"Dad?" I can't hide my surprise.
How come he's here? I don't have time to say anything because he steps ahead and hugs me. "Oh my gosh! Feline! Where have you been? We've been so worried! I thought I'd never see you again!" My father spits out. He's the good old Bolin I remember. I'm glad to see he's back to his old self and I couldn't be happier to see him right now. Maybe it's actually better that he's the one who opened the door.
My mother hugs me when my father lets go of me and during this brief reunion water guy keeps standing there the whole time, his jaw open.
"No way! You're Bolin and Opal! Wow! It's such an honor to meet you!"
He raises his hand to great my father, his palm open. I can clearly see the excitement in his eyes. Even if his uncle is now Chief of the Northern Water Tribe, he's still a big fan of his childhood living legends.
"And you are…?" My father asks while raising an eyebrow as if trying to remember if he met him before.
"Mom, dad, this is Sunai, we met on the train and he saved my life."
Bolin stares at the young man for a while, looking him up and down as if trying to decide whether he should trust him or not. But shortly after he smiles and shakes his hand.
"Thank you for keeping our daughter safe! Looks like you got yourself a trusty young man, sweetie!"
I blush and my mother laughs a little.
"Well, thank you Sir, but Feline saved my life too. We saved each other."
"This is such a happy reunion! Come on in, you'll tell us everything inside."
And just like that, I was back at my uncle's place again. It hasn't changed one bit. Mako's always been organized and everything's still in place. But those who live here are not there.
"Where's Mako? And Jay? Sen also, where are they?"
Bolin sits on the couch and pats the cushions next to him for me to sit. There's already tea on the small table, jasmine tea, my mom's favorite. I can also smell something baking in the kitchen, probably blueberry muffins. My father sighs.
"Mako has been working his butt off the last couple of days to find you. He's still out there, looking for you which reminds me…" He then grabs the phone and contacts Lin, telling her the good news.
I can easily imagine Lin's relief painted on her face. Bolin then talks with her for a while, getting slowly away from us and even enters the kitchen like he was talking about something secret. I can't help but wonder what it is… Even my mother seems surprised and concerned but she quickly turns to Sunai and offers him some tea while asking us to tell everything that happened since we left the train station in Zoafu. It takes us an entire hour to tell them everything, my father having joined us after a couple of secrecy talking minutes with the Chief. Lin actually wants us to drop by the Police Station the next day to tell her our story and maybe the things we discovered will help the investigation.
Once we finished talking, Sunai asked my parents a lot of questions about their adventures back in the days of Avatar Korra's glory. It's at this time that Mako's family came home. The boys wouldn't let me go until they were sure I had my dose of free hugs and that I wasn't hurt. We told the story again and I know we'll have to do it again in front of Lin. Jay then sits next to me, smiling. He looks better than before the train trip and I have to tell him something.
"I'm so sorry Jay, but during the attack, one of the bandits took my bag and it fell out of the train just like us. It got lost in the river."
"Don't worry, it's no big deal." Even if he says so, I don't think he's being honest. I can clearly see the sadness in his eyes even if he's doing everything not to show it. "When dad discovered my badge was missing, Sen told him he borrowed it to show his friends but lost it during the train attack. I can't believe he did something like that! He saved my neck, but I wished he didn't."
I can't help being surprised and look at Sen who's sitting in a corner at the end of the living room. It's definitely odd; usually he's sitting near Jay, always trying to get his attention or mine.
"Why? That's pretty nice of him…"
"That's the problem! I'm tired of him being always so nice and caring, always doing everything I tell him to do! He's the same with dad! Always acting like a puppy, following us everywhere, doing the same as we do!"
I sigh and look back at Jay.
"He's your younger and only brother, it's normal for him to want to be like you, you're his hero!"
"Well I don't want to be! He shouldn't take me as an example! I'm not as good as he thinks I am!" Jay is screaming now and mom looks in our direction before getting back to her conversation with Mako who seems somewhat less tired now that he knows I'm fine than when he first came in.
"I'm not perfect and I'm not good enough! I've pretty much screwed up everything I ever did in my life and I don't want to him do the same. I don't want him to make the same mistakes I made…"
Opal smiles gently and even if Mako doesn't react one bit, I'm sure he heard him. Sen doesn't seem to have been listening though… Once the whole Sen-and-badge topic is closed, Jay gets back his good mood and starts joking around again. I seriously don't know how he can be so hilarious. He definitely didn't get that from Mako… Maybe Bolin inspired him somehow… Or maybe his mother was a jokester. There's no use asking Jay, he doesn't know himself and gave up on trying to discover the truth from his father. Because every time Jay's mom is mentioned, Mako becomes as sad and melancholic as Bolin when we talk about Korra. And his father's sadness is just something my firebending cousin doesn't want to see again.
