AFTERMATH

CHAPTER SEVEN

Korra sat on a red cushion at the low, wooden table in the centre of the room. Like almost all the furniture in the room, the table looked out-of-place, a valuable antique sitting on a bare stone floor in a room where the paint on the walls and ceiling was flaking with age. The dust and plaster Naga had shaken off when she had entered the room didn't help the decor either and only served to remind Korra of the damage the polar bear dog had done on the way up the stairs.

The door to the kitchen swung open and Asami came through backwards, carrying a tray loaded with bowls of noodles, a covered dish that smelled wonderful even from where Korra was sitting, and a bottle of wine and two tall crystal glasses.

"I'm sorry about the wall," Korra said.

"It's all right," Asami assured her as she placed the bowls of noodles on the table and used a ladle to fill Korra's plate with a generous helping of a tasty looking crab and smoked fish dish which reminded the water tribe woman of dishes her mother had made. The mouth-watering smell wafting off the food was tantalising and Korra could barely wait to pick up her chopsticks and devour the meal.

"I thought Naga would fit," Korra said. The polar bear dog looked up when she heard her name mentioned and stared at the table with her tongue hanging out until it became obvious that no food would be coming her way and she lay back down disappointed.

"It's okay, Korra," Asami said. "I planned to widen the staircase as part of the renovations anyway. I'll just get the builders to start on it a little earlier. Now eat up before it gets cold."

Korra didn't need another invitation and she dug into the meal, savouring the spicy taste of the crab and the smoked fish. "This is amazing," Korra said to Asami after she had cleared away half her plate. "I can't believe you cooked this. It is just like what I used to have back home."

Asami looked embarrassed and she couldn't quite meet Korra's gaze. "Well," she said. "I didn't actually make this. I had to buy it from Narook's. I did try to cook," Asami she added quickly before Korra could comment. "But I got distracted by my work and my attempt was a bit burned."

Korra nearly snorted out a mouthful of food as she cracked up laughing. "I'm sorry," she said, when she saw Asami looking a little miffed by her reaction. "I just have this mental image of you working on your satomobile while your kitchen is burning down."

"It wasn't that bad," Asami said. "And I was working on a blueprint for a new project, not my satomobile."

"What are you working on?" Korra asked, swirling her chopsticks around on her plate to pick up another mouthful of food.

"A new engine," Asami replied. "It's not important, just a project I want my team to start working on tomorrow if they can."

"But important enough to forget about your cooking."

"No... well yes I guess it was. I thought I had plenty of time and then smoke started pouring out of my kitchen. I guess the recipe was wrong." When Korra started laughing again, Asami glared at her. "You think you can do better?" she said.

"My meals usually don't end up burned."

"Then you'll have to prove it," Asami said. "Next time we eat together you have to cook."

"Okay," Korra said with a cocky smile. "You're on. Come to dinner tomorrow night at Air Temple Island and I'll cook for everyone. Then if I fail it won't just be you to see it."

"And no help from Pema."

"All right," Korra agreed. "I'll do it without any help at all from Pema."

"This should be interesting."

"You don't think I can do it?" Korra asked.

"I didn't say that," Asami said. "I just said it would be interesting."

"Interesting good or interesting bad?"

"How about some wine," Asami suggested, changing the subject. When Korra nodded, she poured two glasses and sat back on her cushion sipping the rich dark-red liquid. "So aside from me burning your dinner and Naga covering both of us with plaster, how was your day?"

"The usual," Korra said. "President Raiko is still trying to make me his personal bodyguard, I nearly fell asleep during Wu's incredibly long and boring speech, one of the badger-moles escaped and tried to dig up the street and I had an awkward conversation with Mako."

"What about?"

"He was wondering why we didn't take him and Bolin with us to the spirit world."

"Oh I see. What did you say?"

"I changed the subject as quickly as I could," Korra replied. "Then Wu called him away before things got really awkward. I also got to talk to Lin, apparently a lot of Kuvira's followers have disappeared and she is worried they might be here in Republic City trying to cause trouble."

"So Raiko might be right to keep you around here," Asami said. "And of course, there are some other benefits to you staying here."

"There are indeed," Korra said. "The food is pretty good. I've never had much of a taste for Earth Kingdom food."

