Bolin was full of questions for Iroh as he rode up the mountain on Naga with the general and Asami behind him. What happened with your great-grandma? Who's your grandma? Who's your dad? What happened with your grandpa's sister? How old are you and why do you sound like a teenager?
But he knew better to ask about those questions right now, since they had a job to do, and Iroh reminded him of that once the equalist airfield came into view. They all dismounted Naga to head toward the enemy base, although Bolin had to give additional instruction to her and Pabu to stay put.
As he walked down a small hill with Asami and Iroh, he heard her wondering why there were fence posts with no fences. Nobody could offer further speculation, because when they stepped in between the posts they were electrocuted until they collapsed on the ground, unconscious.
When he woke up, Bolin felt ropes binding him to someone else, and since he saw Asami glaring at her father who was standing in front of their prison cell, he guessed it was Iroh that he was tied up with.
"Asami, I know I've hurt you with what I've been doing", Hiroshi spoke quietly to his daughter. "But I want you to know that I've been doing this for you. I hope you can someday forgive me, and we can be a family again."
"Are you crazy?", she yelled back. "I never wanted this! I never wanted you to terrorize innocent people! How are we supposed to be a family again after everything you've done?"
"You'll understand when you're older. All I am trying to do is rid the world of the scourge that took your mother away."
"She wouldn't want this either! Mom would hate what you've become, and she'd hate that you're using what happened to justify all of this!"
Hiroshi's face contorted in anger, so Bolin decided to speak up to spare his friend any verbal abuse from her dad. "Also, you know, we're sitting right here. With our bending. Being all scourge-y, apparently."
"Don't speak to me when I'm talking to my daughter, street rat."
"Well that's a pretty hypocritical thing to say, Mister 'I-was-dirt-poor-too'."
"I don't expect a fool like you to understand the difference between just having an idea with a work ethic to becoming a self made titan of industry, while you commit savagery, call it a sport, and barely be able to crawl out of the gutter!" "Gonna pretend your workers didn't have anything to do with that, huh?"
"Don't talk to him like that!", Asami interrupted.
Hiroshi didn't even respond to her, keeping his focus on Bolin. "How dare you poison my own child against me!"
"How could I ever be able to do that, with the wonderful job of parenting you did?", Bolin responded with a sarcastic tone he hadn't used often. "Tying her up and throwing her in a cell, screaming at her, working with terrorists trying to kill her friends-hey, what size do you wear? I was wondering so I could get you a 'world's greatest dad shirt'. Or would you prefer a coffee mug?"
"Quiet!", Hiroshi bellowed. "This conversation is pointless, the planes are ready for takeoff, and we can annihilate the rest of the fleet. That's right general", he told Iroh. "We intercepted your message, and we know where your reinforcements are hiding." He then walked away, leaving Iroh to struggle against the ropes binding him to Bolin.
"I don't suppose you know how to metalbend?"
"That is a negative, sir." He could feel the general sulk against him, but he got an idea, and decided to whistle in a manner that hopefully sounded enough like the way Korra had done it on their first date.
It seemed to work though, as Naga burst through the door of the warehouse and knocked down the cell door, while Pabu hopped into his lap to chew through the ropes. Once they were all free and outside, Iroh pursued the aircraft heading to destroy the fleet, while Asami hopped into a mecha-tank to destroy the planes that hadn't taken off yet.
That left Bolin to tear up the runways with earthbending, so that no equalist planes still in the air would be able to land back at the airfield. It went smoothly for the most part, the only hiccup being when unfriendly mecha-tanks tried to stop him, but Naga was able to catch the cables that flew towards him in her teeth, sending them toppling over each other with a yank. She wasn't done though, because right after that she ran up behind Bolin, put his collar in her mouth, and threw him onto her back as she darted toward the nearby hanger.
He was about to ask the polar bear dog what had gotten her so riled up when his question was answered by Hiroshi Sato's yelling.
"What do you think you're doing, Asami? You are aiding the very people that took your mother away!"
"Stop talking about her! All you're doing is using her memory for hate! Do you even feel love for her anymore?"
That apparently touched a nerve. "You insolent child!"
Bolin told Naga to speed up, since they were too far away to help Asami right then, but close enough to see that she needed assistance.
Hiroshi seemed to get the upper hand quickly though, knocking her mecha-tank off balance with his own.
"I see now there is no chance to save you!"
Bolin got in range just in time for him to start slinging rocks in Hiroshi's direction, in the hopes of buying Asami some time.
"Mister Sato, you are a horrible father!"
The distraction appeared to work, as Asami used the opportunity to her advantage, knocking down her dad and ripping open a hole in his mecha-tank. She must have seen something that made her hesitate, because there was a pause in the fighting, long enough for her dad to try and make an escape. It was a wasted effort though, because she shot a bolo at him that was able to shock him unconscious.
