"A Southern Water Tribe company just phoned me yesterday," Bataar radioed Suyin from Zaofu, "They are called 'Varrick Global Industry', and they want to produce weapon for our troops. The CEO said he will meet us in Ba Sing Se. I will take Opal and Junior with me."

"Copy." Suyin replied, "tell him to meet me at Ba Sing Se's airport tomorrow at 11 am."

…

"Hello, you must be Great Uniter Suyin," the businessman wore a blue tailcoat, light blue shirts and pants underneath; he had medium length hair and long, thin moustache extending to the edges of his face and a cleft chin. He immediately shook his hand with Suyin after he got off the airship, "My name is Varrick, it's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Thank you." Apparently Suyin didn't like small talks, as she introduced her family to the businessman, "This is General Bataar, Colonel Kuvira; Major Opal, Bataar Jr, Ming, and Wei." As she nodded at him, she went straight into the business, "I heard you want to produce weapons for us?"

"Yes." Varrick replied enthusiastically, "not only can I produce the weapons in your current army, I'm also an engineer. I can design new ones for you."

"That will be great," Bataar Junior said, "if you can join our research team."

"With enough funding, all of these are possible." The businessman put on a professional smile.

"Right now, we want to develop firepower for the airships, adapt our grenade launchers to suit our navy ships and we also need a technology to quickly disable large numbers of mechasuits," Kuvira listed their conditions of the contract, "do you have the ability to achieve these?"

"Yes." Varrick spoke, "I can get my first blueprint down in a week, if you pay… how much is that Ju Li?" he asked his assistant.

"Roughly 1.5 million yuan," both the Southern and the Northern Water Tribes had adopted the United Republic' currency before the Civil War, "that's about…" the woman with a large pair of circular glasses performed the calculation on her clipboard, "fifteen hundred gold pieces in your currency."

"That's a large number," Suyin didn't beat around the bush, "We will pay you 5% of the money as deposit, 25% of the money after you hand in the blueprints and pay you in full after you have showed us the prototype."

"Deal," the businessman shook hands with the Great Uniter, "Ju Li! Work out the contract terms with our client."

…

Republic City.

"We failed at Ba Sing Se," in her office, President Asami was discussing the future strategies with the Avatar General, "that's a huge strike on our troops' morale, what's your plan?"

"I will halt our attack on the Earth Republic for the next two months," Korra spoke, "we will switch to the defence. Our troops will try to maintain the areas they have occupied as much as possible. I will put an additional brigade of soldiers in Omashu, it is the most strategically significant place to hold due to its geological location." The avatar pointed out on the map, "Due to our opponent's lack of navy, controlling Omashu means we keep Ba Sing Se separated from the rest of the country, and our navy can also control the inland sea and form blockades."

"What do we do diplomatically?" Asami asked.

"I hope we can work out a peace treaty with the Water Tribes," her friend replied, "we need to keep them neutral to win this war. Besides, the last thing I want is to fight my own country."

…

The treaty with the Northern Water Tribe was relatively easy. As much as Chief Eska and Chief Desna want to deny, they do rely on Future Industry to produce weapons for the military. Their hands were officially tied after all the Elders voted for not intervening in the war between The United Republics and the Earth Republic.

The bargain with the Southern Water Tribe went smoother than the President had anticipated. She expected more pushbacks from their Senate as their military's weapon suppliers, Varrick Global Industry, is the major competitor of Future Industry. However, they didn't hesitate to agree with having zero interference in this conflict.

"Korra is the avatar, but she is also one of us," said the chief of the Southern Water Tribe, "as much as we might not agree with what she is doing, we wouldn't put her into a position where she has to fight her own people."

Korra didn't want to spend too much time in the Southern Water Tribe, as it creates too much nostalgia. She hasn't been home for 10 years. Besides, she had no one to go to: she knew no one in the neighbourhood, her parents were killed by the Red Lotus when she was five, and she didn't know how to face Katara. The woman took her home after her parents' death and taught her how to bend water, her first element. Due to some inexplicable reasons, she felt she had lied to Katara, the most important woman in her life, and she had disappointed her mentor.

However, the chief delivered the last words she ever wanted to hear, "please stay here for a few days," he spoke, "Katara said she want to see you."

…

"Are you ready?" Asami put her hand onto her friend's shoulders.

Korra nodded, she took a deep breath and entered the igloo.

"It's been a long way, huh?" The master waterbender greeted the avatar with a smile.

"Yeah… it's a long flight from Republic City." Korra replied, as she laughed nervously. "it's been a long time since I saw you last time." She didn't attempt to small talk, she knew had to face Katara eventually.

"Indeed," Katara looked at her sympathetically, she knew what the young woman had went through, so she decided to ease into the topic, "you must have travelled to a lot of places, didn't you? Where have you been?"

"I went to the Fire Nation, then the former Earth Kingdom before I settled down at Republic City."

"That's where you met your president friend, didn't you?" she spoke half-jokingly, "would you like to tell me about your stories?"