There were mounds and mounds of paperwork. Done in triplicate, sign, stamped and sometimes signed again, and Jia's hands cramped something terrible. Between digging up and making copies of all the needed documentation for the lawsuit, juggling calls from nervous investors, dealing with a sudden and unexpected meeting of the directors and the continued need to direct and redirect the airships and resources that had been commandeered by the United Republic for the aid effort in the Fire Nation.
She wasn't alone in her office. Ikki had come by, since their date had been postponed for the foreseeable future. Jia had tasked her with sorting some of the less important paperwork - Ikki spent too much time stealing looks at her to give her anything with time constraints. She didn't entirely mind. It was flattering.
"You know between all this paper and how much you guys are doing to help out with the Fire Nation you'd think the President might just drop that lawsuit?" Ikki turned a paper over in her hand, her face contorting in annoyance. She set it on the floor in front of her, then climbed up onto the office couch. "Which I totally don't get. Look at how much good Asami has done for the City! She rebuilt it with her bare hands!"
Jia laughed. "It took more effort, with a lot more people than that. But she might, if we play our cards right. The concern is that there is too much power in one company. It's a valid concern. While Mrs. Sato has never been particularly concerned with making a great deal of profit and has always tried to be ethical, not everyone is like her. A future CEO, or another company might take advantage of a situation like this to make more money."
"So they're going to make an example of Future Industries."
"Yes." Moving some papers over, Jia sank back in her chair. "Why don't we take a break and get something to eat. I'll have something delivered."
"What, eat here in the office? Just the two of us?"
Jia nodded, and smiled as Ikki's face reddened. "It could give us a chance to talk about something that's not business related. I'm sure you're tired of listening to me rant to myself about bureaucracy."
"...It's actually kind of cute."
This time, Jia was the one blushing. "Right. Okay. Let me ..." She gestured at the phone then picked up much less smoothly that she'd like to to place an order for take-out. She also ordered catering for the rest of the office since everyone had been working so hard, and it was something that Asami would have done.
Doom. That was the feeling that had been following Ikki ever since Korra and the others had rushed to the Fire Nation, and it was something she hadn't been able to shake. Now that she wasn't distracted by helping Jia, she kept focusing on that anxiety in her gut. Something was going to happen. Her sister hadn't been all that reassuring when she'd brought it up. Jinora hadn't really said anything but the look on her face had told Ikki that she was worried too.
The couch shifted as Jia sat next to her. Ikki glanced at her, worrying her lip between her teeth. Jia folded her hands in her lap. "You're worried about them aren't you."
"Yeah. I keep feeling like something is going to happen."
"Like there's this sense of foreboding?"
Ikki nodded.
"I think that's only natural. I worry about them every time they go and do something. But that's the life they've chosen." She couldn't imagine a world where Asami didn't join Korra on Avatar Business. Actually having to go and do something dangerous was relatively uncommon, but it still happened, and Jia still worried. "All we can do is trust in their capabilities, and the capabilities of the people with them. Mako and Bolin are two of the best benders I've ever seen. Between them, the Avatar, and Asami's skills, they'll be fine. They've got General Iroh over there, too."
"He's awesome! He once did an air race with me and Meelo, only he was using fire jets and we kind of scorched something really important and dad's forehead vein was throbbing for a week."
Jia held her stomach as she laughed. "How old were you?"
"Uh." Ikki rubbed the back of her neck. "Seventeen at the time. I remember Dad muttering something about it being having Korra around all over again."
That only made Jia laugh harder, and Ikki nudged her shoulder with her own. "Hey! It's not that funny! And he's like ancient so if anyone should get laughed at it's him!"
They were leaning against each other as Jia regained her breath. "I'm sorry. I'm just...picturing that in my head." She was usually more reserved around people, but laughter felt good for her soul. Like stress relief.
Ikki beamed at her. She'd never seen Jia quite like this and she loved it. She leaned in close. "...it was funny. In hindsight."
"Many things are."
Seizing up her courage (and with her heart pounding a mile a minute) Ikki turned her head. But before their lips met, Jia had turned her head. Ikki's face burned, and she started to stand. Jia put her hand on Ikki's leg. "Wait."
Confused, Ikki froze. She wasn't able to look at Jia, afraid that if she did the rejection and embarrassment might make her do something even more foolish.
"It's not that I don't want to. I really like you." Jia's fingers twitched, and she had to stop herself from fidgeting. She'd thought about it, over and over. Weighed the pros and cons about telling another person about her secret. It had been such a relief at how quickly Korra and Asami had accepted her, and Korra had been positive Ikki would too, but it was such a fundamental part of herself that the fear of rejection was omnipresent. It might be a relief, and she genuinely wanted Ikki to know.
