The day following the incident with the thieving spirit, Korra, Asami, Mako, and Bolin were now sitting together eating lunch at one of their favorite restaurants in downtown Republic City. They were in the middle of sharing some stories of their many strange work experiences with each other, when Korra had just finished telling them how her recent trip to Omashu had gone.

"That's amazing Korra!" said Bolin, astonished by Korra's account of the lion turtle. "Omashu was really built of top of a lion turtle? I wish I'd have known about that sooner. I could have gone to see it myself when we stopped by at Omashu during my time working under Kuvira."

"Any news from the Earth Kingdom lately?" asked Korra. "How have things been developing since Prince Wu stepped down?"

"Things are going pretty well actually." said Bolin. "The governing body of the United Earth Kingdom States is finally starting to come together at Ba Sing Se. At least that's what I heard the last time I was in Zaofu with Opal."

Ever since Prince Wu had abolished the Earth Kingdom monarchy and reduced it to a ceremonial role, the separate states and provinces of the Earth Kingdom were all given autonomy over their own affairs and had come together to form new government known as the United Earth Kingdom States. Each state and province was now run by a governor, who derived all their power from a central authority in Ba Sing Se composed of a council of representatives from every state and province that made all major decisions on how the United Earth Kingdom States would be run. This particular system was put in place in the hopes that it would prevent the likelihood of a single individual obtaining all the power for themselves and abusing their authority.

"That reminds me, whatever happened to Kuvira?" asked Korra. "How did her trial go?"

"She's still serving out her prison sentence in Zaofu." said Bolin. "Luckily all the damage she's done has been fixed now."

After the battle of Republic City had ended with the capture of Kuvira, she was put on trial for her many war crimes. Her actions would have almost certainly resulted in her being sentenced to death, however Prince Wu, most likely still fond of Kuvira, decided to take pity on her and through his remaining political influence was able to have her sentence reduced to prison time. As part of the arrangement, Kuvira had assist in the reconstruction efforts to fix all of the damage she had caused throughout the Earth Kingdom, with her prison sentence being carried out in the city of Zaofu under the watchful eye of Su Yin Beifong.

"What about Bataar Jr.?" asked Korra. "Did his family ever forgive him?"

"He's finally back to his old self again." said Bolin. "He still sometimes goes to visit Kuvira in prison though. Apparently during one of his visits she told him that she still loves him despite everything she did. Sounds like a lot of drama if you ask me."

Due to the influence of his powerful mother, Bataar Jr. had gotten off with a much lighter sentence of community service, and thus he was now living in Zaofu again with his family.

"What about that Aiwei guy?" asked Korra. "Last time we saw him, his spirit got trapped in the Fog of Lost Souls, but his body was still here in the physical world."

"Su Yin had his body taken back to Zaofu." said Bolin. "Even though he was a member of the Red Lotus, she couldn't bring herself to just let former friend and adviser die like that. He's still in a coma to this day, hooked up to a life support system in the Zaofu hospital. She hopes that one day his spirit will return to his body, but who knows if that will ever happen."

"That sounds like a terrible way to live out the rest of your life." said Asami.

"What about you Asami?" asked Korra. "How have things been going for you at Future Industries?"

"The company has been doing pretty great as of late." said Asami. "Oh, but you won't believe the ridiculous thing that happened the other day. A few days ago, some customer drove into the repair ship with only half a Satomobile. I'm not kidding; the whole back half of the car was just missing. Apparently one of the Triads had done that to his car as payback for something. He kept wanting us to fix it, but I kept telling him that it just wasn't possible and that he should just buy a new one. I know it had a lot of sentimental value to him, but come on, it's half a car! The whole thing was just one big headache."

"Some people are just stubborn I guess." said Korra. "What about you Mako? Encountered any other problems of the spirit kind?"

"Did I ever tell you guys about how there's this spirit that really seems to have it out for President Raiko?" asked Mako. "He must have done something to really tick that spirit off, because whenever he's not around it would sneak into his office and hang all his stuff on tree branches outside his window. We've gotten so many calls from him at the Police Station for us to go get his stuff down for him, but we've yet to catch the spirit that's doing it. Maybe it was our little thief from yesterday? Well one time, I guess he didn't want to bother us anymore with his calls, he decided to actually climb out there himself to go get his stuff. Needless to say, he got stuck up there and we had to borrow a crane from Future Industries to get him down. You remember that, right Asami?"

"I do." said Asami, laughing. "He couldn't look us in the eye the whole time because of how embarrassed he was. That sure brought his ego down a notch or two."