"You really are a horrible father." Bolin couldn't see Asami's face, but he could tell from her voice that what just happened had broken her heart. There was a brief moment of quiet, where the only noise came from Naga whining. After that, Bolin told the polar bear dog to keep an eye on Hiroshi, dismounted from her, then walked over to Asami to help her do the same from the mecha-tank.
She declined the offer of assistance though, saying she was "fine", but Bolin knew she was lying, and he was pretty sure she knew that he knew she was lying, but he decided not to press her right now.
"Come on", he told her, gesturing towards a small doorway. "If they were able to intercept Iroh's message, then they should have the equipment we need here to send one of our own. We can let Commander Bumi know the airfield's been disabled and they can send in the reinforcements."
"You know how to work one of those things?"
"Yeah, I learned from Bushi. He would use it to send messages to other tent cities, keep everyone in the loop."
"But what about the planes that already took off?", Asami asked.
"Iroh went after them, right? I gotta good feeling about that." Bolin hoped his optimism would rub off on her a little bit, but it wasn't surprising to not see any visual signs.
Fortunately, he was able to find the equipment they needed quickly and send the message. After that, he noticed there was a plane that hadn't been destroyed yet. He suggested that Asami could use it to get back to the others while he would ride back to Republic city on Naga, with Mr. Sato as an unwilling passenger. She silently nodded, and Bolin was again reminded of what she had just gone through.
Her own father tried to kill her. Spirits, it was messed up to even think about. He didn't know what to do. He had no idea how to comfort her, that had always been Mako's thing. But the dumb part of his brain had an idea.
"Asami, what was your mom like?"
"What?" There was no anger in her voice, just surprised he blurted out something like that.
"Oh never mind, it's stupid. I just thought maybe...you know when I was sad about my parents, Korra asked what they were like, and it helped me little, but...anyway like I said before, forget about it, I was being...sorry."
"It's ok, I think I get you mean. I don't really remember much though."
"Me neither", Bolin responded sympathetically.
"She loved working on the Sato industries prototypes, I remember sitting in her workshop, just watching her taking things apart to make them better or fix a problem. I actually started taking self-defense classes because of her. I remember saying 'I wanna be strong like Mom!'. And she loved taking me to the park to play with other kids."
"My mom liked to do that too. Maybe we met when we were kids, we just don't remember."
"Yeah, maybe." There was a crack in Asami's voice as she spoke, and right after that Bolin saw tears in the corner of her eyes. He didn't waste any time to go and comfort her, giving a hug that let her bury her face in his shoulder, letting her cry, soaking a small spot on his jacket.
He wasn't sure how long they stayed like that, but Asami eventually broke the long silence. "You know, I just realized something."
"What?"
"All of this, everything he's done, he said he was doing it because a bender killed his wife. But a bender just saved his daughter's life." She hadn't moved off of his shoulder, but Bolin could somehow feel a ghost of a smile on her face.
"I uh...I don't think he'll see the irony."
"I don't really care if he does."
"Asami I...I'm sorry."
"You're sorry that you saved my life?", Asami asked with a tiny laugh.
"No I-you know what I mean. Just...you'll always have a place with us, you know?"
"Thank you."
After that, Bolin cleaned up the runway a bit so that Asami could fly back to Air temple Island, while stowing Hiroshi on Naga for the ride back. The man unfortunately regained consciousness at some point and started spouting delusions, but the earthbender found a creative way to keep him quiet, while also asking Naga to go faster, just to make the trip as uncomfortable as possible for Mr. Sato.
Eventually they arrived at the dock across from the island, and luckily the boat team avatar had used to get into the city when the equalists started attacking was still there, so he was able to clumsily sail across Yue bay near the opposite dock.
He was greeted by Tenzin and Mako, but he could see Korra standing not too far away with Asami, Lin, Pema, and the kids. Bolin was caught slightly off guard by his older brother, hugging him while expressing relief of his safety. Then Mako glared at Hiroshi, who remained tied up on Naga. "You brought him back with you?"
"I figured we should make sure he couldn't escape, plus he built all that stuff, so he's gotta have some useful info, right?" Bolin paused, noticing Mako's expression hadn't changed. "So I guess Asami told you what happened?"
"Yeah", he replied solemnly. "Thanks, by the way."
"Of course."
Then Tenzin joined the conversation, squinting at Mr. Sato. "Is that...did you gag him?"
"Well, he woke up and started yelling some not nice things, so I decided to put a sock in it. Literally!"
Tenzin merely sighed, while Mako gave an amused snort, but Bolin realized something when they reacted.