After ducking the napkin thrown by Asami, which Naga snapped out of the air and then spat out and began to bat with her paw when she didn't like the taste, Korra asked, "So how was your day."

"Busy," Asami said. "I met with Varrick and Zhu Li today. They apparently spent their entire honeymoon plotting to steal away part of my company from me again."

"Do you want me to talk to him? I'm pretty sure I can convince him to leave your company alone."

Asami shook her head. "No it's all right, Korra, it's just everyday business. If it wasn't Varrick it would be someone else. Anyway, I've already dealt with the problem."

"What did you do?"

"I sold him the part of the company he was after."

"So how is that dealing with him?" Korra asked.

"It's complicated," Asami explained. "We were losing money on that division anyway, so selling it to Varrick made good sense as it shored up our cash reserves and got rid of a loss making part of the business. Perhaps we didn't get as good a price as we might have been able to elsewhere, but I have Varrick where I want him now."

"So that's good?" Korra asked.

"Yes it is," Asami said. "However, I do still have to see that little weasel-rat again in a couple of days time to sign the deal. I also agreed to have dinner with him and Zhu Li afterwards."

"Do you want me to come along?" Korra asked.

"Not if you don't want to," Asami said.

"Well, I can make sure he doesn't get up to anything sneaky while I'm there if you like."

"I would enjoy having some company," Asami said. "I don't mind Zhu Li, but Varrick makes me so angry sometimes."

"Then it's a date," Korra said. "Although that does mean we will have had dinner together nearly every day this week."

Asami looked concerned. "Are we going to fast for you?"

Korra shook her head and reached across the table to squeeze Asami's hand. "No, of course not. I want to spend more time with you, not less. But people are going to start to notice we are spending all our time together, assuming they haven't already. Jinora was asking me about my dinner plans again this afternoon."

"Let them notice," Asami said. "In fact, I'd be surprised if most our friends haven't already worked it out. My assistant already knew."

"Really, how did she work out we were dating, I thought we had kept things pretty quiet."

"That's what I said to Seiko as well. She wouldn't tell me, just said that it was obvious to anyone who knew me."

"I guess you are right," Korra said. "Our friends will probably work it out fairly easily."

As they had now both finished off their meals, Asami began to gather up the empty plates and bowls and put them on the tray.

"Do you want some help with the dishes?" Korra asked.

"They won't take long," Asami said.

Asami picked up the tray and walked through into the kitchen with Korra following. In the kitchen she walked over to a large square metal box that sat next to the sink and after opening a lid on the top began to put the dishes into the box.

"What is this," Korra asked, looking in wonder inside the box where metal racks held all the dishes.

"This is a new Future Industries prototype," Asami said. "The electric dishwasher."

"Won't that break all the dishes?"

"No it won't," Asami said. "But everyone thinks that and this is why we haven't been able to make many major sales yet. It works perfectly but we just can't get people to accept it yet because no one trusts a machine to clean their dishes. Just watch this."

After Asami had finished loading the dishes into the machines, she poured in some liquid out of a glass bottle and then closed the lid and turned a metal knob on the top of the machine. "Now we just walk away and all the dishes will be cleaned. I can even let them dry inside the machine and take them out tomorrow if I want."

"And you can't sell it?" Korra said, shaking her head in amazement.

"Not so far," Asami said.

"Maybe you need to put it in a mover like how Varrick tried to sway opinion during the water tribe civil war."

"That's actually a really good idea, Korra," Asami said. "I'll get my marketing team to look into that. Movers are popular enough that if we can show someone with one of our dishwashers then people might show an interest in buying one."

"So I did good?" Korra asked.

"You did," Asami said, smiling. "We make a good team. Varrick and Zhu Li have nothing on us."

"No they don't," Korra agreed.

Leaving the kitchen, Korra and Asami moved back to the dining room, which was also the lounge room until Asami was able to expand her home into one of the other apartments. Asami rescued the wine bottle and poured two glasses of wine then curled up on the leather couch with her feet tucked under her. Korra sat down next to her and sipped the wine in her glass. Naga, seeing no more chances that food would be arriving, closed her eyes and began to drift off to sleep.