Maybe I'm the one who should try to ask Mako. After all, it's been a long time ago and nobody asked him in ages. And as I'm his favorite niece, I think I should give it a try once I'm alone with my uncle. Sunai joined the conversation and so do we. He clearly still can't believe he gets to meet three of the heroes he heard so many stories about in his childhood. And who would have thought that this perfectly serious and calm guy can also be a true fan boy?
"As I started telling you earlier, the first real threat to Republic City, even more dangerous than the Triads, and believe me when I say that these guys are scary, was the Equalists and Amon, their leader." Says Bolin. Even if I've heard this story a dozen times, I love it when my father tells it. He just got this amazing way of telling stories that he actually could read a cooking recipe and it still would be awesome. And as usual when Jay's around story telling time, he can't help himself but add some comments of his own.
"Yeah, that dude really was Amon-ster!"
My father kept telling the story, probably adding some extra details (did Korra really make Amon cry like a baby in front of all the people?) and every time Jay saw an opportunity, he took it.
"So it was pretty tough back in the days. I didn't know Opal then yet, but Team Avatar really had a lot of fun and we did some amazing things! Asami for example even though she's a nonbender, man she was powerful with that technology of hers!" Bolin keeps on saying.
"Yeah, she used her father's shock glove to help the Avatar fight Equalists… the results were quite shocking…" Jay says.
My father laughs and I'm glad he's back to his old self again because Bolin who's not laughing is just not Bolin. "But things were really dark for a while; it was scary when Amon could take your bending away at any second! Even Lin got caught!"
Jay smiles. "Uncle, you're making this too easy. Amon took away Lin's bending and toldher not to "metal" with his plans again."
"Yes! And then we took them down and saved the world!"
"You know Amon's second in command was defeated by Korra's polarbear dog... I heard it was aPAWling…"
"After weeks of terror, Korra finally faced Amon and defeated him but unfortunately he escaped. But our trusty detective here…" Bolin puts his arm around Mako who's sitting next to him. "Discovered a few weeks later, before another threat had risen, that Amon and his brother went BABOOM and were no longer of this world." He puts his hand on his chest and lowers his voice, making it sad but funny at the same time.
"Yeah, Amon took Tarrlock out for a boat ride. They've been dying to spend some time together."
After the Equalists crisis, my father tells us how Team Avatar prevented ten thousand years of darkness and relates us every single detail about the fight between Giant Korra and Dark Unaloq Vaatu (even though he wasn't there) and how he almost got married to Eska who's now Sunai's aunt and also how he got into the Movers. Today, they are the most popular and amazing thing to do in town, there are dozens of Movers stars and I've watched "Noatak the hero of the North" at least fifteen times, it's always aired on TV (another of Varreck's inventions) during the anniversary of the day Unalaq was defeated.
Jay can't make a lot of jokes about this period of time maybe because it was really darker than the one before or simply because it's not as easy to find a pun with Unalaq as it is with Amon.
After that, the whole Red Lotus story was told and Bolin got really emotional talking about how Zaheer managed to break Korra and almost killed her but Jay lightened the mood by saying how Zaheer took the earth queen's breath away and singing a tune to it. Mako even cracked a smile. The next story wasn't this funny. I know my father doesn't mind talking about Kuvira's reign, but he's always serious and also sad when he tells this part of the story, like he's remembering every single mistake he made at that time. My mother has forgiven him a long time ago and so had the rest of my family, but I guess he's never going to laugh about it as he does about the rest. Not many jokes here either, Jay really has to do better than that.
After that, my father keeps telling us other stories and of course, they're all from his point of view so I wonder if it was the same when Korra, the main protagonist of these stories, was doing all of these things he's telling us about. Probably not.
"So after Korra was back on track and prince Wu decided to turn the earth kingdom into a republic, heads of States were elected by the people according to the different counties of the kingdom. But it took a long time, ten years actually to put the republic in place and Korra had to stop a lot of rebellions that occurred in the different States. Some people also couldn't accept the presence of the spirits and fought with them, trying to chase them away." Says my father. He lowers his head and I know what's coming, I've heard this story so many times already but Sunai hasn't and he's hanging onto Bolin's every word.
"That was one of these fights Korra was trying to stop when she vanished. In a few weeks, it's going to be eighteen years." Yeah, just like my birthday, I can't help but think. "She disappeared near Zaofu, in the desert, near Misty Palms Oasis, but no matter how many searching parties we sent, no matter how many times we all searched the desert, we couldn't find her or any sign or trace. Even in the Spirit World. That's why it took the earth republic so long to get stable. She just… vanished."
