Elsewhere in the Fire Nation, the Red Lotus members Zaheer and Sanken had just about reached their destination after nearly a day of traveling, and they now found themselves on the outskirts of a large industrial complex situated on the banks of a polluted river. The sky above them had an orange tint to it due to the pollution, and as far as they could see there were abandoned buildings everywhere, causing Zaheer to pause for a moment.

"Are you sure this is the place?" asked Zaheer, remaining skeptical as he looked around. "I can't imagine anyone wanting to hide out in this wretched dump."

"We've had to change our hideout several times over the past few years to avoid detection by the authorities." said Sanken. "This industrial complex has been abandoned for quite some time, so we converted it into our new base of operations. We've even been able to make use of some of these old factories and re-purpose them for our cause."

"Where is everyone then?" asked Zaheer, looking around for signs of people. "I don't see anyone."

"If it were that obvious that there was someone here, then we would have been discovered a long time ago." said Sanken.

Zaheer continued to follow Sanken as he led him into one of the abandoned buildings, coming to a stop at a thick metal wall. Sanken then lifted his arms and made a bending motion, causing the wall to split open and peel away, revealing a hidden passageway behind it. The two stepped inside, after which Sanken used his metalbending to bend the metal wall back it to its original state, making it appear good as new.

"So you're the metalbender too?" asked Zaheer, trying to strike up a conversation with Sanken as they navigated the passageway. "Are you from Zaofu just like Aiwei was?"

"No, nor have I ever lived there." said Sanken. "I may be Aiwei's replacement, but don't lump me in with him or any of those other amateurs from Zaofu. If he had actually trained those guys how to bend that metallic poison meant for the Avatar properly, than your plan to kill her might have actually succeeded."

After making their way through the passageway, they eventually reached a large circular room with many doorways along its walls, which most likely connected to other secret passageways on the outside. At the center of the room was a mechanical elevator, which Sanken and Zaheer boarded, and then with a wave of his hand Sanken used his metalbending to pull the lever and send the elevator on its way down. After a few minutes, the elevator finally reached its stop in a part of the complex that was deep underground, which looked to be much cleaner and better maintained than the buildings on the surface.

"I see, so the hideout is hidden underground." said Zaheer, exiting the elevator with Sanken.

Upon entering the next room, the first thing Zaheer noticed was a large group of people gathered inside, many of them wearing the attire of Red Lotus members. A few of them took notice of Sanken and walked over to greet him.

"Welcome back Grandmaster Sanken." said one of the Red Lotus members. "You were gone for quite some time."

"I was on an errand to go find Grandmaster Zaheer." said Sanken. "I brought him back with me so he could join us today."

The room filled quickly with conversation upon the revelation of Zaheer's return, and a man stepped out from the crowd to greet him.

"Looks like Sanken managed to find you after all Zaheer." said the Red Lotus member as he came closer.

The man who approached Zaheer was covered in scars and burn marks, and several of his body parts, including his arms and legs, had been replaced with metal prosthetic parts, including a metal plate that covered nearly half of his face. He was more machine than man, and beneath his robes he likely hid more prosthetics and cybernetics.

"That voice, I've heard it before." said Zaheer, struggling to recognize the man. "Do I know you?"

"It's me Zaheer." said the man. "You're old friend Tensu."

"Tensu, is that really you?" said Zaheer, his eyes widening in shock upon seeing the state of the man's body. "What happened to you? I thought you died in the war."

"So did I." said Tensu. "I would have died from my injuries, but I was saved thanks to our leader. My broken body was rebuilt into what you see now. This half-machine body of mine may not be ideal, but at least it keeps me going. In fact, I may be just as strong, if not stronger, than I was before."

"It's good to know you're still alive and well after all these years." said Zaheer.

"You too old friend." said Tensu, giving Zaheer a quick hug. "I had planned on meeting up with you after I was finished healing from my injuries and adjusting to my new body, but then Unalaq enacted that reckless plan of his to kidnap the Avatar. It failed and he had you take the fall for it. I couldn't believe it when I first heard the news. Unalaq was our friend, and he just betrayed you all like that and left you to rot in prison for thirteen years. How could he do something like that?"

"You and Unalaq were close friends." said Zaheer. "After hearing the news of your death, something changed in Unalaq. From that point on, he became obsessed with power and strayed away from our original goal. He even tried to fuse with the Spirit of Darkness Vattu to become a Dark Avatar. He was on a path of destruction, so perhaps it was for the best that the Avatar put an end to him."

