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Asami crossed her arms over her chest as she leaned against the doorway, Mako by her side watching the Water Tribe woman sleep. Quietly the engineer asked the Lieutenant Colonel to follow her away from her best friend's room, wanting her to rest. Spirits knew that all she wanted to was go inside and hug and hold her friend, assure her that everything would be okay. But it wasn't what Korra wanted, and she respected that. So instead she asked the military man to sit down with her, sharing a moment of silence before she spoke.

"She's not the same," Asami finally commented quietly.

"Did you expect her to be?"

The Colonel had suffered trauma after trauma in just a few days. She had split her chest open, lost her platoon, and was bonded with a Spirit. The latter she still didn't know about but it still hadn't been an easy process.

The Sato beauty lowered her gaze. "No. I just hoped..." She shook her head. "Silly, really. I should know better."

"It's not silly."

The Firebender had known this would happen. It had all been too much and Korra hadn't cried yet. He hadn't known, however, how much the brunette would really change. She went from a fun, carefree woman who enjoyed life to a quiet, isolated person he didn't recognize anymore.

"I think it is," the heiress countered. "No one goes through something like that and doesn't come out different. But I had hoped...maybe, just maybe, she'd still smile." Asami managed a small smile of her own, wilted and disheartened as it was. "She always used to smile. She used to make me smile when I was down, or when I was working. Now I'm lucky if she even acknowledges me."

"So what are you going to do about it?" Mako asked, looking at the woman across from him expectantly, for he knew both her and Korra too well.

"I'll be there for her. Like I always have, like I always will." And that would have to be enough.

And Spirits knew it was true. That's all she could do. For now.

Korra huffed as she turned once more in bed. She had been living with Asami for a couple of days but hadn't really been able to sleep. Before, going to sleep was as natural as running a drill but now things were different and it seemed that everything about her had changed. The Colonel sat up, grabbing her crutches and standing up before limping out of her room. Perhaps a snack or glass of milk would help her sleep.

She was, however, surprised when she found her host in the kitchen, making herself a grilled cheese sandwich. The heiress didn't say a word as her friend sat on a stool across from her, simply placed the sandwich she had made her herself on a plate and handed it to Korra instead, earning a quiet thanks from the brunette.

For the last couple of days Asami had tried to give her space, making sure she had anything she needed but she'd be lying if she said she wasn't worried. Korra hardly talked, didn't really leave her room, and when she did it was to grab something to eat. The mechanic could almost swear she was avoiding her and tried not to let the fact hurt. She needed time, the wounds the attack had left wouldn't heal easily, if ever. The Colonel's team had been her second family and their absence left a hole in the Water Tribe Woman's chest.

"Can't sleep?" the ravenette finally asked.

"Should be asking you the same question," Korra easily deflected.

"I'm working a project, a robot of sorts."

"Really?"

The engineer nodded. "I'm trying to make it smaller, unlike my other designs," she explained. "I've already made the system that will go with it. I call it JARVIS."

"Sounds like a lot of sleepless nights."

"Nothing I'm not used to."

Korra nodded, taking another bite of her sandwich. There was something she had been swirling in the back of her mind her but thought it would be a little...odd. "There's been something I've been meaning to ask and I know it might sound a little weird."

"Ask away."

"I'm not sure if I imagined it or not, but you...did you call me a selfish bastard?"

Asami seemed unphased by the question and answered back with, "I also threatened to kill you myself. So there's that."

The military woman let a small, ghost of a smile appear at this causing Asami to smile. Baby steps.

Korra watched the screen, gaze intense and soaking in the images of soldiers walking the streets of an Earth Kingdom town. The TV was muted. That didn't matter though. What mattered was Korra was supposed to be out there.

Her jaw was set, her knuckles white as she gripped her bicep. She pushed up from her chair, defiantly ignoring the crutches she needed less and less. She was rewarded with a slight shot of pain and a brief stumble before she straightened and started walking toward the kitchen.

Each step hurt, but it was manageable as she came around the corner and saw Asami at the table. The heiress was sitting there with a blueprint in front of her, a crease between her brow. Emerald eyes looked up upon hearing staggered steps against the hardwood. Emerald eyes clearly disapproving.

