This chapter takes place one year and a couple days after Chapter 1

Mako walked up to the platform, his suitcase packed. He'd earned a little bit of money working in a restaurant for the past month, purely so that he could help fund the project. In his spare time in his tiny, run-down apartment, he devised up a serious amount of arguments in favour of decriminalising lavabending, with the limited knowledge he had of Ba Sing Sae's legal system. He poked his head above the crowd and spotted Ling, Nel and Mo all standing together in a circle, chatting. It was 7:30am, very early to be getting a train, but they needed to be getting to most out of their days from now on, and that meant no sleeping in.

"Mako!" Ling greeted, happy to see his new friend, and gave Mako a short hug as he walked up to them. "Excited?"

"Can't wait!" Mako agreed, and greeted the other two. It had only been a month, but over that short period of time, he had really bonded with them all. Mako wasn't great at meeting new people, but Ling had gone to extra lengths to make sure he felt included. Mako could see why him and Bolin were such good friends, Ling was one of those people it was hard not to like. He never took a joke too far. He generally didn't make fun of other people, but when he did, mainly with Bolin, it was always in good humour.

None of the others had any qualms with Mako coming along to help. He thought it might be a bit hard winning them over since he was a firebender, but not at all. They were all genuinely good people.

"I've gotta say, Mako," Mo started, "you've really been working hard on those arguments. You're better at phrasing them than any of us, and whenever you're presenting them, you never look stupid."

"Practice," Mako answered, grimacing at the memories of stuttering in front of Lin Beifong back in his early days as a cop.

They talked for another twenty minutes before Bolin finally arrived, the train due very soon. Opal was with him, holding his hand, desperately trying to convince him to not go. Bolin already looked worn out, but politely rebuffed her time and time again.

"Bolin, please," Opal begged him, grabbing both his hands and turning his full body to face her. "I know that you told me you're not going to change your mind a week ago, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop trying. It's a huge risk you don't need to take!"

"Opal, you know that I love you, more than anyone else in the world," Bolin started. "But I need to spread my wings. I know that what me and the others have going on here in Zaofu is great and all, but we've already officially notified all our students that the classes are done. This is my ambition, Opal, I've been waiting for years and years for my calling in life, and now that I've recognised what it is, I have to follow through on it! I don't want to die regretting what I didn't do."

"You're being dramatic," Opal told him, but any conviction behind the sentence was gone.

"If that's what you think, I'm ok with that," Bolin said, looking into her eyes. "I'll make sure to send you at least one letter a week. I love you, sweetheart." Opal looked forlornly at the ground, then finally gave in.

"I love you too," Opal replied, and pulled Bolin into a deep kiss. It looked over the top to passer-by's, but to Mako, Ling, Nel and Mo, it was a regular occurrence. After the kiss, they hugged for another minute until the train arrived.

"Bolin, we haven't got all day!" Nel called. He didn't tend to say much, but when he did, it was usually to-the-point. "The next train isn't for another two hours, we need to go now."

"I love you," Bolin repeated, then let go of Opal. He walked over to the others, bags under his eyes to add to the massive one on his back.

"That's got to be the first time I've ever seen him and Opal separated," Ling sniggered to Mako, and Mako chuckled in agreement. At first, he'd thought Ling had been exaggerating when he said that they were never separated when close together, but it was actually true. If he didn't know better, Mako would've assumed that they glued themselves together.

"You don't look so good," Nel commented. "You look wrecked."

"I didn't sleep at all last night," Bolin revealed. "We were up arguing the entire time."

"That's rough," Mo said. "But we'd better get on the train now. I've changed our route, the Omashu situation is getting really bad. There have even been reports of people from Omashu beating up people going to Ba Sing Sae."

"What? When?" Nel asked. "I didn't hear anything about this."

"Me neither," said Mako. "I thought we discussed everything a few days ago, the route has been nailed down for weeks!"

"I'll explain it all on the train," Mo promised. Mako, Bolin, Ling and Nel were all a bit pissed off, but they didn't have any time to argue with Mo, so they all followed him on. Bolin shared one last look with Opal as he boarded last, then disappeared as the door slid closed. Opal watched sadly as the train rolled out of the station, all her efforts now confirmed as being in vain.