"Sounds like you all have it rough." said Korra. "Normal everyday life here is just so boring and mundane. I actually kind of miss the old days when we were out saving the world and going on adventures."

"Don't we all." said Bolin, sighing. "We could really use something to break up the monotony."

"Why don't we all go on a vacation together?" asked Korra, an idea coming to her.

"I like the sound of that." said Asami. "I'm in."

"I'd love to, but where would we even go?" asked Mako.

"Well you're in luck, because I think I know the perfect place." said Bolin. "The other day Varrick was telling me about how he and Zhu Li were planning on going on a cruise to the Fire Nation as part of their honeymoon. He's been thinking of starting a line of cruise ships, and he offered to take me and a couple of volunteers with him for a test voyage to see how it would pan out. He needs a bunch of people to fill up passenger spots on the ship for its maiden voyage. The more the merrier he says. Why don't we take him up on his offer? This could be the perfect opportunity for us to kick back and relax."

"That sounds great!" said Korra. "The Fire Nation it is then. It'll be an adventure, just like old times."

Having decided on the destination of their vacation, Korra, Asami, Mako, and Bolin got up and began making plans for their trip to the Fire Nation.


A week later Korra, Asami, Mako, and Bolin found themselves at the Republic City docks with Varrick and Zhu Li, where they were in the process of loading their baggage onto Varrick's new cruise ship that they would be traveling to the Fire Nation on. Having spread the word around to their large group of friends, several other people had been invited to come along, including Tenzin, Kya, Bumi, Pema, Rohan, Meelo, Ikki, Jinora, Kai, Opal, and even their animal companions Naga and Pabu.

"Now this is what I call a party." said Varrick, happy to see that so many of his friends had decided to come. "The first voyage of our new cruise line will be one to remember."

As Mako was loading his baggage onto the boat, he suddenly lost his grip and dropped everything he was holding.

"Need some help Mako?" asked Korra, walking over to assist him.

"That would be nice." said Mako, accepting Korra's aid as she picked up his baggage and carried it onto the boat for him.

Ever since Mako had overexerted himself by using his lighting bending to destroy Kuvira's giant mech from the inside, the nerves in his left arm had been damaged to the point that they no longer functioned properly. His arm always shook now, and he could no longer control it like he used to. Sometimes his arm just went numb and hung limply by his side, and other times it would suddenly feel like it was on fire, causing him to lose his grip and drop whatever items he was holding, as was the case now. After loading his baggage onto the boat, Korra and Mako walked over to Bolin, whose pet fire ferret Pabu climbed down from his shoulder and made himself comfortable inside his luggage.

"Bolin, you're taking Pabu with you?" asked Mako.

"What, I can't just leave him all alone on Air Temple Island." said Bolin. "He'll be lonely without us."

"At least he'll be able to keep Naga company during the trip." said Korra.

As they spoke, Lin Beifong climbed onto the deck of the boat, having come all the way from the Republic City Police Department to see them off.

"Korra, I don't think I need to remind you to be careful when you're out traveling." said Lin. "In case you haven't heard, Zaheer escaped from prison and has been on the loose for a while now."

"Yeah, I know." asked Korra, acting as though this were old news. "I still don't get it though. How did he even get out in the first place?"

"That's a mystery that eludes us to this day." said Tenzin. "We believe he might have escaped during the chaos of our battle against Kuvira in Republic City. By the time the White Lotus members guarding him realized that Zaheer was missing, he was already long gone."


A year and a half ago.

As Kuvira commanded her giant mech against Team Avatar during the battle of Republic City, she attempted to fire the spirit cannon at Korra, however the shot missed and flew right past her, instead hitting a mountain range off in the distance. Unbeknownst to them, within this same mountain range was the White Lotus prison that held the notorious criminal and Red Lotus Zaheer, who could feel the ground begin to shake as he sat in his cell mediating.

"An earthquake?" asked Zaheer, pondering the cause of the disturbance. "No, it's something else."

Suddenly, a blast of purple energy ripped through the mountain, blowing away the layers of rock and piercing a large hole the ceiling that exposed the outside world to him. As the shaking stopped, several rocks and pieces of debris fell into Zaheer's cell, landing on his chains and breaking them. Once the dust and debris had cleared, Zaheer got up and looked around.

"Could this be sign from the heavens?" asked Zaheer, looking up at the gaping hole in his cell.

After waiting for a few moments and not hearing anyone approaching his cell, Zaheer seized the opportunity and began to pull out the bolts securing his chains to the floor, many of them now broken thanks to the rocks that had fallen onto them. After picking up a sharp rock and using it to break the hinges on the metal cuff around his waist, Zaheer finally freed himself and began levitating into the air, flying out through the hole in his cell.