"So how have you been Zaheer?" asked Tensu. "You were in prison for a very long time and I didn't know where you were, otherwise I would have come to rescue you. How did escape?"

"I was miraculously blessed with the gift of airbending four years ago." said Zaheer. "I was able to use it to free myself and the others, and we set out to bring freedom to the Earth Kingdom, but the Avatar and her friends put a stop to it and I was imprisoned yet again for another three years. It was through a stroke of divine luck that I was able to escape from my cell and slip away during the Battle of Republic City."

"I heard about what happened to Ghazan and Ming Hua... and P'Li." said Tensu, a sad expression on his face.

"We lost three good friends that day." said Zaheer, remembering the deaths of his comrades.

"How long has it been now since the last time you were here in the Fire Nation?" asked Tensu. "It must bring back a lot of memories, both good and bad."

"It's been almost seventeen years." said Zaheer, reminiscing about the past. "The Fire Nation is where I first learned of the teachings of Grandmaster Xai Bau and joined the Red Lotus, along with Unalaq, Ghazan, and Ming-Hua. We were all so young and headstrong back then. It was right around when the war started too. As part of the Red Lotus, we worked from the shadows to help bring down the warlords, and that was how I first met you and your cousin P'Li."

"That's where it all started for us." said Tensu, recalling his terrible childhood. "The two of us were captured as children and conscripted into the service of that accursed Warlord Jushin. Because of her talent for using our people's unique bending ability, he tired making P'Li into his own personal killing machine, but you freed us from that life and gave us a chance at freedom and the opportunity to choose our own destinies. You recruited us into the Red Lotus, and we decided to help put an end to that terrible war. P'Li worked with the rest of you from the shadows, while I took a more direct approach and enlisted in the Fire Nation Army to help fight back against the warlords who had ruined our lives. I really thought that I was making a difference, but I soon came to realize that neither side was truly just in that war, and then as you can see "this" happened to me. If only I had followed in P'Li's footsteps instead. Maybe then things could have turned out differently, and she would still be here with us."

"What an awful way for someone to go out." said Sanken, cringing at the thought of how P'Li had met her end. "She was one of the last surviving combustion benders too. It's always a sad when rare bending abilities die out."

"It seems you and Sanken have already become acquainted with each other." said Tensu, introducing Zaheer to Sanken. "We met a few years ago in the Earth Kingdom and I recruited him into the order. Since then, I've taken him under my wing as my protege. He may be a little brash and cocky at times, but he's one of the most skilled benders I've ever met. When I heard talk of a traveling monk here in the Fire Nation going by the name Gyatsuboro, your old alias, I knew right away it had to be you. Sanken is really good at finding people with his seismic sense, so I gave him an old picture of you and had him follow Gyatsuboro's trail, and it looks like he managed to find you after all."

"He mentioned something about a meeting of all the remaining members of the order." asked Zaheer. "What's this all about?"

"Come and see for yourself." said Tensu. "Xai Bau will explain everything."

"The old man is actually still alive and kicking?" asked Zaheer, surprised to hear this. "When he disappeared near the end of the war, I thought he might have died."

"That's something he and I both share in common." said Tensu, smiling. "We're too stubborn and strong-willed to die."

All the nearby Red Lotus members began to file out of the room, with Tensu leading the way as Sanken and Zaheer followed close behind him. On their way to the meeting place, they passed by what appeared to be a large underground hanger area that housed various types of vehicles and weapons, and where a large number of builders and engineers seemed to be hard at work on constructing something. Eventually, they reached a set of stairs that led down into an audience chamber where several banners depicting the Red Lotus symbol hung along the walls, and at the very back was a speaking platform. Upon entering the audience chamber everyone gathered in front of the speaking platform, with Zaheer, Sanken, and Tensu standing at the very front. The lights in the room suddenly turned on, and a sound could be heard of someone making their way onto the speaking platform from the ramp behind it. Two people came into view, an old man in a wheelchair, and a young woman who pushed it. The old man looked absolutely ancient, and connected to his wheelchair there appeared to be various pieces of medical equipment such as breathing machines and life support apparatuses, while the woman pushing him was dressed in the attire of a Kyoshi warrior. The old man then rolled over to a microphone and began to speak in a very raspy voice.