The military woman grabbed her phone that lay charging on the counter next for he coffee machine. She unplugged it, going through her contacts before hitting the call button. The brunette straightened, ignoring the pain on her leg as the Chief answered.

"Korra, everything all right?" her father asked.

"Permission to return to duty," the Colonel asked.

Silence. "Permission denied."

Korra's jaw clenched. "I can do this."

"You haven't recovered yet," the Chief answered. "You're not ready."

"Please, sir-"

"I said no. You will not return to the field until I see fit, is that understood?" The military woman gripped the phone, threatening to break it from the pressure. "Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir," she ground out.

She hung up without another word, gripping the phone tightly in her hand before tossing it against the wall, the screen cracking upon impact. Asami said nothing as she observed but her friend muttered an apology nonetheless. Quietly she stood and gently nudged the Water Tribe woman towards a nearby stool which she perched herself on.

"He thinks I can't do it."

"I don't think that's it," the Sato heiress countered. "You've only been here a little over a week. You're still limping and your chest wound isn't fully healed."

"I feel fine. I'd get better if he'd let me go back."

"You aren't fine." The engineer could feel herself get irritated. How could Korra not see it? She was far from being okay.

"I need to go back," the military woman answered. "They need me." She needed them. Needed a distraction.

"They'll manage."

"What's your problem?" Korra finally asked, her voice e just needed a little sympathy, a little support, from her best friend. Just a sign that the woman could somehow grasp the extent of what she was feeling.

"Don't you get it! You can die out there!" Asami finally snapped. "You want to get blown up? You want to lose an arm or a leg? You lived but all you can think about is going back!"

"You think I don't know that?" the military woman shot back. "That I want to get blown up by a grenade? Like my team." The heiress said nothing in response, knowing how her team had been a hard subject to even mention. "I know what the risks are and I don't know if I will come back but what I do know is that I'm in hell right now. I've lost everything. Everything I've worked for. Everything I care about and I've traded it in to be stuck with these damned crutches." She gestured toward the living room where she had left the infernal things.

Korra stood, grabbing onto the table when she lost her balance. "So don't waste your time trying to scare me. After everything I've been through, nothing scares me, not anymore."

And with that she limped back to her room. Asami watched her go with a sense of hopelessness, hanging her head in her hand.

The Water Tribe woman clenched her teeth as she stopped walking, trying to get the throbbing in her leg to go away. After being locked up in her room for most of the day and rewinding recent events over and over in her head, she had realized that she might have been a little abrasive with her friend. So, begrudgingly, the military woman had gone to get her crutches and headed out back to the heiress' shop next to the mansion.

She took a deep breath before continuing, finally reaching her destination and walking inside to find the engineer working on Spirits knew what, a pair of robots assisting her.

One of them turned to look at her and Korra raised a brow. Had Asami been messing with artificial intelligence?

The robot made a sound that caused its creator to shift her gaze away from her task and look at the brunette standing at the entrance. She stood and offered Korra her seat which the shorter woman took, her leg sore from the strain of the day.

"What are you-"

"I wanted to apologize for yelling at you earlier," the Colonel answered quietly.

Asami stared for a moment, studying, before letting out a sigh. "It's fine. I should apologize. I get it. I mean I don't but I do."

The heiress knew how much her friend liked being in the military. She was young, proud, and in all honesty the best at what she did. But Asami could never understand why she wanted to risk her life yet again. As far as she was concerned, the brunette had served her Nation more than well.

"I know it doesn't make sense to you that I want to go back to a place where people get hurt or die but...I want to be there because I want to help people, save people. It's my job. It's who I am," Korra explained before furrowing her brow in concentration as she tried to figure out how to get her friend to understand. "If something happened and suddenly you couldn't build things anymore, if someone said you couldn't do it anymore, wouldn't you do everything you possibly could to be an engineer again?"

A pause. "Yes," Asami answered before opening a drawer, taking out a glass case and placing it in front of her friend. "Here."

Korra tilted her head to the side, examining the strange device that lay on a prop in the case. "What's that?"

