It was a quiet night at the Four Elements hotel. Even with all the dignitaries staying in Republic City for the negotiations and the trial, all Baatar heard was the sound of his footsteps as he walked through the softly lit hall. He counted off the room numbers as he walked, anxious about reaching the number in his head. Then he stopped, facing a door. Standing at the door, he heard voices on the other side, amiable chatter and gentle laughter. He raised a hand to knock, but paused, one arm outstretched, mere inches from the door. He knew even though he'd been invited, it didn't mean he was welcome. After a moment's thought and a breath to steady himself, he wrapped twice on the door.

A familiar voice from the other side called over that the door was unlocked and to come on in, and so he pushed open the door and stepped through across the threshold. The conversations stopped. Seven pairs of eyes stared at him, expressions ranging from surprise to hostile. Only one seemed genuinely happy to see him, "You came!" his mother said, walking across the room to take him by the arm, "Come let us get you a drink." He let himself be led across the room, feeling the rest of his family watching him. Suyin pulled the cork out of a bottle, pouring a sparkling liquid into an empty glass, then placing it in his hand.

Baatar stared down into the drink. "Mother, are you sure I should be here?" He couldn't meet anyone's eyes, but he knew nobody had turned away and barely a word had been said since he walked through the door.

"What are you talking about? This is where you're supposed to be, with your family." She put a hand on his shoulder, gently turning him to face the others. "Look, my son has come back to us. We should celebrate being together again," she said, raising her glass in the air.

Not every glass was raised in response, but her comments seemed to dispel the tension as people turned back to their conversations. Suyin guided him over to a small sitting area and gestured for him to sit down in a plush chair as she lounged at the end of the sofa. Baatar perched on the chair, drink still untouched. He pursed his lips at the sparkling drink and looked up to meet his mother's eyes.

"Baatar, it is so good to see you. I wasn't sure if you'd come to visit us, you've been so quiet since the attack."

"Yes Mother," he said hesitantly, "I wanted to come to thank you and to apologize, and then I'll leave so you can all get back to enjoying your evening."

"But you just got here!" Suyin said, leaning forward in her chair as her eyes softened, "You shouldn't leave so soon, everyone wants to see you."

Baatar glanced around the room, seeing his siblings, his father, and his aunt talking to each other. Nobody was looking over at Suyin and him, but from how their bodies were turned, from the set of their shoulders, from the pitch of their voices, he knew every person in that room was still watching. He bowed his head, "Mother, after what I did, they're right to hate me."

"Nonsense, nobody hates you." Suyin sighed and continued, "Okay, I'll admit it will take time. So much has changed in the last few years and not just with you. Opal left us to become an airbender, Wing and Wei have been talking about moving to the city, and we even see Mom every once in a while. I just wish you could come back to Zaofu with us. It would be so much easier if we could be together as a family again."

Baatar smiled slightly and said, "Mother, you know I can't do that. You and Lin have already done more than I deserve getting me released from prison. Just to not be permitted to leave the city is hardly a fair punishment for what I did."

"Well I think it's noble of you to help out with the rebuilding effort." Suyin said and reached over to pat Baatar on the arm. She glanced at the glass, still clutched in his hand, "But you'd better try some of that Jiang Yu before it gets warm," she said with a mischievous smile.

It didn't come as a surprise that Suyin Beifong had procured one of the Earth Kingdom's oldest and finest vintages of wine for her little family get-together. Baatar raised the glass to his lips and let the first few drops slide into his mouth. He had to admit, it was heavenly. It tasted like biting into a juicy nectarine, only to find hints of tart lemon hiding amongst the sweetness. As it rolled towards the back of his mouth, he could feel bubbles bursting on his tongue and deeper flavours of walnuts and hazelnuts climbing out from underneath the fruit. He tilted his head back to take a breath; with all the work putting together the Earth Empire and all the work in the rebuilding effort afterward, Baatar had barely had a drink in the past year and vinters joked that they used Jiang Yu to put badger moles to sleep. He paused, looking up at the ceiling and watched the shadows dance as the electric lights caught the fan blades. Compared to the possibility of being imprisoned, this was a pleasant way to spend an evening. But that thought curdled the last drops of wine on his tongue. Here he was lounging on a comfortable couch, in a fancy hotel, sipping exquisite wine, while others from the Earth Empire languished in prison. At this very second, Kuvira was probably finishing the dregs of some prison slop that passed for dinner in Republic City's jail. He sighed again and leaned forward.

