh, stop that howling, you big baby," she chided the polar bear dog, reaching up to rub her head. "You'll see him again in the summertime." She glanced around again, noting the reactions of passers- by, then tugged at Niri's collar and muttered, "Seriously, Niri, stop it. You're scaring people's children." Niri subsided grudgingly, rose to her feet, and trudged with Korra and the others (most of them trying, and largely failing, not to laugh) toward the exit. "Was that your old school bag you just gave the kid?" Karana asked Azana, near the back of the group, as they left the station. "Mm?" Azana replied, as if she hadn't quite heard; then, "Yes, I suppose it was." Karana rolled her eyes and addressed her next remark to the fire ferret on her shoulder. "Oh, listen to her, Pabu. 'Yes, I suppose it was,' she says, like she hadn't really noticed." "Well, what?" said Azana. "I could hardly expect her to carry four hardcover books back to New Avalon by hand. It's a bookbag. That's what it's for." Karana nodded. "Mm-hmm." Azana glanced narrowly at her friend. "Karana." "I didn't say nothin'," Karana protested, spreading her hands innocently. "Say," said Utena to Corwin as they emerged from the station. "While we're here, we should go show Kemba your handiwork." Corwin smiled. "Indeed we should," he agreed. Kemba welcomed them back to her handicrafts stall in the Railway Square market like old friends. Once she'd received her hug, Utena touched the necklace Corwin had given her and said with a grin, "I just wanted to come by and show you - he's done the decent thing at last." The middle-aged Water Tribeswoman's eyes widened. "Ooh, that's some nice work!" she declared, then elbowed Utena with a sly smile and added, "He IS good with his hands!" Then, as the rest of the group that had come with them laughed, Kemba looked them over, noticed Anthy, took a close look at Annabelle, and then turned a judicious eye to Corwin. Uh-oh, thought Utena. She had been wondering how long it would be before something like this happened. She, Corwin, and Anthy had never been ashamed of their unusual relationship, nor shy about it; they had accepted that it would occasionally dismay people as part of the cost of doing business. Generally speaking, they didn't care if it did, taking such dismay as evidence that the people who -were- dismayed were people whose opinions they didn't need to value in the first place. Still, it wasn't as though they customarily set out to -flaunt- it, to throw it in people's faces, and it was always a little awkward and a little painful when someone they liked turned out to be on that list. It was... disappointing. Kemba, though, didn't disappoint them after all. After eyeing Corwin for a moment, she grinned and made a sweeping gesture that took in his whole family. "You must be quite a hunter, handsome, to be worthy of these three ladies," she said cheerfully, firing a wink over Anthy's shoulder at Korra, who quirked a smile in return. Turning to Anthy, she went on, "He hasn't made a necklace for -you,- either! And here you've borne him such a fine daughter, too." She whacked Corwin theatrically on the shoulder and declared, "Hopeless!" Then, ignoring him, she addressed herself directly Annabelle, leaning toward her with a smile and saying, "Hello! How old are you, sweetheart?" They sorted through introductions, at which point Utena wryly pointed out that if anyone should be getting a hard time for failing to make Anthy a necklace, it was herself, not Corwin. After chatting with Kemba for a while longer, the group began to break up. Azana and Karana had practice to get to, and said their cheerful farewells with promises to be in touch. (Utena noticed as they were leaving that Karana, too, was wearing what appeared to be a betrothal necklace, and wondered as to its provenance. She made a mental note to ask Corwin if he knew.) Master Ito, too, parted from them at that point, catching a streetcar in the direction of his academy. "She took that awfully well," Utena observed as the somewhat reduced company made their way back toward the ferry quay. "I was worried for a second that we might be in for a disappointment." "Nah, Kemba's seen it all," said Korra with a grin. "Besides, deals like yours aren't completely unheard-of