"I'm not being selfish," she repeated to herself, but once again, she didn't find any conviction behind her words. She turned and slowly started walking back to bus stop she'd gotten off from just a few minutes ago.

The five of them sat down across four sets of seats. Mo and Nel sat beside each other opposite Mako, who was on his own. Bolin and Ling were sitting opposite each other on the other table, leaning in. Ling started:

"Why'd you change it without asking any of us?" Ling asked. "I know that we gave you the money for our tickets, but nothing is too small to leave out if we want to make it."

"Hear me out, because there's a lot that's contributed to my decision," Mo said, and everyone who wanted to ask a question decided to wait. "Like I've already told you, there's a big political issue going on between Ba Sing Sae and Omashu. It's been going back to the end of the 100-Year-War, but it wasn't too much of an issue until King Wu decided to turn the Kingdom into a democracy. Each state will have a certain number of seats in the general parliament according to their size and population, as well as countless other factors.

"But with Omashu, they weren't happy in the slightest with the number of seats they got," Mo continued. "They wanted equal seats with Ba Sing Sae, but didn't even get half. Although the official capital of the Earth Kingdom used to be Ba Sing Sae, the eastern half would have generally recognised Omashu as the capital. They even have a king of the city, who has an official palace. But despite this, anything they suggest that doesn't suit Ba Sing Sae struggles to gain traction."

"But I thought that they were all independent countries, like the United Republic of Nations," Bolin interjected. "What would they need to vote on?"

"Corporation tax, basic rights, size of armies," Mo suggested, "just to name a few. With corporation tax, for a large, multinational company, a few percent lower could mean millions more in profit. That means that that multinational company will want to set up headquarters in one state where it's lower over another, and bring thousands of jobs with them. As for human rights, not all states will bother creating laws protecting firebenders or waterbenders being racially discriminated against.

"But the military one is the biggest of them all. Some states aren't nearly big enough to compete with their neighbours, so there has been a bill passed to downsize armies according to various factors, but the problem is, that Omashu and Ba Sing Sae have turned a blind eye to it in their dispute. So, because of the two big guns rejecting it, none of the smaller states have accepted it either, and there's no way to enforce it. So overall, I think it's just better if we take a bit of a longer route."

Everyone went quiet, seeing the logic behind Mo's decision.

"Do you think we should try to go to a different state then, if Ba Sing Sae is about to go to war?" Nel posed the question after a minute, saying what everyone else was thinking. "We discussed backup cities in case Ba Sing Sae doesn't get off the ground, but we might just skip Ba Sing Sae altogether if that's the case."

"No, there won't actually be a war," Mo reassured them. "Even changing our route is fairly precautionary."

"Not really," Mako came in. "I showed the reception lady my passport when I was leaving United Republic, because the quickest route didn't have free travel, and she brought that up to. It had special verification from Ba Sing Sae because I was Wu's bodyguard before he decided to introduce democracy, and she warned me to keep it at the bottom of my bag. I didn't see anything when I passed through, but I'd still be wary about going there."

"And the Avatar is in hiding at the minute," Mo added. "So she won't be sitting down at a negotiating table anytime soon."

"If worse comes to worst, other states could get dragged in for promise of a reward," Nel pointed out. "If enough states join in, refusing to fight for one of the cities could make you the enemy. We could about to get stuck in the middle of a civil war between the East and West of the former Earth Kingdom."

Everyone was quiet for a few minutes after that statement, realising how all their hopes and aspirations could be wiped away with the very real threat of war. But after a while, Ling slammed his hand on the table, to catch everyone's attention.

"The Fire Nation, with all their advanced technology, couldn't penetrate Ba Sing Sae with their armies for nearly all of the 100-Year-War," Ling reminded them. "We've spent too long getting ready for this to back down at the first sign of resistance. It hasn't even been ten minutes, and we're already getting cold feet! Bolin, if you had never faced that lava head on, you might have never found out that you could lavabend and have died right there! We're earthbenders, we face our problems head on!"