"Then what is it?" Ikki finally let herself look at Jia. Beautiful Jia, with her hair always in that bun. Ikki had fantasized about taking it down, running her fingers through it. She could imagine Jia's amber eyes, half closed, as she did so. Once, not long after Korra had opened the new spirit portal, she'd caught Korra curled up with Asami, stroking her hair. She'd never seen either of them so content, and it had been a favorite fantasy of hers whenever she'd crushed on a girl.
"Have you ever heard of people who have bodies that don't match up with who they are inside?"
"Uhm." It sounded like something that she'd gone over in lessons with her father but hadn't paid much attention to. "...kind of? It's a spirit thing, isn't it?"
"Sort of." Even though Jia had mulled over the words, they still didn't come easily. "My soul, what makes me me, is a woman. but until I was your brother's age, I didn't know it. I only knew that I'd always felt wrong. That I wasn't supposed to be a boy."
"Oh." Ikki put her hand on top of Jia's. "Was it scary? Figuring that out?"
"Very." Jia looked at their hands, then back at Ikki. "...does it bother you?"
Ikki could have said something sarcastic, or joking to reassure Jia. Made light of it, but she could feel Jia almost trembling against her. This was too serious, and maybe it was time she made herself be a little more serious.
So she simply shook her head, and lifted her free hand to stroke her fingers along Jia's cheek. "No. It doesn't bother me. I still like you, you're still beautiful, you're still you. And you're trusting me with this and ... " She didn't know what else to say.
Jia leaned her forehead against Ikki's, tears welling up in her eyes. She tried to blink them away, before her make-up got ruined.
Ikki squeezed Jia's hand, hard enough to be a little painful. "And I want to be your friend. Or other things. If you want. Still."
The phone rang, and both women stared at it with baleful expressions. Jia got up with a sigh to answer it. "Future Industries."
Her eyes widened. "Madame President. What is it?"
Ikki watched Jia's face as her expression shifted from annoyance, to concern, to abject panic. Then her face closed up. "We'll get right on it." Jia hung up. "At this rate Future Industries and the United Republic are both going to go bankrupt."
"What's wrong?"
Instead of answering, Jia grabbed Ikki's hand and pulled her out of the office. She stopped in front of her temporary assistant's desk. "Yang, get every Satoplane we have available fueled up and in the air. Then I want you to find any airships you can and load them up with food and clean water."
"Ma'am?"
"The King Bumi Dam broke."
Cracks ran from the base of the dam, all the way up to the top, where Asami could see Korra and Mako fighting Amaya. With Korra occupied, they needed to do something to slow the cracks. She grabbed Bolin's shoulder. "Bolin, do you think you can bend lava into those cracks? If it cools fast enough that should buy us enough time."
"Enough time for what? That dam is falling apart!"
"Trust me, just do it!"
Bolin watched Asami jump onto Naga's back. They took off at full speed towards one side of the dam. He turned his attention to the massive structure. "Okay, Bo, you can do this." He cracked his knuckles, and sent a wave of lava up the side of the dam. He cooled it quickly and pumped a fist. It was just like a bandaid!
He felt the earth shift behind him, and dodged to the left. A jagged spike of rock shot through the air where he'd been. Rolling to his feet, he faced Lihua.
"Lavabending. That's a surprise. I didn't think you had any talent at all."
"You're hurting my feelings," Bolin pouted. He lifted his fists. "You shouldn't do this. A lot of people could die."
"Wash away the rot and lay down fertile soil for the new order," She replied.
"Do you really believe that?"
"Not really. But I'll do anything for family."
The dam only had a single release gate. A flaw in the design that Asami had offered to rectify at cost, but hadn't been given the go-ahead by the Earth Republic's government for. But letting even a little water out would ease the strain on the dam. Between Bolin's bandaging efforts and this, Asami hoped that the dam would last long enough for Korra to stop Amaya and do another shore up job. And then Asami was going to fix this damn for free if she had to.
No one was in the control room when she entered, but with Naga at her back she was certain she'd be ready for any surprises. The release consisted of three valves. With all valves fully turned, a door would slide open and water would come rushing out. The first two were easy, but the third one was much more difficult. Asami positioned her feet against the wall and her back against a pipe and pulled with all of her might.
Outside, metal groaned loudly as the gate slid open. Water started to rush out with jet-like force. Lihua turned to look, and Bolin seized his opening. He surrounded her with a ring of lava. She turned back to face him and he hit her in the back of the head with a large rock. She stumbled, falling to her knees. Bolin shifted into a defensive position, waiting for her to move. "...you going to give up? You should probably give up, I mean you're just going to have a huge headache by the time we're done."
Her shoulders slumped, and she lifted her head to look at him. Tears streaked down her face, as her eyes began to turn red and her tattoos glowed. "Would you die for your family?"
"I'd rather live for them, but if there was no other choice, I would."
