It was a good thing that Mako had been able to find a place close to the police department, because he'd kept running from the moment he'd left his apartment.

He'd stumbled a few times and nearly ran over a couple people before he got there, but he wanted to get there as soon as possible now that he'd finally figured out what tied everything together with the Cultural Center bombing.

"Hey May-ko, where you been?"

Everyone else was busy, so the only people who noticed him were Lu and Gang, characteristically not hard at work. That and their intentional mispronunciation of his name that he'd corrected multiple times annoyed him to no end, but he wasn't in a place to be able to say anything about it.

He knew the police didn't usually hire people his age, and even though he'd impressed Chief Beifong enough during the Equalist takeover to get an offer in the first place, he still felt that he had to prove himself. Hopefully what he'd just found would show everyone he belonged.

"I finally made a break in the bombing case", he explained. "I was able to I.D. the guy I saw at the scene."

"That's great, buddy!"

"Yeah, you should go show that to the chief right now."

He'd expected to be mocked and dismissed by the senior detectives, so their approval was surprising. If he was able to impress them, then Chief Beifong would have to be-

"What makes a rookie beat cop think he can interrupt my meeting with the president?"

But any hope of that was gone when he opened the door and saw who she was speaking to, and the hushed giggling behind him immediately confirmed his suspicion that he'd been set up.

"Sorry, I um...found something out about the bombing."

"Then give it to Lu and Gang, you moron! Now get out!"

Mako didn't need to be told twice. He closed the door, and walked over to the detectives, who weren't bothering to hide their amusement anymore.

"Sorry, was she busy?", Lu asked while he wiped a tear from his eye.

"Very funny. Here, this is the guy I saw sneaking out of the building right before the explosions. He's a member of the Agni Kais. Someone must have hired him to make it look like Northerners attacked the Cultural Center."

"Hmm." Gang didn't even bother looking at the mugshot before putting it in his desk.

"And did you learn anything about that remote control I found at the scene? That's gotta be the key to finding out who's really responsible."

"Listen, kid, it was the Northern tribe, okay?"

"How can you be sure?"

"Because I've been in this job long enough to know that the simplest theory is usually what actually happened", Lu told him without any of his normal bravado. "And nothing you've found has proven that the North isn't behind the bombing."

"Yeah, if anything they're probably the ones that hired that guy to blow up the Cultural Center", Gang added. So do yourself and the rest of us a favor and drop the super cop act."

There was a lot Mako wanted to say, about why they seemed so disinterested in investigating, but he knew there'd be consequences for it, so he went back to his desk to stew.

He came up with a few leads that would be worth tracking down, but they were away from his usual patrol route, so he'd have to look into them while he was off duty without backup, not to mention the trouble he would get in for investigating a case he wasn't assigned to, but with all that was at stake, it felt like a risk worth taking.

Mako was so busy trying to figure out a plan that he didn't even notice there was someone approaching his desk until there was a shadow cast over the paperwork he was catching up on.

When he realized that the President of the United Nations was standing in front of him, Mako gave him a salute, but it was dismissed with an offer of a handshake that he quickly took.

"I've heard a long about you from Chief Beifong. You've made some big arrests for someone so new to the force.

The chief having good things to say about him felt more surprising than the President wanting to speak with him. "Thank you, sir."

"And you're friends with the Avatar, correct?"

"Yes."

"Well, that's actually why I wanted to talk to you. I'm concerned that she might be getting some bad advice from Varrick. You wouldn't happen to know if they're plotting anything that might compromise the security of Republic City, would you, officer?"

Mako was hesitant to answer, and Raiko noticed immediately. "Let me remind you that you've sworn an oath. You're a man of the law before anything else."

He stayed silent, though, and that seemed to be enough to convince him. "Very well, keep up the good work.

But unease ate away at Mako quickly while the president walked away. Varrick's plan already seemed dubious at best, just based on the idea of bringing in another army, escalating the situation to a full scale war, and was without considering the effect it would have on Republic City. If there was another threat like the Equalist takeover, the police force wouldn't be enough to stop them without the help of the United Forces.

Not only that. but they could be in a lot of trouble if anyone found out about their plan to go behind Raiko's back. General Iroh's career would be in jeopardy, as well as Mako's if they found out he knew what was going on and didn't say anything.

And he really didn't care if anything happened to Varrick, but what about Bolin and Korra? Would they be considered co-conspirators? Traitors even? He just couldn't risk it. Sorry, Bo.

"Wait. There's...something you should know."