"Freedom!" yelled Zaheer, expressing his joy at the happy accident that had resulted in his freedom.

Feeling the outside air for the first time in three years, Zaheer flew as high and as far as he could, disappearing into the horizon and heading for parts unknown.


"Lucky for us, Zaheer hasn't caused any trouble since his escape." said Korra. "I doubt we'll ever catch him again, especially since he can just fly anywhere he wants now. I can only hope he's given up on his goal of killing the Avatar. Even so, I would be lying if I said I don't sleep with the door locked and jump at every little sound I hear outside my window at night."

"We should also keep in mind that there could still be other Red Lotus members out there who are unaccounted for." said Tenzin. "There's always the possibility that they could try to reform."

"That's right." said Lin. "We were never able to catch any more of them after you brought down Zaheer's group. What about you Bolin? When you were out traveling the Earth Kingdom with Kuvira, did you come across any?"

"We marched all over the Earth Kingdom but couldn't find any real trace of them." said Bolin. "Here and there we arrested a few people we thought might be connected, but none of them really seemed to know anything. Supposedly there were some Red Lotus sympathizers among the people of Kyoshi Island that were hiding a few of their members and helped them escape before we arrived there. When Kuvira found out she was furious and decided to make an example out of them to teach the people of Kyoshi Island a lesson. It wasn't pretty..."

"Ever since their defeat four years ago, we've been working tirelessly to locate any surviving Red Lotus members, but it's not like we can search every corner of the globe." said Lin. "Due to the Fire Nation's isolationist policies, not much is known about what really goes on there, and the Fire Nation government has never really been too keen on letting outsiders pry into its affairs either, which is something the Red Lotus could be using to their advantage to keep themselves hidden. In fact, we have reason to believe that the Fire Nation may have even been the birthplace of the Red Lotus."

"Even if that's where the Red Lotus came from, they haven't shown any activity since I defeated Zaheer and his group." said Korra. "For all we know, the Red Lotus might have already crumbled."

"I can only hope that's the case." said Lin. "However, I've been hearing some troubling news lately about the current political situation in the Fire Nation. Apparently there's some mysterious masked man going around there calling himself Xai Bau. He's been stirring up the people with talks of removing the monarchy from power, and it's even been rumored that he's rallying together some kind of secret revolutionary army to overthrow them."

"A masked revolutionary?" said Korra, sarcastically. "That sounds familiar."

"If I remember correctly Korra, didn't Zaheer once tell you that the founder of the Red Lotus was a man named Xai Bau?" asked Tenzin, sounding concerned.

"He did, but there's no way it can be the same person." said Korra. "Xai Bau died a long time ago, and even if he's still alive he'd be well over 120 years old. This masked man is probably just some pretender using his name to scare people. I bet he's nothing but a big fraud, just like Amon was."

"Are you sure you still want to go on this trip Korra?" asked Lin. "I'm seeing a lot of red flags here."

"Of course I'm still going." said Korra. "I don't care if the world is coming to an end. Nothing is going to stop me from enjoying myself on this vacation. Besides, I spoke with Lord Zuko on the phone yesterday to let him know that we're coming. He assured us that we'd have the full protection and security of the White Lotus once we get there, so there's really nothing to worry about."

"There's still about a million ways this could go wrong." said Lin.

"If you're so worried about it, then why don't you come with us?" asked Korra. "You deserve a vacation too after everything you've been through."

"Fine then, I'll come with you." said Lin, smiling. "Someone has to keep you safe while you're there, and I don't trust those White Lotus lackeys to get the job done."

"That's great." said Korra. "We'll wait here for you. Hurry up and go pack your things."

Following Korra's advice, Lin left to go pack her bags, and after about an hour she returned with her baggage.

"Alright, I'm ready to go." said Lin. "I also had to make a quick stop at the police station to let Saikhan know to cover for me while I'm gone."

"Wow, that was quick." said Korra. "It took us way longer than that to just decide what we were going to pack. You must really want to come with us that badly, huh?"

With everyone now on the boat, the passengers being Korra, Asami, Mako, Bolin, Lin, Tenzin, Kya, Bumi, Pema, Rohan, Meelo, Ikki, Jinora, Kai, Opal, Naga, Pabu, Varrick, Zhu Li, and several staff members on the boat, they were now ready to set sail.

"Zhu Li, set course for the Fire Nation." said Varrick, putting on a captain's hat.

"Aye-aye captain." said Zhu Li, humoring him.

After raising anchor, the ship left the Republic City docks and began sailing off into the ocean.