"The thing that kept you alive."

She raised a brow. "Why'd you keep it?"

"Thought it would be nice to have proof you have a heart," the heiress answered with a shrug and little twitch of her lips. But of course, the device meant more than either woman was willing to admit. It was proof that Korra was just as mortal as the rest of them,. "Especially if any...ex flings try and argue otherwise."

"I'm not that sentimental."

"I am."

The Southern Tribe woman hummed in response, looking from the device to the other woman and back again before pushing it towards the engineer. "You keep it then."

Asami nodded her head, gently and carefully putting away the proto-reactor where she'd pulled it out from. She looked up to see one of the arm-like robots and her friend studying each other and she couldn't help but chuckle.

"Made a new friend?" she teased.

Korra scoffed. "Hardly. Creepy little creature."

The robot dropped its head, making an admittedly dejected sound and turning away, causing its creator to raise a brow at the brunette.

"What? I didn't know it had feelings!"

Asami laughed, shaking her head at the duo. Should be interesting, she thought, those two.

The military woman missed her comrades. She could remember how Manny would always tease her about her taste in women, while Amy and Julie came to her aid. They were quite the bunch. The Colonel put the pictures back in the night stand before looking down at one of her and Sarge, her second in command's dog, which ended up becoming everyone's.

The heiress knocked on the door before coming inside, setting a box down as she sat on the bed. "The first time Ben brought him, he was almost full grown," Korra began with a smile. "We all started to teach him tricks and practically begged Ben to let him stay with us." She sighed and put the picture next to the other ones. "Sarge was a good dog."

The engineer placed a hand over hers. "I know. You miss him, don't you?"

"He was the platoon dog but he always slept on the bunk with me. My dad said they found him by me. Along with Ben."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I won't let their deaths be in vain," the Colonel answered, her grip tightening on Asami's. "I'm going after Kuvira. She killed my team and she won't get away with it."

Asami sighed. "I thought you'd say that so I brought you some company," she said as she reached down to the box and opened the holed lid, revealing a fluffy white puppy. "I kind of named her for you already."

Her friend smiled and took the pup in her arms, scratching behind its ears as she held it against her chest. The Sato engineer smirked at this, knowing she had made a good choice in picking the little ball of white.

"Hey puppy. What did Asami name you, huh?"

"Naga."

Korra tilted her head to the side and grinned, lifting the pup up. "Naga it is. She's so cute."

"Mmhmm." Asami watched as the puppy licked Korra's face and Korra actually laughed. "While I'm here I might want to check how your chest is healing."

The shorter woman sighed, setting the pup on the bed as her friend unbuttoned her shirt plaid shirt. Asami traced the pink jagged lines spider-webbing across the upper part of her chest, noting that it was completely healed. She took out her notebook, taking down some notes before buttoning up the shirt once more.

"I have some news for you," she began. "Your dad gave you the clear to go back to Republic City base and help out with strategy and training."

Korra's eyes lit up and she grinned, looking down at Naga and cooing at her. The engineer was relieved. Spirits knew she didn't want her to go back but Korra was just getting more an more restless at the mansion. At least now she would have something productive to do.

The Colonel was more than happy to finally be back at the base in Republic City. She had waited two very long weeks to be able to help in one way or another. Her father had contacted Kuvira and asked for an explanation regarding the attack on his daughter and her team, but the Metalbender had assured him she had no hand it. The rising leader of the Earth Kingdom admitted that the Queen had splinter cells scattered across the nations but that she was not responsible for their actions.

Needless to say that neither the Chief or the Colonel believed a word.

Korra had to go through a variety of tests, some psychological and others physical, to ensure she was ready to be back. The military woman passed with flying colors and soon she was helping train the troops her father had sent from the South as well as aiding tactical teams.

Iroh, to her annoyance, kept a close eye on her, watching her with a critical eye to make sure she hadn't cracked. To her surprise though, he had offered his condolences for her team and she had thanked him. It appeared that even people like him had their limits.

"How about we go out for drinks?" Mako suggested as they got ready to leave for the day.

Korra raised a brow. "You want to go out for drinks?"