(-)

There wasn't any flashy excitement or wacky hijinks like he was hoping for, but Bolin was still enjoying himself at Varrick's mover studio.

He was with Varrick, Zhu Li, and Tahno, and they were taking photos for posters that would promote the "Adventures of Nuktuk". Bolin didn't know anything about photography, so he helped himself to the craft services table nearby, helping himself to a Varrick cake, while Pabu sat on his shoulder, munching on a stick of celery before Korra entered the room.

"Bolin, I need you to- uh, what's going on?"

Varrick answered for him. "Trying to make art despite constant interruptions!"

"Art?"

Bolin explained what they were doing, but Korra was more focused on the getup Tahno had on, nothing but a fur-lined vest and shorts that didn't even cover his thighs.

"How's he supposed to be the hero of the South when he'd freeze to death in five minutes wearing that?"

"His sense of adventure keeps him warm!", Varrick told her. "Besides, gotta have some eye candy for the grown-ups watching, too."

Korra seemed to agree with Varrick's reasoning, but now she was looking back and forth between Bolin and the Nuktuk costume, with an expression he couldn't quite figure out.

"Maybe you should've been Nuktuk."

"What?"

"Forget it. Can you watch Naga for a few days while I go to the Fire Nation?"

"Sure", he told her as he took Naga's reins. "But what do you need to go there for?"

"General Iroh's a no-go. He told me I should talk to his family in the capital if I want help for the South."

"A no-go?", Varrick interrupted. "What happened? I thought he was a sure thing."

"So did I. We had a plan, but then Raiko showed up out of nowhere and shut the whole thing down."

"Raiko?" Bolin felt himself freeze, as his heart sank into his stomach. Mako...there's no way he would tell...right?

"Yeah, I don't get it. It's like someone tipped him off, but nobody else knew about it except for us and Asami."

But then Korra looked at him, and she realized immediately what had happened. "Bolin, you...you told Mako, didn't you?"

"I..." There was no point in pretending he didn't, and the disappointment in her face quickly shifted to anger.

"How could you...after I...ugh!"

She emphasized her fury by sending a fireball at the set that had been made for the photoshoot, setting it ablaze.

Nobody was anywhere close to it, and Tahno was able to douse the fire without any problem. But then he, Varrick, and Zhu Li left the room, leaving Bolin to deal with Korra's fury alone.

"Why!?"

"H-he promised he wouldn't say anything, I-"

"You promised me you wouldn't say anything! How could you expect him to stay quiet when you couldn't keep your own mouth shut?"

"I don't know, but he's my brother, Korra!", Bolin pleaded.

"Don't act like I was being unreasonable! I didn't want you to tell him because I didn't want something just like this to happen!"

"I know, I'm sorry!"

"Being sorry doesn't change anything! I'm not gonna be able to get Unalaq's army out of the South just because you're sorry!"

"I'll figure something out, just trust me!"

"How?! How are you going to come up with a plan, and how am I supposed to trust you after you did the one thing you promised you wouldn't do?!"

Bolin almost jumped back in surprise. Her eyes...and voice...was this the Avatar state?

"Korra, I swear, I'll-ah!"

He'd grabbed her hand, in some desperate, stupid attempt to calm her down. And with immediate hindsight, holding the hand that had just produced a fireball was a really, really bad idea.

He'd only grasped her for a moment, but his palm already bore a bright pink mark. He doubled over in pain as he rushed to a miraculous jug of ice water that was on the craft services table. It dulled the feeling momentarily, although Bolin still found himself hissing as he stuck his hand in.

"Korra?" He was completely ready to apologize and beg for another chance, but when he turned around, she was gone. The room was abandoned, and the only thing he could hear were Naga and Pabu whimpering in a corner.

Bolin tried to collect himself, ignoring the pain in his hand and the lump in his throat. He had to find Mako. If Korra wasn't already on her way to kill him, which he was honestly pretty tempted to let happen at that point.

(-)

For the past hour, Mako had stayed at his desk, trying and failing to focus on the pile of paperwork he had to sift through, a weak attempt at ignoring the guilt he'd been dealing with.

There was no way around it. He'd ratted out his brother and his friends. Mako knew there was a short list of suspects, and he'd be confronted about it soon.

"You sold me out to the president?!"

But it was still a surprise to see Bolin kicking in the door of the department office.

"Bo, let me explain."

Mako had hoped that if he could calm him down, he might get Bolin to understand, but he didn't appear to be in any kind of state to do that.

"Explain how you stabbed me in the back?"