There was a radio sitting on a small side table next to the couch and Asami leaned over to flick it on, but when it only blared out a hissing sound, she frowned. "I'll be right back," she said to Korra, as she put her glass down on the table and hurried into another room, soon returning with a small selection of tools, most of which she placed down on the table next to her glass of wine.

Korra laughed as Asami began to open up the back of the radio with a screwdriver and leaned over to kiss her girlfriend on the back of her shoulder. "We don't need the radio," she whispered in Asami's ear.

"I thought maybe some music?"

Reaching over to place her still half-full glass down on the table next to Asami's, Korra slid closer on the couch with one hand sliding around behind Asami and the other reaching out to turn her girlfriend's face towards her. As Asami abandoned her work on the radio and let her screwdriver fall from her fingers and roll off across the floor, Korra leaned in to kiss her on the lips.

Breathing a little heavier, Asami pushed her girlfriend back against the couch and while Korra's fingers fumbled with the buttons of her jacket, she let her hands slip underneath Korra's blue top and began to push it upwards, marvelling as she felt the toned stomach muscles tighten beneath her touch. Korra abandoned her efforts to remove Asami's jacket and held her arms up so Asami could pull her top up and over her head. The offending article of clothing was removed and tossed over Asami shoulder and she began to trail kisses along Korra's naked shoulder.

"So," Korra managed to say. "Bedroom?"

"Bedroom," Asami replied, still kissing Korra.

Korra swept Asami off her feet and easily carrying the other woman in her arms, headed for the bedroom. Left behind in the lounge room, Naga reached up and scratched her ears with her paw, dislodging Korra's top which had landed on her head. Then she lay down and put her head between her paws and went back to sleep.

Harmony Tower, more commonly known as the Golden Tower due to the colour it appeared at night when brightly lit by dozens of spotlights, was one of city monuments attacked during harmonic convergence, when thick spirit vines had curled around the tall metal lattice structure. Three years later, the vines still remained, but as in other parts of the city the people had adapted. Street vendors used the vines for shelter in bad weather and strings of brightly coloured lanterns hung from the larger vines.

Sitting on the edge of the metal platform at the very top of the tower, Kai put his arm around Jinora and smiled as his girlfriend used her airbending to play a game with the flying spirits gathered around at the top of the tower.

"We'll have to leave soon," he said.

"I know," Jinora said with a sigh. "We don't want to be late, Dad will be watching the clock."

"We didn't learn anything new about Korra and Asami tonight, but I'm glad we came."

"It was fun," Jinora agreed, turning away from the playful spirits to plant a soft kiss on Kai's lips. "Come on, I'll race you back," she said with a teasing sparkle in her eye.

No sooner had Kai agreed than Jinora was off and gliding out across the harbour. Kai quickly followed and able to catch the young airbending master before she had reach the bay. Forgetting about their race they clasped hands and flew together towards Air Temple Island.

"I told you we could trust them," Pema said as Kai and Jinora landed in the courtyard below the main tower. Neither of the teenagers appeared to spot Jinora's parents watching from their bedroom window high above.

Tenzin watched until the young airbenders had parted and both were walking off towards their respective rooms on opposites sides of the island. Flicking the curtains shut, he crossed the room to join his wife. "They are growing up so fast," he complained.

"Children do that," Pema said. "It won't be long until we have to look forward to Rohan's first love as well."

"I only hope I can guide them properly," Tenzin said.

"You are a great father," Pema assured him. "Look how well Jinora has turned out, an airbending master at age fourteen, and you did a wonderful job guiding Korra in her role as avatar as well."

"I'm not so sure about that," Tenzin said. "Korra has only been back in the city for a couple of days and she has spent nearly every night since out with Asami going to bars or nightclubs or whatever it is young women do these days. She was nearly falling asleep during Wu's speech today."

"I don't think Korra and Asami have been going out to bars," Pema said.

"What? But she was out with Asami all night, what else could they have been doing?"

Pema smiled. "I think they have been staying in."

Tenzin's brow furrowed as he considered this and then understanding dawned. "Oh," he said. "Well that does explain a lot."

Pema nodded and then leaned forward to kiss her husband. "Perhaps we should stay in as well tonight," she suggested.