"Greetings my fellow brothers and sisters of the Red Lotus." said the old man. "I am your humble leader and founder Xai Bau. For the last several years I have been in hiding, but now I have finally returned to the Fire Nation to lead you all once again. Those of you who have chosen to gather here today are quite possibly the last remaining members of our once great order. You are the ones who have remained loyal and true to our cause to the very end, while all the others have either fallen, been captured and imprisoned, or abandoned our cause out of fear and disloyalty. Once we were many, but now few of us remain. Even so, we will not let that stop us from achieving our goal of bringing freedom to the people of this world and ridding it of those who would take it away. The Order of the White Lotus may brand us as heretics and believe us to be defeated and crippled, but they are mistaken. Where they believed us to have failed, we have in truth also succeeded."

"We have failed yet also succeeded?" asked Zaheer, looking up at Xai Bau from the crowd below. "How is that possible master Xai Bau?"

"Was it not our original goal to bring back the spirits and restore balance to the world?" said Xai Bau. "Although brother Unalaq may have strayed from our cause, it was through his actions that the Avatar was led into reopening the Spirit Portals, thus returning the world to the state in which it was before Avatar Wan closed the Spirit Portals. Then there was you brother Zaheer, with your assassination of the Earth Queen, and later your attempt to put a permanent end to the Avatar cycle by killing Avatar Korra. You may have failed in that regard and were later imprisoned, but your actions resulted in a new form of freedom for the people of the Earth Kingdom. Since the defeat of the tyrant Kuvira, the former Earth Kingdom is no more, having been replaced by a new government that allows its people the opportunity to choose its leaders and hold them to greater accountability. While it may not be exactly what we had in mind for them, such a form of government is still far better than the tyrannical rule of a monarch or dictator. It would seem that despite all of these setbacks, the Avatar has unwittingly helped us to further our goals in one way or another, whether she realizes it or not."

"Does this mean our purpose has now come to an end?" asked Zaheer, curious as to where Xai Bau was going with this.

"Far from it, which is why I have summoned you all here today." said Xai Bau. "Our original goal of bringing true freedom through anarchy is no longer practical for this modern-day world. The incident in the Earth Kingdom four years ago and the rise of the tyrant Kuvira that followed it have only made that fact clearer to me. From now on we will need to adopt a different approach. Just as we of the Red Lotus have continued to change and adapt throughout the years, so too will our goals. As you are all aware, the Fire Nation is now the last bastion of the corrupt and outdated rule of monarchies. It is here where I founded the Order of the Red Lotus, and so it is here where will enact our final plan: to free this nation and its people from the tyranny of its royal government. It was due to its corrupt and incompetent nature that one of the worst and bloodiest wars in history was allowed to happen, the Fire Nation Civil War. To this day, they still refuse to acknowledge their mistakes or accept full responsibility for their part in causing it, nor have they made any attempts to make amends with those whose lives were destroyed by it. While those in power continue to live lives of luxury in the capital and treat the war as a distant memory of the past, there are many in this nation who are still struggling to recover from its aftermath. This travesty cannot be allowed to continue. It is time for change, and we will be the ones to bring it by tearing down this establishment and rebuilding it from the ground up. To accomplish this, we will need to remove the royal family from power by any means necessary. For our revolution to succeed, we will need the support of the people. They will need someone to rally behind, someone sympathizes with their plight and will fight for their freedom. That someone is here among you today. I introduce you all to my proxy, our brother and champion of the people; Grandmaster Tensu."

Tensu then walked out from the crowd below and climbed onto the speaking platform, joining Xai Bau beside the microphone. He bowed to the audience as they all began to cheer, both for him and for Xai Bau's moving speech.

"I am humbled to accept this great honor from you Grandmaster Xai Bau." said Tensu, turning to address the crowd. "I was born and raised in the Fire Nation, just as you and many others here were. The Fire Nation is my home, and I would like nothing more than to fight for the freedom of its people."

"The main purpose behind this meeting today was for me to assess our remaining forces and to inform you all of our current plans, however there is one more thing I should make you all aware of." said Xai Bau. "I was recently informed by one of our spies that the Avatar and her friends were spotted earlier today in Capital City in the company of the royal family."

Many of the people in the crowd below were noticeably shocked and surprised to hear this news, and they began to whisper among themselves.

"Why would she be here in the Fire Nation?" asked Tensu, sounding worried. "For her to show up right here on our doorstep at a time like this, could this mean she is aware our plans here in the Fire Nation? If she is, it could undo everything we have been working towards. Should we have her eliminated before that can happen?"