That's when I hear the creepy voice again. I turn abruptly, looking out of the window. "…vanished…" it says. For a moment, I see a dark blue silhouette outside the window but as I'm about to get up in order to get a closer look, Bolin bursts out laughing at one of Jay's jokes and the silhouette disappears. It's weird. Well, it's been weird since the first time I heard this voice, but the more it happens, the more confused I get but at the same time closer to the truth and I know that someday, I'll discover who's voice it is and especially what does it want.
"Did you hear this Feline, it's just so funny! You have to listen! Come on Jay, tell your joke again!" Says my father, still laughing and clutching his stomach. Jay turns to me.
"Ever wondered how Toph met her husband? On a blind date!"
I can't help but laugh. I really don't know where Jay gets his silly jokes. After a while, we eat dinner all together and Mako offers Sunai to stay here for the night. He'll sleep on the couch of the living room when I'm going to sleep in the guest room where I usually slept during the summer; everybody always considered it my room. My parents will be staying in Jay's room and my firebending cousin will sleep on a mattress in Sen's room. And of course, Mako will be in his own room. The apartment is located in the city center, a few streets away from the police station and three tram stops away from the train station. It's not the richest neighborhood in Republic City, but it's a really nice and very safe one.
Once the dinner's over, I offer to wash the dishes. It may be nothing, but it's the least I can do after worrying them all so much. Meanwhile Sunai tells them about the money we owe Rei "One thousand and two hundred yuans?!" my father yells. But my parents are willing to pay our debt, but I'll have to pay them back once I've got this money with my work. Mako then comes to help me and after a few words, a thick silence settles between us.
"Hum… Mako? Can I ask you something?" I say with a voice so quiet it's a miracle he hears me. "Shoot." I stop washing the plate I'm holding and put it back in the sink while looking at him directly in the eye.
"What… what happened to Jay and Sen's mom?"
He doesn't say anything at first and keeps on washing up the dishes and I only half expect him to answer, but he finally does. "Rayla and I never got married. We were living in this very apartment together for a few years when Jairo unexpectedly arrived and then Sen and our lives were as busy as hell. I was already a detective at the time and she was a nonbender nurse working at the local hospital. Slowly our lives were better and better. We finally could afford a car and other expensive things. But…" He stops for a few seconds, takes a deep breath then keeps on talking. "But one day when I got home after work, she wasn't there. I called the hospital but they haven't seen her the whole day since she had the day off after a night shift. The boys were at the daycare and I looked for her everywhere. She just disappeared. Just like Korra. But it was a few years after the Avatar, the boys don't remember her much, they hadn't five years back then."
I lower my head and keep on washing the dishes. I can clearly see that my uncle's moved but it's not the same kind of sadness as my father. Contrary to Bolin, Mako got over it, even if it still hurts but there are some things my father will never get over. Like Korra's disappearance.
"Feline… vanished…" Here comes the creepy voice again. It's never called me twice in the same day before. I walk to the small kitchen window and look through it and I can clearly see a woman's silhouette on the neighbors' roof. But it's too dark to see her face's features. She's standing defiantly, like she's ready for battle, but at the same time, her position is kind of proud and wise. I close my eyes and when I open them again, she's gone.
"Did you see this?" I ask out loud. Mako comes and looks through the window. "See what? I didn't see anything…"
I look at my uncle and he frowns. "Nothing. I just thought I saw a pygmy puma on the roof…"
Mako actually cracks a smile. "Don't be silly, there are no pygmy pumas in Republic City." He then walks away still smiling and I can't help but look back at the roof. As expected, it's still empty. This time, the voice said two words and it called me twice. I just wonder when will I hear it again… but it's time to go to bed because tomorrow, Sunai and I are going to the police station.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Sorry for the delay, guys, the week was just crazy! I don't hink I'll be able to publish a new chapter every three days like I used to, but you can be sure I'll post a chapter during the week. It's probably often going to be a Sunday. So I hope you like this chapter and you can contact me if you like, it's always a pleasure to read you guys. I never actually thought that so many people will like this story and I can't tell you how much it means to me. Thanks to you all!
So about this chapter, Jay's mother is kind of important, but we'll get to her later. Also it could be fun if you tried to guess who Jay gets his sense of humor from, I'm sure you'll guess right. Also, there's a couple that as just been mentioned once or twice in the Legend of Korra books and I was disapointed by that, so I'll mention this couple in my story and their descendants will appear (since they were Aang's friends). Also we'll discover later who Rei's and Sunai's mother are and what happened to Korra. Also, I think it's getting obvious who the creepy voice belongs to but I won't say more.
Small spoiler about the next chapter (I think I'll give you three words every time about the next chapter to get you imagination running while waiting so here they are for chapter 11, I count the place's names as one) : INTERROGATION - JEN - KORRA'S PARC