Tenzin responded with an answering kiss and then he reached up to start unbuttoning his robe.

One of the casualties of Kuvira's recent invasion of Republic City was police headquarters and while a replacement building was already being built by a Future Industries construction team on the site of an abandoned factory near the central train station, but it would be months until it was complete. In the meantime the officers based at the old headquarters building were temporarily reassigned to the city's other two main police stations, which were the western precinct located on the waterfront and used a base for the water police and the eastern precinct located in the industrial sector and home to the police airship fleet.

The western precinct station was a ten-story office building attached to two large warehouses, the first was used to store and maintain the small fleet of water craft, and the second warehouse stored motorcycles and other vehicles used by the police force. The second warehouse had since been converted to an office used by half the city's detectives and beat cops while the rest had relocated over to the eastern precinct. Chief Lin Beifong had also taken over an office here in the western precinct, temporarily evicting the station's captain, who had in turn evicted one of his lieutenants and so on until the most junior officer in the station found herself relegated out to the warehouse.

Pulling up at the wharf, the two officers who had recovered Varrick's launch could see a small group waiting for them to arrive. An older man in civilian dress was likely the station's on-duty doctor, while another four grouped together looked like the crews of the ambulances the airship had called. The last person waiting on the wharf was a tall woman dressed in a neat dark-grey suit.

"I should have known it was you, Sergeant Tang," the woman said as the two men stepped off the boat and made room for the medical team to climb aboard and start examining the patients. "What sort of mess have you found for me this time?"

"Blame the chief for this one, Detective Dakola, she sent us out to find this boat."

"So what are we dealing with?"

"The boat belongs to Varrick, or at least it has his company's emblem on all the seats, and you know how that bastard likes to brand everything. The two people on board were both unconscious when we found them. There is no sign of violence or a struggle and I can't see any visible damage to the boat. So it's a bit of a mystery."

All three took a step back as the medical team carried the two unconscious men off the boat. "Do either of you have a light?" the detective asked.

"Here," the sergeant said, handing her his flashlight.

She switched on the light and shone it around the boat and examined the main deck carefully for several minutes while the two officers stood back and watched. After finishing her examination, the detective switched off the flashlight and handed it back. "I want this boat sealed off until my team can look at it properly tomorrow. However, there is something metal under the left rear seat, I'll need to see what that is now, but be careful it looks sharp."

"I can get that," Hong Li said. The young officer squatted down at the edge of the wharf and pulled out his own flashlight and began to shine the light beneath the seat the detective had identified, looking for the object she had seen.

"Bring it to me once you have it," Dakola said as she walked away. "Sergeant Tang come with me."

The sergeant followed her over to where the doctor was treating the two victims. She examined the faces of the two men, her grey eyes narrowing when she got to the second man. "Do you know him?" she asked.

The sergeant shook his head. "No, neither is familiar to me."

"This is Big Yao, he's a waterbender who used to play on the pro-bending circuit about five years back until he was expelled from the sport when we discovered he was throwing matches. Turned out that he had a deal going on with one of the triads and they were making a fortune gambling on his matches. He served four years in prison and he was just released recently. Last I heard was that he started working as a bodyguard for hire."

"So if he's a bodyguard who is he guarding?" Tang asked. "That other guy just looks like the crew."

"Yes, I agree." She turned to the doctor who was looking at something on Big Yao's shoulder. "What's the verdict?"

The doctor looked up from the patient. "I'm not certain," he said. "They are alive and breathing normally, but they are still unconscious and I haven't been able to wake them. There are some puncture marks on their bodies so I suspect we are looking at an injected poison of some sort and not a disease or an animal attack. They aren't paralysed so that rules out shirshu saliva, which is the most common fast acting poison, so this is likely something else."

"But you have no idea what?"

"No," the doctor said. "There are any number of exotic animal and plant poisons from across the world that could have this effect and each has very different treatments. The antidotes for some can cause complications with others so I really need to know exactly what it is before I can treat it properly."

"Perhaps this can help," Hong Li said as he arrived with one hand outstretched. Floating in the air above his hand was a metal dart.

"No need to get fancy, kid," Tang muttered under his breath.