"You understand. Good enough." Her eyes rolled back into her head, and she slumped over.
Bolin lept across his lava ring, kneeling next to her. He searched for a pulse. He found one. Fluttering. Faint. He didn't understand what was happening, but Lihua wasn't dead yet, and something inside him didn't want to see her die. "Sometimes family makes mistakes. There's a big difference between sacrificing yourself to protect them, and dying like this."'
A wave of water washed over the dam. Bolin looked for Korra and his brother, and breathed a sigh when he saw them still standing.
"She's buying time," Mako said. He was soaked to the gills, and breathing heavily. All Amaya had been doing for the past five minutes had been holding them off. She'd barely attacked, deflecting their attacks and making attempts to damage the dam.
Every time Amaya tried to earthbend the dam, Korra had countered it. A crack formed at their feet and she closed it up. There was plenty of water for both of them to use. Whips and ice flew about dangerously. But Mako was right, this was a delaying action. Korra narrowed her eyes. "We can't let her buy any more time."
"Right." Mako fell into a classic Fire Bender stance. "It's time to empty her wallet."
"Good one. Write it down for later."
"Thanks."
Amaya snorted. Her tattoos flared red and she suddenly split the dam between her and the Avatar. Korra crossed the gap in a single jump, closing it beneath her as she landed in front of Amaya. She swung her fist, an arc of fire following it, then followed it up with fiery kick. Amaya was forced backwards. She laughed. "This is too big for you, Avatar. It's not just the Fire Nation. It's not just the so-called Earth Republic. The Fire Lord was the call to arms."
"What's this then?" Something nagged at the back of Korra's mind. Where was the water-bending sister? She suddenly realized what Amaya had been waiting for, but it was too late.
"A declaration of war." Amaya's words were punctuated by ten deep, rumbly explosions. Water spouted up, all along the dam. It rocked underneath them. Amaya rocketed away on a burst of flame as the dam began to crumble.
Korra lost her footing as a wave of water slammed into her. The dam gave way, breaking into boulders ranging from large to huge, pushed along by twenty million acre-feet of water. Amaya watched from a safe perch as the water poured into the valley below. It was more than she expected. It was so sudden and so violent that it gave her momentary pause. She felt a hand on her shoulder, and glanced at her sister, Nuo, asking, "Did we do the right thing?"
"You tell me?"
Amaya frowned, then shook it off. "Let's get out of here. We need to signal the other cells. It's time." Leaving the decimation behind, the sisters fled on foot.
From the depths of the rampaging water glowed a bright white light. It grew bigger and brighter, until Korra burst out of the water on a whirlpool. Mako was thrown over her shoulder, and she had Bolin under her other arm. He still had a tight grip on Lihua. Korra glanced around, taking in the devastation. She stopped only long enough to drop her precious cargo on dry land, then shot along the surface of the water, streams of fire trailing behind her.
She held out her right hand, lifting great sheets of earth as she went. The flood crashed into the new barrier and began to follow the path as she carved it. She pushed herself harder, trying to get ahead of the water. Her massive earthen barrier curved with her as she shifted course, and she twisted around as soon as she'd passed the front of the flood. Korra dropped to the ground, lifting her hands as the wave bore down on her.
The water stopped. Korra lowered her head, the ground beneath her feet cracking and breaking apart. Her barrier grew again, racing back towards the remains of the dam. Earth collided with earth, meshing together and hardening. With the barrier sealed, Korra let the water go. It flowed around her, but she wasn't done.
Her eyes were searching, straining for something. And then she saw it, a flash of white in the deluge. Korra clenched her fists, and the water slowed again. She reached in, grabbing onto white fur and pulling as hard as she could.
Naga flopped out, Asami tied loosely to her harness. With no time to spare, Korra gathered her wife up in her arms, grabbed Naga by the harness and launched herself into the air. Water filled the space where she'd been, as though there'd never been a space at all.
They landed hard on the other side of the barrier, Korra dropping out of the Avatar State. Her body ached in ways she had forgotten were possible, but she ignored it, turning Asami onto her back and leaning her cheek over her wife's mouth. She felt the faintest trace of warm breath, and hugged Asami against her chest. She felt her wife's arms thread under her armpits, her hands pressing hard against her back. That only made Korra's embrace all the tighter.
Asami coughed, a wet, gurgling sound. "Bolin? Mako?"
"They're okay. I'm okay. You're okay. We're all okay."
"You stopped it?" Asami struggled to pull her head away, looking at Korra's face.
Korra glanced at the barrier. "Yeah. Easy."
"Damn." Asami breathed, staring. The barrier had to be at least twice as high as the original dam had been.
"Well, that's what I was going for."
Asami resumed clinging to Korra. Her voice was very serious. "You owe me one for the pun jar, Korra."