"Don't be so hasty brother Tensu." said Xai Bau, reassuring him. "The Avatar is still greatly respected and revered here in the Fire Nation. If we were to kill her without reason, it could end up turning the people against us. From what I have gathered based on the intelligence given to me, she and her allies seem to be here in the Fire Nation for an unrelated reason. I will continue to have our spies monitor them from afar, but for now we must tread carefully around her, lest we draw unwanted attention from her. The Avatar is very powerful, so I would not recommend any of you attempt to fight her on your own. We no longer have a reason to kill her, but if she were to discover our plans and become a hindrance to them, then a confrontation with her may become inevitable. In the meantime, I trust that none of you will do anything rash."

"Understood." said Tensu, acknowledging Xai Bau's advice. "We will do our best to avoid the ire of the Avatar. We will only confront her if she directly challenges us."

"There could be a silver lining to this." said Xai Bau. "The Avatar's actions in the past have proved to be quite beneficial to our goals, so if the right opportunity were to present itself and if we were to take advantage of it, then she may yet again prove useful to our plans here in the Fire Nation. I have said all I needed to say for the time being. With this, I now take my leave to rest."

The members of the Red Louts all had great trust in their leader Xai Bau and his words. At nearly 130 years of age, the founder of the Red Lotus Xai Bau had accumulated a great amount of knowledge and wisdom throughout the years. He was a master strategist and tactician, as well as a gifted speaker who knew how to move the hearts and minds of his followers and the people alike. Not only that, he also a cunning opportunist who knew how to pull all the right strings in order to achieve the desired outcomes for his plans no matter the circumstances, effectively turning failure into success. To Xai Bau it was all like playing a giant game of Pai Sho, which he was an avid player of. The Kyoshi woman who had been quietly standing beside Xai Bau the whole time now began to push his wheelchair away from the speaking platform, reaching a doorway at the far end of the room and disappearing into a hallway which presumably led to Xai Bau's quarters. Once everyone had dispersed and left the room to go about their business in the hideout, the only ones still there were Tensu, Sanken, and Zaheer.

"It's good to know that our order and its ideals have not been extinguished just yet." said Zaheer. "So what do you intend to do now Tensu? Xai Bau has made you the public face of the revolution."

"There's going to be a big festival tomorrow in Capital City." said Tensu. "It will be the perfect place to make our statement to the royal government. If you're still with us Zaheer, then we'd like you to join us."

The Kyoshi woman who was pushing Xai Bau's wheelchair then emerged from the hallway she had gone down earlier and joined the three of them.

"Okay, I've taken care of grandfather and put him to bed." said the Kyoshi woman. "I'm ready to head out now Tensu."

"Grandfather?" asked Zaheer, a confused look on his face.

"Oh that's right, you've never met Mei-Ling before." said Tensu. "She's another recent addition to the Red Lotus. She joined the order around the same time Sanken did. You'd never guess by looking at her, but she's actually Xai Bau's great-great granddaughter. She's one of his last remaining relatives too."

"When the war was over, Xai Bau was labeled a criminal by the royal government and had to flee the country with Tensu for a while." said Mei-Ling. "Since he had family there, he and some of the other Red Lotus members came to Kyoshi Island to lay low. After my esteemed grandmother passed away, he and my grandfather Renzo were the only family I had left. I helped take care of them both, but years later when Kuvira marched into Kyoshi Island looking for surviving Red Lotus members, I had no choice but to escape back to the Fire Nation with Xai Bau, otherwise I would have been arrested and punished by for being "guilty by association"."

"You were a victim of circumstances beyond your control." said Zaheer, feeling sympathetic for Mei-Ling's situation. "It's ironic that a girl named after a past Avatar would end up joining a group that once tried to kill the Avatar."

"Speaking of Avatars, isn't the festival we're going to supposed to be some kind of celebration of past Avatars from the Fire Nation?" asked Mei-Ling.

"An Avatar Festival?" said Sanken, now excited by the thought. "That sounds like it'll be fun! I wonder if I'll get to fight any strong benders there."

"This could be interesting." said Zaheer, considering the idea. "Alright, I'll come along with you. So what's the plan old friend?"

"We're going to finish what we started all those years ago Zaheer." said Tensu, pulling out a white mask from inside his cloak and putting it on. "If we succeed here, nobody will ever have to go through something like what P'Li and I went through as children ever again, and the ones responsible for doing "this" to me will finally be brought to justice."

"We don't all have to be so serious now, do we?" asked Mei-Ling. "Since it's a festival, we might as well try to enjoy ourselves a bit before the real fun begins..."

Tensu, Sanken, Mei-Ling, and Zaheer then began to make their way over to the elevator they had used to enter the underground hideout earlier and traveled back up to the surface with it. After leaving the industrial complex behind, they boarded a small motor boat in the dirty river and set off towards the direction of Capital City.