"That's right!" Bolin agreed. "If you're passionate enough about something, you can make it. We're not going to a smaller city unless it genuinely isn't bearing any fruit!"

"It was just precautionary," Mo repeated. "To avoid any potential extra hassle."

"I'm only coming because I think I can help convince Wu," Mako reminded them. "So I'm against skipping Ba Sing Sae."

"It decided then!" Ling declared, his optimism infectious. "We go ahead as planned."

They all agreed and spent the next few hours chatting away. Ling was very good at keeping the conversation from going dead. He was the best story-teller Mako had ever met. Average stories, he could tell good, but when he had a particularly funny story, he dealt it out perfectly.

Mako learnt that Ling had grown up in Zaofu and lived there all his life. Ling had known that he could lavabend when he was eight, in a playground. He recalled the horrified looks of the parents in great detail. At the time, he didn't even know he could earthbend, which was very late for any type of bender. So he'd started crying, and only figured that he was an earthbender later. After the playground equipment was in ruins, of course.

One thing he didn't joke about was the general reaction to lavabending. The vast majority of earthbenders in Zaofu were metalbenders, so it automatically distanced him from a lot of friend groups. People would also be afraid to befriend him because they didn't know if he could control it or not. Lavabending was the ugly duck of earthbending, so Ling kept it secret and didn't tell anyone new after he became a teenager and caught on to social cues.

But then, Bolin came along, dating the daughter of the one and only Suyin Beifong, and was actually proud of his ability to lavabend. Bolin won a lot of the public over with his positive attitude, and Ling had instantly felt a liking to this new guy. Bolin was someone that Ling could be open with, without having to hide his ability.

Ling could tell that even his own little sister didn't like lavabending either, even though she could very well have been a lavabender herself. She'd never brought it up, but it was in the way she addressed it over the course of time. The tone was very subtle, but Ling could tell.

"That's deep, man," Mako said as Ling finished. This train journey was the first time he'd really ever gotten to know Ling well. Bolin, Ling, Nel and Mo all went out drinking fairly regularly, and Mako was welcome to come along, but he swore that he was never going to drink again, or at least not for a long time. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"It's all good, bro," Ling told Mako, his usual happy mood a little dampened. "A lot of people have had it worse than me. The problem is, the tag sticks to you so much. No-one says it to your face, but they all give that look. I'm surprised Bolin didn't get much of it. Then again, you didn't discover it until you were seventeen, so you knew how to act around people by then."

"I never did it in public," Bolin mentioned. "Although, there was that one time when Kuivera came in the mechasuit, but everyone had evacuated the city by then." Bolin was confused by a frustrated look from Nel, then realised what he'd done. All the heads from around the carriage, albeit there weren't many, turned at the mention of Kuivera. That name was taboo anywhere these days in the Earth Kingdom States.

"It was the same for me and Nel," Mo said, breaking the silence, "although on a smaller scale. We weren't as open and social as Ling when we were younger, so we didn't tell everyone that we just met."

"That sounds horrible," Mako said. The group went quiet for a minute, not sure how to follow up something that personal. Ling decided to get into funny stories about his past, and the mood lightened up. They were all laughing a few minutes later.

As everyone was joking away, Mako looked out the window and saw his own reflection. His authentic smile shone back at him. He had always appreciated how hard things could be when he growing up, but he had forgotten how hollow things could get, like when after his parents died. He and Bolin had had each other back then to deal with the pain, but Mako had had no-one during that horrible period before he'd come to Zaofu. He would do anything to protect that security of having a friend, now that he knew what it was like to lose it.

Four days later

"Uggghhh!" Ling groaned, slowly pushing himself off the seat. It was mid-afternoon, and they'd just arrived in Ba Sing Sae. The others slowly trudged after him off the train, hauling their luggage behind them. The detour accumulated to about a day and a half extra, due to the fact that the last stretch that Mo had planned was closed off for some reason. All conversation had dried up after day two, and it had been mainly card games after that. Even Ling was tired of the constant socialising. Not talking was awkward at first, but everyone got used to it eventually.