He shrugged. "It's Friday night. Why not?"

The Water Tribe woman made an amused sound before agreeing and putting on her civilian clothes. They arrived at a local bar a few minutes later and the Firebender ordered a couple of drinks while the brunette looked around. She caught sight of a woman sitting at one of the booths, light skin, brown hair and green eyes. Easy on the eyes with that nice hourglass figure hugged by that dark green dress. Korra smirked.

"So how are you feeling?" Mako asked as he handed her a beer.

She sighed taking a swig, but her eyes never left the other woman. "I knew this outing had a catch."

"I'm just asking a question."

"And I'm choosing not to answer."

The Firebender shook his head. "We care about you, you know that?" Korra didn't answer, sharing a smile with the pretty green eyed woman who'd caught her eye. "Are you even listening to me?"

"Not really," she replied as the woman approached.

"Single or taken?" the woman asked, one hand resting on Korra's thigh while the other gently lay on the Colonel's upper arm. Korra admired her forwardness, made things easier.

"Alone as always," she answered, her hand going to rest on the taller woman's waist, leaning back as if to take her all in. "But maybe you can change that."

The green eyed beauty smiled coyly and leaned close, her breath brushing by the Water Tribe woman's ear. "My place or yours."

"Definitely yours."

Minutes later both women found themselves back at the woman's apartment a couple blocks away from the bar. Once inside, the grass eyed woman's mouth was on Korra's as she hastily pushed off the shorter woman's jacket and tried to pull her shirt up and over her head. The Colonel almost ripped the dress trying to quickly undo the zipper in the back and push it down the fantastic body before her before following her onto the bed.

This was going to be a fun night.

Kuvira watched from inside the helicopter the chaos and destruction in Ba Sing Se. An entire month had passed since the Queen's death and everything had gotten out of control. President Raiko had asked Su to help regain control over the Capitol and perhaps even the entire nation, but the Zaofu leader had refused. Her prodigy had been present during the conversation and insisted she should help but the younger of the Beifong siblings refused, so she decided to take matters into her own hands, again.

Earlier the previous month, the Earth Queen had wanted to speak to Su about her city. The monarch claimed the lands were not bought legally and hence still belonged to her. However, the discussion didn't last long as the Queen fell suddenly ill along with the elder Metalbender. Kuvira had immediately called for help but it was too late for the Earth Kingdom ruler.

Not long after, it was discovered that both women were poisoned though the dead woman had ingested more than Suyin. Su demanded an investigation and her most trusted adviser, Aiwei, soon found the culprit: the Queen's personal servant. Or at least, that's what they had led the Zaofu leader to believe.

"Aiwei has been waiting," Baatar informed the Metalbender as soon as she stepped foot in her campsite.

"He's come to collect, I presume," Kuvira answered.

The Nonbender nodded and followed her inside her tent where the adviser had patiently waited. Aside from being a truth-seer, Aiwei had many other talents. For example, he was a talented herbalist that could help or maim depending on the price. Kuvira's offer had been more than enough compensation to silence the tyrannical Queen once and for all.

"I apologize for being late. I was overseeing parts of the Capitol."

"Amazing how much chaos a simple death can cause, don't you think?"

The military woman managed a tight smile before asking Baatar to hand Aiwei a suitcase. Aiwei opened it, smiling when he saw the neatly stacked Yuans.

"This is all of it?" he asked.

"Of course."

The man grinned and pulled the hood over his head as he grabbed his payment. "Then I must be leaving. Wouldn't want Suyin to get suspicious."

She nodded her head simply, waiting a while before looking at her second in commad next to her. "Get rid of him," Kuvira ordered. "He's a loose end I cannot afford."

The man's eyes widened slightly behind his glasses. "But you just paid him-"

"I needed to get him away from your mother. If he told her what I planned...it would cause us unnecessary problems."

He took a deep breath and nodded.

"Baatar?"

"Yes?"

"Make it look like an accident."

With those orders he left her alone in the tent, her piercing green eyes examining the Earth Kingdom map carefully. Soon they'd take the Capitol, and then the Empire would be underway. She would unite the nation once more.

All of it.