So they were just gonna yell at each other apparently. "Look, the President of the United Nations gave me a direct order. What was I supposed to do?"

"Not betray me, Korra, and her whole family!"

"Enough!" If there had been anyone in the room polite enough to pretend they weren't listening, that wasn't what they were doing now. "I have a job to do, okay? And I can't do it if I have to worry about you making some huge mistake!"

"Your job?!" Bolin was incredulous now. "You ruined the best thing that ever happened to me just for your job?"

"What are you talking about?", Mako asked, more out of annoyance than the anger he'd had before.

"I promised Korra that I wouldn't say anything, but I actually thought I could trust my own brother. Now I don't know what's gonna happen with us, so thanks a lot!", he yelled before storming off.

No wonder he was so upset. Mako knew Korra would be furious with his decision to tell the president, but he'd hoped her anger would be directed just at him and not his brother.

"Bolin, wait." He didn't want to leave things like this. Mako didn't expect forgiveness from his brother, but hopefully he could at least apologize, or have a calm conversation to make sure Bolin didn't hate him.

At least that was the plan before he turned around and punched him in the face, leaving Mako on the ground, flat on his back, taking him completely by surprise. He didn't even connect the dots and figure out what happened until a few seconds later when he put a hand to his face and felt blood coming from his nose.

And Bolin wasn't faring much better. Apparently the punch had caused a great deal of pain for him as well, and despite his attempts to hide it Mako was able to see red knuckles and...a pink mark on his palm. Had that been from Korra?

But he didn't get the chance to ask. When Mako made eye contact with Bolin, his little brother ran, out of panic, or perhaps something else, and left him with his gawking coworkers, all dead silent until Lin came out of her office.

"What the flamey-o happened to you?"

"I had a fight with my brother", Mako told her as he stood up, voice altered from clutching his mangled nose.

"He did that?"

"Yeah."

"Hmph." Then she became almost...amused? "Siblings. Come on, let's get you patched up."

(-)

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Korra was in a speedboat, racing through the Mo Ce Sea to get to the Fire Nation, but it was hard for her to even remember why she was there when her mind was focused on what happened at the mover studio.

What had she done? It was worse than losing her temper, she'd straight up lost control, and ended up hurting someone she loved.

Getting help from the Fire Nation didn't even feel like it mattered anymore, all she wanted was to go back to Republic City to apologize, and hope Bolin could somehow forgive her. But how could she even face him? After that, she wouldn't blame him if he was too scared to be in the same room with her.

And after everything he'd done for her. Bolin had screwed up, sure, but hadn't deserved anything close to that. She'd doubted herself, her teachers, even her own parents, and Bolin stood by her.

So of course she blew up at him, and took out all of her frustration for other things that had nothing to do with him. Even worse, then she'd gone into the avatar state, and Bolin had got his hand burned trying to get her out.

Of course, it was an accident, but did it matter? Would anyone even believe her?

It was a good thing she couldn't talk to Aang right now. He'd be ashamed of her. He'd have to be.

"You ruined my wedding!"

Eska?

"No one steals my Bolin!"

Then her speedboat was destroyed before she could turn around, sending her underwater. When Korra emerged in a waterspout, she confirmed it was her cousin, with Desna there to assist her. And honestly? Korra was glad, because it was past time she taught Eska a lesson for how she'd treated her boyfriend.

You really think you're in a position to criticize people for how they treat Bolin?

Korra pushed the thought away. She had to focus on the fight in front of her. She'd gotten the upper hand, and she was ready to trap her cousins in a dome of water when they suddenly retreated, and Korra realized why too late.

A dark spirit, much bigger than any she'd seen at the South Pole, had grabbed Korra before she could defend herself. She'd tried to purity it, but she wasn't fast enough, and it dragged her below the surface.

The first sensation she felt when she awoke was sand against her face, but where was she?

The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was two older men running toward her, in red robes befitting a monk or a sage, but who were they? And how did she get here?

"Avatar Korra, are you alright?"

"...Who's Avatar Korra?"

Notes: So uh, yeah. How have you all been lol? Sorry for the long absence, I don't really have a good excuse for taking this long, and sorry again that's not a particularly happy chapter. But I want to stay close to the story, and these are characters with flaws, so it wouldn't be realistic for them to have no conflict with each other. I did try my best though to make sure no one was completely right or completely wrong.

I do want to disclose for the next chapters that I will be skipping the Avatar Wan episodes for this story, since I don't think there's really much I want to do with it, since it was so great as is.