Mako knew a lot more than before about the others, he'd heard every story there was to tell on that train. There wasn't much more to know about Ling, Nel and Mos' backstories, but Mako knew about everything, and he meant everything, there was to know about them. Their pets' names growing up, their favourite book, what shirt they wore on a good day, etc.

Mako generally hadn't minded talking about himself, but the one time he got really uncomfortable was when the topic switched to women. He knew that it would've a hilarious story for Bolin to tell about how Asami and Korra had got together after dating him, and he didn't mind them making fun of him for turning two women the other way; it was just what his mind turned to after those events.

He had thought so much about Kalla, and was incredibly disgusted with himself. He had been able to keep himself distracted while in Zaofu, but now Mako felt like jumping into a pit of snakes wouldn't be justice enough. He was very angry at himself, but didn't let it get the better of him; he couldn't do anything while sitting in a train. He would help Bolin first of all, then determine what his plans would be from there. There was one thing he knew that he'd have to do first though, before he could hold Kalla again.

Mako would have to get Korra's permission. Which could be fatal in the process of trying, but there was no avoiding about it. Korra was the rightful guardian of Kalla, and therefore, she would decide. That was why Mako ruled out looking for Korra's parents, who he guessed were still looking after Kalla. He probably wouldn't be able to find them anyway, they had long since left the South Pole after being forced out by the public.

All five of them showed their passports, Mako's catching a breath from the clerk, and they made their way out of the wall into the Lower Ring. Mako held his nose automatically, remembering how awful it had spelt when he first visited, but was surprised to see Ling, Bolin, Nel and Mo all doing perfectly fine.

"Guys, cover you noses," Mako urged. "The smell is horrible for the first few minutes before you gradually get used to it!"

"What smell?" Mo asked, taking in a deep sniff. Mako waited for a sudden revolted reaction, but was surprised when Mo looked back at him, confused.

"It doesn't smell great," Nel said, "but I didn't notice anything until you brought it up. What's the big deal?" Mako slowly took his fingers off his nose, and sniffed suspiciously. But he got a pleasant surprise when the air was clear. It was almost as good as Zaofu.

"We cleaned up the Lower Ring when we came here with… you-know-who," Bolin said, not wanting to say Kuivera's name again. "All the slums have been built up into decent living conditions, she made sure of that. I know that a lot of what we did was really bad, but we also brought a lot of good. We're going to be living in one of the new buildings, aren't we, Mo?"

"Yep," Mo confirmed. "We just need to head to the agent who's been reserving the apartment for us. I've got an up-to-date map too, we should be able to find it relatively easily." Mo whipped out said map, and started looking at it. He spent a few minutes pinpointing exactly the route they needed to go, and then they were off.

Mako was amazed at the state of the Lower Ring now. While it held nothing to the Middle Ring, and was still extremely crowded, it was much nicer in general. The houses and shops, although humble, gave off a tidy vibe. As Bolin explained on the way, planning permission had been clamped down on, and now it was much harder to just build on top of any old building. The higher storeys didn't lean over the path, resulting in much less of a claustrophobic feeling. Mako had never had any problems with being in small, tight spaces, but it was much nicer to have more room. There were still a fair amount of derelict buildings, but Kuivera had clearly made a massive improvement.

"Here we are!" Mo exclaimed, as they stopped in front of a seven-storey building. It looked quite fresh as well. The granite it had been built out of gleamed in the sun.

"It looks new," Mako commented, looking at the name just above the entrance. It read – BA SING SAE PROPERTY INVESTMENT LTD – in huge letters.

"This was kinda the group that profited most off of the reform," Bolin mentioned. "They were chosen because of their loyalty to the Earth Empire to have an eighth of rentable accommodation in the Lower Ring. Although they were actually just luckily to get in there early. They make massive amounts of cash, even though they've got some of the lowest offers in the city."

"How did you manage to keep an apartment reserved then?" Mako asked.