in the South Pole. Not -common,- by any means, but most people know someone who knows someone, and so forth." She nudged Utena with an elbow. "That was what she meant when she said he must be a good hunter," she explained with a wink. "In the old days that was the only way anybody could -support- more than one spouse." Hours later, as afternoon drew in toward evening, the East Bao Sai Limited made steadily for Ba Sing Se. In the compartment she shared with Kate, Anne lay in the upper of the two bunks a conductor had appeared to conjure magically out of the bulkhead and unpacked the bag Azana had given her. There were, as promised, four books inside, all hardcovers, three bound in leather and one in the kind of old-fashioned cloth binding Anne always associated with antique schoolbooks. She opened that one first, and found stamped on its front flyleaf the same seal that was embossed on the bookbag's flap. Below it, someone had written a short message in an angular script. "Sensei?" she said. "Yes?" Kaitlyn's voice replied from the lower bunk. "You can read Japanese, right?" Anne asked. After a short pause, Kate's head and shoulders appeared next to the upper bunk. "Mm-hmm," she said. "The book itself is in Standard," said Anne, turning it so Kate could see it, "but I think this note is Kokugo." Kate's eyes scanned the flyleaf; then she smiled and said, "Heh, so it is." "What does it say?" asked Anne. "'This is Azana's book,'" Kate translated. "'Form 4, autumn term, 280 ASC.' The stamp above it is the school seal - Piandao Academy, Shu Jing." Anne blinked and turned the book back to look at the note again. "Huh! Azana's -from- Shu Jing, I remember her mentioning it. This must've been one of her schoolbooks." Kate read the spine and laughed again. "Ah, Love in the Time of Space Sword," she said. "A classic. It would be a natural choice for a Standard-language class; they would have read it in the original Tongyu in a previous year." "Hmm..." Anne investigated the other volumes. "These are all by the same author. Where have I heard his name before?" "Sokka? He was also an artist. You saw one of his drawings at the museum." "Oh! The cartoon of Aang! Maybe I'll find out in one of these what the punch line meant," said Anne with a smile. Examining the books further, she giggled. "He had a flair for titles, too. Crazy from the Heat... The Adventures of Snow Savage and Dirt Girl... To Wang Fire, Thanks for Everything! Ty Lee." Kate chuckled and returned to her bunk. "Sokka was one of his generation's great wits," she said dryly. After a bit more investigation, Anne put away the other books, rearranged her pillows a bit more comfortably, and settled in for the long haul with Love in the Time of Space Sword. As she opened it, an item fell out from between two of the pages, landing softly on her chest; closing the book again on her finger, she picked it up and turned it over. It was a color photograph of two girls in their early teens, one pale and raven-haired, the other all in shades of brown, both dressed in natty black and red uniforms with pleated skirts over tights, golden sashes at their slim waists, shoes with slightly upturned pointed toes, and a familiar structure to the shoulders of their single-breasted jackets - school uniforms as seen through the fashion sensibilities of the Fire Nation. With a mild shock, Anne realized that they were Azana and Karana in their early teens, maybe nine or ten years ago. Karana, grinning broadly, had one arm hooked around Azana's neck and was making a V-sign for the camera with the other hand. Her jacket was open and the shirt beneath it undone to the third button, showing just the top edge of what Anne recognized as a sports bra, and she was wearing what looked like the same stylish little choker-style necklace Anne had noticed on her as an adult. Azana - somehow unsurprisingly, fully buttoned up - was glancing at Karana; she looked slightly startled, but there was a little smile playing at her lips. Anne's face wore a similar expression as she regarded the picture. It appeared Azana hadn't been expecting to get glomped like that when whoever had taken the picture produced the camera, but apart from having been startled, she didn't seem to mind. I had no idea they'd known each other