"Hang on Tenzin, I thought you were getting your family out of the city, what happened?"
The man exchanged a nervous look with Mako before answering. "We tried, but the equalists were able to catch up with us, even with Lin trying to slow them down."
"So you guys got captured? Did Amon take your-"
"No", Tenzin interrupted. "Not ours."
"Then who did he...", Bolin realized what had happened when he saw guilt on Mako's face.
"No."
He was about to go over to Korra, but Mako stopped him. "Hang on, Bolin. I know, but you gotta know what happened."
"Why?", Bolin asked impatiently.
"Amon...he didn't take all of her bending.
"Huh?" What his brother had just said made no sense to him, but it was enough to make him listen long enough for Mako to explain. When he finished, it left Bolin feeling stunned.
"So Korra can airbend now, but after Amon took her bending? How did that happen?"
"We're...not sure", Tenzin answered. He didn't feel satisfied with that, but since he had no idea how that could be possible either, Bolin moved on.
"What ended up happening with Amon-er I mean Noatak?"
"There's been reports from witnesses of him escaping on a boat with Tarrlok, but the United Forces can have patrols looking for them. It won't be long before more everyone knows the truth about him."
"So, what are we going to do now?"
"Once the reinforcements get here, we'll take Korra to the south pole, to see if my mother can heal her."
"How...how is she doing with all of this?"
"She's keeping it together, but she really needs you right now." Mako's response was all Bolin needed to hear. He stood up from his seat on the pier and got to see Korra. She was in a conversation with Lin, but she turned to face him as he walked towards her. Before they could say anything to each other, Ikki cried out in delight.
"Yay, Uncle Bumi's here!"
It wasn't hard for him to figure out why she was so excited, since he saw the man she was probably referring to was yelling out a "wahoo!" on the deck of his ship while beating his chest. However, Tenzin didn't seem as pleased as his daughter.
"Great, now I have to entertain my brother."
Right after that, the ship pulled up alongside the dock, and Bumi walked down a ramp towards the small group that was waiting for him.
"Ah, it's good to be back home! Good to see you and the family again, baby brother!"
"Hello, Bumi", Tenzin replied with exasperation, as his children ran to their uncle to greet him.
After he put the kids down, the man gave Korra his full attention. "It's really been a long time, huh Dad? You seem shorter than I remember. And you have hair now, that's weird."
"Dad?", Bolin thought out loud.
"Do you mind, kid?", Bumi addressed him. "I'm trying to have a conversation with my father here. Who are you, anyway?"
"That's Bolin, he's my boyfriend?" Korra was totally confused with what Bumi was doing, as the man then gave Bolin an investigative stare.
"Hmph. Gotta say Dad, your taste seems like it's really gone downhill."
That prompted an offended "Hey!" from both Bolin and Korra, but Bumi was quick to clarify.
"Nothing personal, kid. The last person my dad was with was my mom, so it's pretty hard to live up to that comparison."
Bolin saw his point, but Korra still seemed annoyed with the insult to her boyfriend. Fortunately, Tenzin finally stepped in to avoid things getting out of hand. "Are you done making everyone feel uncomfortable, Bumi?"
Things fortunately settled down after that. A few moments later Tenzin and family went back towards the house to prepare them for a trip to the south pole, while Lin and Bumi tagged along, and Bolin could hear the United Forces commander tell a childhood story involving fruit pies, much to the annoyance of his little brother.
Mako and Asami went off to be alone for a little while, which Bolin was secretly grateful for, since he figured both girls could use some privacy. When everyone else was gone though, she just stared out into the bay with a pained expression on her face, and he couldn't imagine what must have been going through her head.
So he hugged her. He held her tight against him, and Korra buried her face against Bolin's neck, squeezing him back. Neither of them had said anything yet, but eventually he figured out something to tell her.
"This might sound weird, but I'm really proud of you."
"What?" Korra's voice was muffled by his jacket, but he could tell how shocked she was by the praise.
"Yeah. You protected my brother, saved the city, saved airbending, and you blasted a psychic bloodbender out a window your first time doing it."
"But he got away." He hated how defeated she sounded, so he used a hand and rubbed it up and down her back to try and give her a little comfort.
"Everyone knows who he is now because of you. They'll catch him, and we'll get all of this fixed, okay?"
"Okay."
Notes: Bit of a shorter chapter than usual, I know, but I felt like what I wanted to do for this episode would be too much. Not to mention it would be a lot longer wait for you all, thank you so much for the support, it means so much to me!
Gave a bit more attention to what Asami was going through than what happened in canon, also a chance to give Bolin and Asami's dynamic a little exposure, plus Bumi gets a little more screen time, hopefully I got the character right!