"Is something the matter? You know you can tell me if something is bothering you," Suyin said, reaching out to gently touch his free hand.

He paused to think, putting his glass on the table nearby. "I'm not sure it's right that I've been allowed to go free when so many others are still imprisoned. I was Kuvira's second-in-command. If Earth Empire soldiers are going to prison, why shouldn't I?"

Suyin smiled gently. "You have such honour Baatar," she said, but then seeing little relief on his face added, "but what the Earth Empire did is Kuvira's doing. If anyone deserves to rot in prison, it's her."

Baatar flinched at the venom in her words and decided that tonight would not be the best time to bring up that he had gone to see Kuvira earlier that day, much less that he planned to go see her when his probation and reconstruction work permitted. "Mother, I know how you feel about Kuvira. But even setting her aside, there's dozens of Earth Empire soldiers arrested for much less than I did. Need I remind you that I engineered the spirit cannon?" Seeing his mother's conviction falter, he pressed on, "I understand that Republic City can't just let the army go free to regroup, but the city needs manpower. If I can earn my freedom by helping Republic City, then others should have that chance too." Then seeing his mother teetering at the edge of the proverbial pro-bending ring, he added, "You were the one who taught me that everyone deserves a second chance, I shouldn't be the only one who gets one because of who my mother and aunt are."

"Oh, all right," Suyin finally conceded, after taking a sip of her wine, "leave it to a Baatar to figure out how to use my own lessons against me. I'll see what I can do." Seeing a hint of relief on Baatar's face, she added, "So now you shouldn't feel bad staying for a drink or two. We haven't seen you in so long!"

Baatar finally granted her a genuine smile. "I suppose I can stay a little longer. So, tell me, why are Wei and Wing planning to move to the city?"

His mother clapped her hands together in delight. "I'm so glad you asked. If you remember, they'd invented a new bending game called Power Disc with their metalbending. Well, in the past few months, they've really been trying to take it beyond Zaofu. With all that's been going on, people are dying for some entertainment and it has become a real hit. I even put them in touch with some people I knew in town and they've been in talks about putting a league together here in Republic City." Suyin beamed at her twin sons, talking with their father near the bar.

Baatar was struck by how much they'd grown since the last time he really had a moment to look at them without someone trying to kill someone else. "That's great to hear. How are the pro-bending people taking it? I can't imagine they like someone muscling in on their turf."

"But that's the best thing! It's the pro-bending promoters that they're working with! Pro-bending just hasn't been the same since the Equalist attack, so they've been eagerly looking for something to take its place," she continued while Baatar listened politely.

After a few more minutes of this, she trailed off when Lin walked over to the couch. "A word," she said, motioning for Baatar to come with her. Both he and Suyin started to stand up, but Lin put up a hand to stop her. "In private Su, I'll only be a minute." Suyin sat down slowly and Lin added with a slight smirk, "Don't worry, I'll go easy on him."

After they walked over to a corner of the room, out of earshot of the rest of the Beifongs, Lin crossed her arms over her chest and said, "So, I heard you visited Kuvira today. Not the first time you've tried to go see her either. What're you playing at?"

Baatar tried to match her stolid gaze but felt himself wither slightly under her intensity. "There's no big plan. I just figured nobody else would be going to see her and she might want to talk to someone."

Lin didn't seem entirely convinced, but also didn't seem inclined to pry further. "Look kid, even if you're just making a social visit, you've got to keep your head on straight. You might remember her as Kuvira, the guard captain from Zaofu, but that's not how others see her." Baatar opened his mouth to cut in, but she silenced him with a glare and continued, "Now, I don't actually care what you go around doing, but just remember, whatever you do, Kuvira is probably spending quite a while in jail, if she ever gets out at all."

A retort died on Baatar's lips. Lin was right that even if he could convince his mother and, through her, Republic City, to give the rank and file soldiers a second chance, he'd be hard pressed to convince people that the woman who leveled much of downtown with a spirit laser deserved that same second chance.

He must have looked rather glum as Lin gave him a half smile, "Hey, I've been a police chief long enough to see more than a few sad saps going to visit their sweethearts in prison, you're hardly the first. Probably not even the first in our family knowing those good-for-nothings Su used to hang around with."

