Just over four years later
"How far along are you?" Korra asked, her hands behind her head as herself, Asami and Opal strolled down the pavement. It was a cool, Sunday afternoon. They had all somehow managed to find the time for a walk.
"Two months," Opal replied, rubbing her stomach.
"I never thought that you and Bolin would settle down so young," Asami commented. Her lush, black hair was tied back in a ponytail. "You're both only twenty-six, yet you've been married over two years. And to add to that, you're already expecting your second child!"
"We moved here permanently, then after we got married, everything just took off," Opal said, bouncing a one-and-a-half-year-old Ling up and down in her arms. He gurgled excitedly. "Not that I regret one minute of it."
"It doesn't get any easier," Korra said. "Kalla was a nightmare when she was younger. She's a little bit smarter now, but still just as energetic. I'm glad I was able to split the work up with Mako back then. Remember the peace negotiations between Omashu and Ba Sing Sae?"
"How could I forget!" Asami groaned. "Business was so hard to navigate back then in the entire Earth Kingdom. I actually believed that they'd never sort it out."
"They still haven't," Korra told Asami, rubbing her temples. "The citizens of Ba Sing Sae are still angry at Omashu. I don't blame them, but the tensions won't die down for another generation, probably."
"What's the official agreement?" Opal asked. "I forget now."
"I don't blame you," Korra said, grimacing at the memories of the endless talks. "It took five months for them just to agree to give everything a pass. I didn't like it, but if we didn't agree to that, the war would've kept on going."
"You still had to hunt down all those rogue factions, didn't you?" Asami asked.
"Yep," Korra answered. "I was lucky with the sentencing. It was so handy that you took back your allegations."
"I was hardly just going to let you go to jail," Asami responded. She nudged Korra playfully, and Korra shouldered Asami softly back.
"I don't know how you two haven't gotten back together," Opal mentioned as they wrestled weakly.
"Schedules never worked," Korra told Opal. "We tried, twice, but it just wasn't worth the hassle. Also, Asami gave my child bad spending habits."
"She looked so adorable!" Asami defended herself. "How could I not spend money on her?"
"Your idea of spending a little leftover change is filling my wardrobe with children's clothes," Korra reminded her best friend.
"What was the punishment the court gave you?" Opal asked.
"Oh, that?" Korra chuckled. "That was the biggest example of double-standards ever. They gave me a thousand hours of community service, but then gave me a licence to use bloodbending to subdue rebellious groups that wanted to keep up the war! The Triple Threats were, and are, literally so much worse than those people!"
"Did you use it much?" Asami asked.
"Only one or two occasions, I think," Korra told them, racking her brain, then tapped the tattoo on her forehead. "When I combined this with lavabending, they nearly always ran away. It was pathetic."
"I think any sane human being would run away from you if you threatened to blow them up with your mind," Opal commented. "Has anyone ever called you out for bloodbending since?"
"Nah," Korra answered. "They realised how much they need me, and I haven't done it since, so everyone's just forgotten about it. The odd newspaper tries to bring it up whenever they're trying to sell, but nobody cares, and even if they do, they're too afraid to bring it up to me. I don't have any problems walking around or buying something from the shop, if that's what you're wondering about."
The twenty-seven-year-old hummed contently, stretching her muscular arms above her head. They came up to the apartment block where Mako had starting living in nearly nine years ago.
"Did you ever catch that guy who wrote an article about you first?" Asami asked.
"You mean the guy who was working with the Triple Threats but never got caught, and ran away?" Korra asked. "What was his name again?" She snapped her fingers, but couldn't recall it for the life of her.
"It was Sukk, or something like that, no?" Asami suggested. "I guess that probably means that you haven't caught him."
"To be honest, I haven't even thought about him in roughly three years," Korra admitted. "He escaped off to somewhere in the Earth Kingdom States, if I'm correct. Oh well-" Korra shrugged her shoulders, "-I've got more important things to be worrying about."
"How's Mako getting along?" Opal asked as they walked in the front doors. "Is he doing okay?"
"Yeah, he's doing okay for the minute," Korra told Opal, grimacing. Their fight all those years ago at Omashu had really messed Mako's health up in the long term.
Mako had had to learn how to walk and write again, after regaining movement in his limbs. That was the end of it, so they thought, but after two years of working as a waiter for ten hour shifts from Monday to Friday, then a six hour shift on Saturdays to accommodate spending time with Kalla, he'd suffered a minor-heart attack from all the stress, at twenty-six. Korra leant him as much money as she could to help support Kalla, but what she didn't have a regular income as the Avatar, so it was hard to judge.
"Does he still need to cover his hand up?" Opal asked, concerned.
"Only when he's going outside," Korra answered. The skin on Mako's burnt hand had never fully recovered, and was very susceptible to tearing compared to the other one. Therefore, he had to keep it covered with a glove, or wrapped up in bandages. Mako found it annoying, but it was just one of those things that he had to accept. He didn't bear any grudge towards Korra, though, thankfully.
"How are his firebending classes going?" Opal asked.