that long, she thought. She guessed the photo had been used as a bookmark, then forgotten, and wondered if Azana might want it back. She'd have to check. Looking at it again, she rather hoped not; she'd like to keep it, if she could do so without coming across as all... -weird- about it. She liked Azana too much, and valued their working relationship too highly, to want to risk that. Anne tucked the photo into the back of the book and sighed, turning to the first page of the introduction. Don't overthink it, she told herself sternly, and began to read. Back on Air Temple Island, Korra's table felt a little empty at dinner, with most of the party gone; but Nyima was back, her equanimity repaired by a night's sleep and a day's meditation, and they were a cheerful, if diminished, group as they ate and planned the next few days. After eating, when the Air Acolyte stewards cleared away the dishes, they set to working out which of their things they would need to retrieved from New Avalon in the next few days, and how they would arrange that. Corwin's parents wanted to visit anyway, in order to see their first (jointly and separately) grandchild, now that she wasn't being brought back to the big universe anytime soon; both he and Utena confidently expected that they could be counted upon to bring most of the stuff that was wanted, if they were provided with a proper list. Compiling that took an hour or so, after which - with the dining hall otherwise deserted and the staff lingering in the mode of restaurant personnel who want the last customers to leave so they can get on with cleaning up - they adjourned once more to Tenzin's sun parlor to continue plotting. "This is perfect," Korra declared. She stood at the side of the room that faced east, hands on hips, considering the windows and skylights - dark with evening now, but holding their promise of abundant sunshine during the lenghtening days of spring. "I'll move my old drafting table from college in here tomorrow," she went on, turning a grin to Corwin. "Couple of stools, some lamps, a desk for the paperwork - everything we need to set up our own little design office." "Hey, nice," Corwin agreed. "With the mountains right over there for inspiration, and the doors open so we won't go into mole mode..." "Yeah, exactly. People can come hang out. We'll take it easy, work at a nice steady pace... not get all hyperfocused about it..." On the futon-daybed, Anthy turned a little smile to Utena, who rolled her eyes cheerfully. "Yeah, I see that happening," Utena murmured, but Anthy only giggled softly and gestured toward the pair with her eyes. "It should have a -tower,-" Corwin was saying, using the sketchpad app on his omni-tool to draw a rough, glowing outline in the air. "I was thinking maybe more of a longhouse effect," Korra replied, reaching into the holofield to draw another shape with her own fingertip. "With a tower!" Corwin agreed, adding a child's cartoon tower to one end of it... ... and so on into the night. /* Joe Satriani "Unstoppable Momentum" _Unstoppable Momentum_ (2013) */ Eyrie Productions, Unlimited and Magnetic Terrapin Studios presented Undocumented Features Future Imperfect THE LEGACY OF KORRA / THE ORDER OF THE ROSE Suite for Avatar and Trinity (The Diqiu Suite) Third Movement: Goodbye and Hello, As Always (The Director's Cut) The Cast (in order of appearance) Corwin Ravenhair Utena Tenjou Anthy Tenjou Annabelle Tenjou Maki Izumi Ikki Jinora Korra Kaitlyn Hutchins Ryo Sato Karana Azana Anne Cross Amy Pond Nall Silverclaw Garnet "Maximilian" Chin Yongmin XVII Rory Williams Minami Sato Tenzin Gyatso Sita Emily Wong Cheong Serge Nyima Vayu Makoto Luo Qiang Rohan Meelo Naga Senna Tenzin (the Elder) Zanei Asami Sato Lhakpa Niri Yue Pivi Deng Ito Kaiten Firetown Cafe waiter The Punk The Shopkeeper Officer Chuzan Zanya Kuva, MD Eitaro Imanishi Kemba written by Benjamin D. Hutchins and Philip Jeremy Moyer infant management consultant Anne Cross suspicious behavior The EPU Usual Suspects Inspector Imanishi inspired by the character created by Seicho Matsumoto excerpt from "Ulysses" by Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson Sokka's literary agent Matthew Giglia The Diqiu Suite will continue in Fourth Movement: Familiar Spirits E P U (colour) 2014