Baatar glanced back at Suyin, who had gone over to talk with her husband and the twins, and was animatedly gesturing with her glass, one hand on the elder Baatar's shoulder. He turned to Lin, who was watching him with a raised eyebrow. "I'll keep that in mind," he said, "I'm not planning to do anything rash, so you don't need to worry about me starting a riot."

"Good, spirits only know I have enough people starting riots these days." She shrugged and added, "Whatever, don't let me hold you up from this little family get-together." Lin walked away, leaving Baatar standing alone in the corner, watching his family. They seemed to have forgotten him and had relaxed back into cheerful conversation.

This wasn't his place.

He turned and walked over to the door; he had one hand on the doorknob when a quiet voice stopped him. "Baatar, can we talk?" Opal stood behind him, avoiding eye contact, but clearly waiting for a response. With a sigh, he nodded and let her lead him over to the window, away from her brothers and parents. They stood for a few moments, looking out over Republic City, seeing the headlights of Satomobiles flash by against the shadows of this late hour. "We haven't spoken since," she started, "well, since then."

After the conversations with both his mother and aunt, Baatar had little energy left to put up a front, especially for his little sister. "No, we haven't. Things have just gotten in the way." Each word felt heavy and he struggled to move them past his lips.

"You were at the trial today."

"I was."

"And you saw her afterwards."

"Yes."

His response hung like a curtain between them, keeping each in the dark to what the other was thinking. "Were you just planning to keep that a secret from us?"

Letting his gaze slip, he caught a glimpse of his reflection in the window. Gone was the ambitious, hopeful young man he remembered. In his place was a someone he barely recognized. "I don't know what I planned to do," he said haltingly, "it wasn't the right time to tell Mom, which meant it wasn't the right time to tell anyone else I suppose." When he turned to her, he was surprised to find her expression guarded, but not outright suspicious. "I just need some time to get everything straightened out."

Opal looked down and shook her head. "Why can't you just leave her behind?" She looked up to catch Baatar's gaze, her eyes pleading with him as she continued, "Don't you see what this is doing to our family? What you've done to our family? We just want to get you back from her and you throw it in our face like we mean nothing to you!"

Baatar winced at her final words. "It's not that simple. We believed in what we were trying to build. I believed in the world we talked about. One where-"

"You believed in her vision or you believed in her?" Opal cut in quietly.

He pursed his lips before chuckling softly. "I should've known you'd become too smart for me when you left to become an airbender." When he tilted his head back, he didn't see the hotel ceiling, but late-night discussions on an airship, soldiers fanning out across the still-burning streets of Ba Sing Se and ranks of gleaming metal armour flanking freshly laid rail lines. "Couldn't it be both?" Opal didn't reply, so he continued, "In those early days, when we had little more than each other and the few people we could convince to come along with us, I could never have imagined that we could change so much. I assumed we might deal with some bandits, maybe stabilize the Lower Ring, and then make our way back home together. But even then, she had such a vision. No longer would the Earth Kingdom cower in fear of the other nations. We wouldn't be picked apart like a dead hippo cow under a cloud of sea vultures." When he turned back, he saw deep skepticism lining her face. "I know how things turned out was wrong, but you weren't there, you don't know how it felt to believe in her. For the first time in my life, I could stand on my own, I was valued for who I was as an individual, not just who Mom and Dad wanted me to be."

Opal found herself looking out the window, in her mind's eye looking past the skyscrapers and tightly packed residences to Yue Bay and Air Temple Island beyond. "So much has changed. You left with Kuvira, I left with Korra and Tenzin, now Wing and Wei could be leaving too."

"And Huan?"

Despite the weight of the conversation, Baatar and Opal managed to share a brief smile. "I think we both know that Huan isn't leaving home until Mom throws him out." Her smile faded and she went on, "I can't say I don't understand at all. I was scared to leave home, but what I can do now for the world as an Air Nomad is so much more than I ever could in Zaofu." She turned back and fixed her gaze on him. "But do you really think what you're doing now is making the world a better place?"

"I have to try."

"I can't stop you from going to see her again, can I?" Opal's voice didn't plead.

"No, I promise I don't want to hurt our family any more than you do. But this is something I have to do."

They walked back across to the door in silence, but as Baatar went to turn the knob, Opal said, "Have a good night Junior."

She watched as his shoulders tensed at his old nickname and then relaxed with a breath. "You too sis. I guess I'll see you soon."