"The woman who we got in contact with has a son who can lavabend," Mo told Mako. "She's a bit obsessive with him knowing how to control it, so we promised her that we'd reserve a spot for him if the project gets going. We're still paying full rent, so it's a win-win for her."

"How did you get in touch with her in the first place, now that you mention it?" Ling asked. "I'd never really given it too much time before, but it seems awful convenient, now that I think of it."

"The woman wanted me to teach her son back when I was working the Earth Empire," Bolin said, "but I had to refuse. I kept her card anyway, and it worked out neatly enough."

"We can talk about it later," Nel said, not hiding how impatient he was now that they had finally arrived. "We need to get settled before it gets dark."

"Relax," Bolin told Nel, walking towards the entrance. "The estate's only a twenty-minute walk from here, we've got plenty of time." The others followed him in, their cases rattling along the ground.

When they got into the lobby, Bolin told the rest of them to wait there. He headed up the stairs, and a few minutes later, he came down with the woman he'd been talking about. She was dressed very smartly, and shook everyone's hands when Bolin introduced them.

"My name is Meng," she introduced herself, when she was done shaking hands. "I assume that you're all the other instructors that Bolin came with?"

"Yep," Nel said. "Now, I hate to get down to business, but can we go? I'm sorry, but it's been a long journey, and we're all wrecked. It's winter, so we don't want to stay out too late."

"Of course," Meng said, then frowned, counting the number of people. "I'm sorry, but I thought that you requested an apartment for four people. I didn't realise there was a fifth person."

"I'm not going to be staying for as long," Mako explained, and her courteous smile returned. "Right this way, if you may." She proceeded to walk out of the doors into the dim November sunlight. The group followed.

Seventeen minutes later, they were all shown to their apartment on a thirteen-storey building. On the way, Meng had asked for proof that Ling, Nel and Mo could lavabend so that she knew she wasn't being duped, and was thrilled to see they were genuine.

She gave them four sets of keys after she was paid for one week, promising to get a fifth set cut for Mako. There were two bedrooms with a pair of single beds each, a bathroom, a kitchen and a living room with a radio built in.

"I'll sleep on the couch," Mako vouched, as soon as it became apparent that someone would have to get the short end of the stick in terms of sleeping arrangements.

"We'll swap every night," Ling offered. "One different person sleeps on the couch every night, some of us will have to do it twice a week."

"It's fine," Mako reassured Ling. "I've slept rough plenty of times before, it's a luxury to have something as comfortable as a couch."

"Nonsense," Ling rebuffed Mako. "You're going to be just as essential to this project getting up off the ground as anyone. I insist."

"I honestly don't mind," Mako reiterated.

"Well I do," Ling countered. "If you don't care that much, then it's no bother for you to agree with me. Any objections?" Everyone else stayed quiet, and it was settled.

"When can we go to the council then?" Nel asked. "It'll probably take a while for the appeal to get through."

"I've got Wu's number," Mako said. "I'll ask him if he wants to come out for lunch to catch up, then I'll bring it up to him there. Actually Nel, I've got something to ask you."

"What is it?" Nel asked.

"You're really good at phrasing your words," Mako complemented. "I think it'd be essential to have someone who's good at talking and one of the founders of the course to be representing us. I'll give the project legitimacy because I worked for Wu and I'm supporting it, but it would be weak coming from only a firebender."

"I'm not sure," Nel said, rubbing the back of his head. "I'm not great around new people."

"I was always keen on putting forward our case, and I'll come in for the long explanations," Ling came in. "I'd be really happy to help you." He turned to Mako, looking for approval.

"That's perfect!" Mako declared. "You two are passionate about it, so I think it'll be a brilliant combination." Nel mused over this, then nodded his head.

"It's all coming together!" Bolin exclaimed, buzzing with anticipation, and unpacked a piece of paper while taking out a pen. "I'm gonna write to Opal right now!"

"We've been in here for one minute," Ling teased. "Is it really so urgent?"

Mako just kicked back on the couch while Bolin and Ling bantered, and relaxed. He would need all his energy and patience for whenever he was going to meet Wu.