The detective plucked the dart out of the air, careful to not to touch the tip. There was a brown substance smeared across the tip and she sniffed at it before shrugging and passing the dart to the doctor.

The doctor looked at it carefully, also sniffing at the substance and then he walked over to the wharf where it was darker before finally returning to his patients. "I know it," he said. "It's a fast acting plant poison made from the ghost lotus, a luminescent flower common to swamps in the southern reaches of the United Republic."

"Can you counter it?"

The doctor nodded. "I have an antidote in my stock."

"Then get it, I want to hear what these two have to say."

The doctor quickly retrieved the antidote and returned with a phial of clear liquid and a needle. After receiving the required dosage of the antidote the men quickly recovered and were soon able to sit up and sip water. "You can ask a few questions," the doctor said, but I still want them taken to the hospital in case there are side effects.

Before Dakola could ask anything the man she had identified as Big Yao spoke up. "Where is the boss?" he asked, looking around the room. "The boss and his wife were on the boat with us."

"Are you talking about Mr Varrick?" Dakola asked.

"Yeah, Varrick and Zhu Li. We were coming back from a meeting at Future Industries with them when this happened."

"What exactly did happen?"

"Don't remember much. There was another boat behind us, a speedboat, really fast too. It came up behind us and I think there was a woman standing up at the back. Then it pulled right alongside and that's about all I remember."

The two officers and the detective exchanged glances. "Do you mean to say that someone has kidnapped Mr Varrick and his wife?" Dakola asked.

"Well they ain't here," the bodyguard said.

"And what about you," the detective said, looking over at the other man. "What do you remember?"

"About the same," the driver replied. "I was at the controls and then another boat came up beside us and then I blacked out. I didn't see the woman Yao mentioned, but I wasn't looking at the boat."

"This woman, do you remember anything about her?"

Big Yao shook his head. "Not much, was wearing green I think, oh yeah except for a floppy black hat and I think her boots might have been black too. There were others in the speedboat but I didn't see them."

"Did you see how many there were?"

"Two maybe. I didn't get a good look at them."

"Okay, was Mr Varrick carrying any valuables?"

"Not that I know of, he had just gone for a meeting. I think Zhu Li had a folder with her with some business papers, but I don't know what was in them."

The detective pulled out her notebook and made a few notes before she continued the questions. "Do you know what the meeting at Future Industries was about?"

"I'm paid not to pay attention to their business, and anyway I stayed with the boat when they went inside to talk to the Sato girl."

Dakola frowned. "All right, do you know what time it happened?"

"It was just about two I think. We were heading back to the yacht for a late lunch."

"And it is," the detective looked at her watch. "Nearly ten now, so they have been gone for eight hours."

"That is probably enough questions," the doctor said, gesturing to the ambulance crews. "They are recovering from a nasty poison so we don't want to stress them."

"I'll have one of my colleagues come down to see you two tomorrow," Dakola said as the two men were carted away towards the ambulances that waited outside the warehouse. She turned back to her notebook to jot down some more notes.

"So what now," Sergeant Tang asked as the ambulances pulled away.

"We are going to have to tell the chief," she said. "One of the richest men in the world was kidnapped in the heart of the city and who knows what kind of secrets he's carrying around in his head."

Tang nodded and then he slapped Hong Li on the back. "Guess what kid."

"I get to go and wake Chief Beifong?"

Dakola laughed. "This rookie's a fast learner, Tang. You want to watch out or I might steal him away for my team."

The low murmur of voices was the first thing Varrick heard as consciousness returned, followed by the chink of metal striking metal and then a low, familiar sounding hum. He tried to open his eyes, but as soon as he did so spots danced across his vision, his head spun, and he felt sick. Keeping his eyes closed for now he tried to take stock of his situation. He recalled the meeting with Asami, then boarding the launch and heading back to the yacht. Then it became hazy, he recalled being attacked, but then nothing more until he woke here and the weight pulling down on his wrists suggested he was in shackles which wasn't good. He was sitting on a cold stone floor with his back against something warmer, perhaps metal instead of stone. There was the stench of sewerage in the air and something else, the familiar smell of oil and grease, which meant machinery.