"I'm not too sure," Korra replied. "Asami, you give a hand there sometimes. What's it like?" Mako had taken up coaching firebending and self-defence ever since, and he was doing very well off of it. Asami, who had long since recovered to her former beauty after beating her addiction, helped out the odd time, when she was free.
"Recently, the best I can do for Mako is to babysit Kalla," Asami said as they walked up the stairs. "They all respect him, so he doesn't have too much trouble running it. He doesn't spar very often, but he's generally always working, and he's definitely making a decent enough salary off of it. If he didn't have to take care of Kalla, he probably could've moved into a nicer apartment by now."
"If he weren't Bolin's brother, I reckon that he'd get a bit more recognition," Korra said. "I never knew that there were so many lavabenders is Republic City!"
Korra was referring to the school that Bolin had come to Republic City to set up, with his two best friends, Mohamed and Nel. It was named "The Ling Fernandez Academy of Lavabending" in memory of their late friend, who had died in the war. About a year and a half after taking it, Korra had restored Bolin's bending after she deemed that he deserved it. He hadn't let her down since.
"Having a good reputation from Ba Sing Sae really went a long way," Opal told them as they walked into the corridor of Mako's apartment. He was twenty-eight years now.
"Has Kalla shown any signs of being a bender yet?" Opal asked.
"No," Korra and Asami answered in unison. They looked at each other awkwardly for a moment, then laughed heartily.
"I really couldn't care less," Korra told Opal truthfully after the laughter had died down as they reached the door to Mako's apartment. "She's my daughter, and I'll treat her just the same as I would if she was a bender or not." She knocked on the door.
"Coming!" Mako's voice called out. A few seconds later, the doorknob rattled, then opened as Mako appeared. Inside, Bolin was playing with Kalla.
"Opal," he greeted warmly. "Asami, Korra." He gave Korra and Asami a brief hug, before walking back to the couch. Kalla spotted the women a moment later, and raced over to them.
"Mommy, Ahami!" she called, running over to their legs.
'Ahami' was what Kalla called Asami when she was younger, when she couldn't pronounce the letter 's'. She had long since learned how to speak properly, but Asami adored the nickname, so it was something that they'd just kept on. Kalla wore her black hair in a ponytail, just like Asami. It had been awkward when Asami had first met Kalla, but now, she was essentially the girl's second mother, having no children herself. Asami was effectively Kalla's guardian, along with Bolin and Opal.
"What is it, sweetie?" Korra asked, picking up and cradling her five-year-old daughter.
"I'm a bender!" she declared.
Asami and Korra's mouths both gaped open, not saying anything for a few seconds, before Korra managed to speak up;
"That's brilliant, sweetheart!" Korra exclaimed. "What element? Water, or fire?"
"Both!" Kalla stated triumphantly, holding her fists up in the air. Korra and Asami blinked, then looked at each other, confused, but they both seemed to have heard the same thing.
"I'm sorry, Kalla, what was that?" Asami asked gently.
"You know," Bolin piped up awkwardly, "I think we should maybe wait a little bit before we jump to any conclusions."
"Bolin, what happened?" Opal asked, walking over to her husband. Bolin gulped nervously, but didn't reply. "Bolin?" Opal repeated.
"Well," Bolin started nervously, "I was showing Kalla a few lavabending tricks, and-"
"Lavabending!?" Opal asked, then slapped him on the head. "I specifically told you not to start playing with lava anywhere near the children!" Asami and Korra both stared daggers at Mako, who shrugged awkwardly.
"Let me show you what I can do, Mommy!" Kalla exclaimed, squirming out of Korra's arms and running over to the table, which had a few rocks lying on it randomly. Kalla stomped, and raised her fist in the air. And to the women's amazement, the rocks levitated off of the table.
No way. Kalla's an… earthbender, Korra thought. But then…
Don't worry, Mako is the father, Raava answered immediately, killing any worries.
"I must have the gene for earthbending inside of me," Mako said immediately, as if he could read Korra's thoughts. Thankfully, didn't seem suspicious. "But that's not all. Kalla, show everyone what Uncle Bo taught you!"
"Okay!" Kalla agreed enthusiastically. She grunted, concentrating hard for a few seconds, then to further Opal, Asami and especially Korra's amazement, the rocks slowly melted into lava. Kalla held the lava in mid-air proudly for a second or two, before turning the lava flawlessly back into cold stone.
"And that's not all!" Bolin declared. Korra and Asami were still gaping at Kalla's newfound ability. "You know how direct descendants of the Avatar tend to be especially talented benders?"
"I… guess so," Korra replied. She was still in shock.
"Well, I had a theory," Bolin started. "Kalla, catch this!" Bolin tossed a spoon towards his niece, but then things took yet another turn. Instead of it flying into her hand, Kalla just held her palm out. The spoon, which was made of metal, stopped in mid-air.
"That's… incredible…" Asami muttered, her heart fluttering at the sight of the proud five-year-old, who was beaming.
"She's the first recorded non-Avatar," Bolin continued, "to be able to metalbend and lavabend!"
"I'm gonna be the strongest earthbender in the whole wide world!!!" Kalla declared.
The End
See next chapter for notes