Varrick tried opening his eyes again, and this time the nausea was less, but his vision was still blurry and his mouth felt dry as if he hadn't drunk anything for a week. Across from him was a small cluster of human sized blurs and squinting he could just make out their faces. One was a woman dressed in green overalls. Her clothing suggested a worker, but her haircut suggested a soldier, likely one of Kuvira's former followers. She was speaking to a man and a woman dressed in more outlandish clothing and weapons. Varrick immediately labelled them mercenaries or bandits, he had employed enough over the years to know their type. The first woman was counting out coins from a large chest and pushing them across a table to the female mercenary, which supported his theory.

He twisted his head a little to one side and tried to see past the three. That was when he spotted the hulking shapes of three mecha suits at the far end of the room. One appeared to be inactive with parts strewn across a nearby table, but the other two were complete. The cockpit of one of the mecha suits was open and there was a man strapped in the seat working the controls. It was from this machine the humming sound was coming. They were his, well the mecha suits he had designed for the Earth Empire anyway. He had thought all the surviving mecha suits had been accounted for at the end of the war, but obviously a few had made it into the hands of this crew, which was troubling.

Varrick turned his attention to his own situation, checking his bonds. Sure enough, metal shackles encased his wrists and the chain attached to the shackles was also wrapped around a nearby pipe that ran around the edge of the room before ending near a tunnel on the far wall. A thick torrent of foul-smelling sludge pouring from the pipe into the tunnel beyond the room explained the stench of sewerage that was constantly assaulting his nostrils. Looking behind him he could see a ladder leading upwards, perhaps to the surface.

His vision was clearing now and he could make out more details. He was also shocked to discover Zhu Li was also imprisoned with him, his wife lying on the stone floor not far from him, also shackled and chained to the sewer pipe. Her eyes were closed and she appeared to be unconscious, but Varrick could see her chest rising and falling so thankfully she was still breathing. He felt weak and moving bought on more dizziness, but he had to find out if she was okay, so he shuffled closer to Zhu Li.

The sound of his chains sliding over the stone alerted his captors and he heard a man call out, "He's awake."

"About time," another man said and Varrick looked up to see a tall man, also dressed in green overalls, striding across the room towards him. The man had the short haircut that had been common among Kurvia's most loyal followers and his face twisted in anger as he reached down and grabbed Varrick's hair. He dragged Varrick up to a sitting position, pulling his head back so he could glare into the inventor's eyes. "How are you feeling, traitor?" the man snarled at him.

"I could use a drink," Varrick said.

"You'll get nothing from us, traitor," the man said, slapping his hand hard across Varrick's face.

"Enough!" the woman said. "There will be plenty of time for that when we get him back to our base."

The man spat at Varrick, the spittle hitting the inventor's cheek, but he still followed his orders and released Varrick. The solder walked over to the table near the dismantled mecha suit and started angrily poking at a burnt out mechanical device that looked to Varrick like the main control column from the mecha suit.

"Are we done now?" the female mercenary asked the woman who it appeared was commanding this group.

"Yes," the woman said. "We know where to find you if we need you again."

The two mercenaries turned and walked away, the man lugging a heavy green bag with him, while the woman tipped the pile of gold coins she had just received into a leather bag which she then tied to her belt. Both then walked past Varrick and began to climb up the ladder, which supported his theory the ladder lead up to the surface.

A grinding sound from the other side of the room dragged his attention in that direction and he saw the occupied mecha suit rise up from the floor and walk towards the sewer tunnel, the outer door on the suit slowly closing as it moved away down the tunnel. The second complete mecha suit remained empty, but another man was busy working on it, so it wouldn't be long before that one was moving as well if it still worked.

Varrick found his vision had now cleared, so he took the time to scan the room properly. In addition to the man who had hit him and the woman in charge, there were two other men in the room. One working on the second complete mecha suit and another sitting near a device, possibly a radio, which was sitting on a crate. All four wore green overalls like a uniform and the men all had the short haircuts of Kuvira loyalists.

He glanced over at Zhu Li again and his heart leapt when he saw that his wife's eyes were now open. He raised his shackled hands and pressed a finger to his lips to warn her about speaking. She nodded and then she also dragged her hands upwards, pulling two hairpins free from her hair. Then she winked at him.