The Lost City of the South

Epilogue - Asami Sato? Missing

"Now," Varrick sighed, clearing his gruff throat as Zhu Li rushed to his side with a fresh beverage, as well as a tray for the rest of the guests. It was over a month since the events that had transpired in the South and now the last members of the expedition were all landed on his large sofa, two armchairs and, in Bolin's case, the grand vase. They were all present; Suyin Beifong in her best green dress with metallic jewelry and accessories, her daughter Opal sat beside her in her own best lime green gown and her hair done nice for a change, down in a small black bob with the bangs encroaching over her puffy cheeks. On Su's other side was her mother, blind as a bat and with a cigarette still in her aged mouth and still in a military blouse and slacks; she was an old woman so she deserved a degree of leniency and discretion. Bumi was dressed rather smartly; a brown and red suit and waistcoat with a golden fob watch and a brown and red cane to match his new bowler hat, looking possibly the smartest out of all of them. P'Li was dressed in a suit as well, of course she would hardly wear a dress. It was just a normal tux, black and white with the accents of her outfit pulled together with Fire Nation red and yellow much like Bumi on her left. Bolin was in a Republic City attire ensemble; a tanned and almost charcoal suit jacket with golden lining and accents with a green waistcoat and white shirt with no tie, not that it mattered as he observed and examined the dirt contents of the peace lily vase next to him. By the way he was looking it over it could have seriously been his wife.

Mister Varrick took a sip of his beverage, alcoholic and lemon tasting to freshen his throat and making his moustache moist. He was different to how he had been in his basement study when Asami had visited him that fateful night, so much different then again everything was. It was as if the entire world was forever changed after the team had returned and in many ways it had, but only for the eight people currently in the room.

He lit a cigar and took a single drag before speaking again. "Let's go over it again," he instructed him, his tone flat and without the previous crazy fervour. "Just so we've got it straight. You didn't find anything?" He asked them all. Suyin of course was the one who would mostly give the story to the press and academics who would ever ask. 'The Failure Explorers to the South' would be the headlines whenever someone found out the expedition had returned without a single scrap of evidence and with all but six members dead or missing. It would all still be so suspicious.

"Nope. Just rocks and some fish" Suyin reported, closing her eyes and remembering the statement from memory as she, and the rest of them except Bolin had memorised.

"Sponges" P'Li muttered in false correction as she kept looking at her wristwatch, probably figuring out how to reverse engineer it and then reconstruct it as an explosive device.

Varrick took another smoke of his cigar and then another sip of his drink to instantly wet his chops. He gave a stout nod to Zhu Li to signal her to pass some more out to his guests, his demeanor still flat and out of the enthusiasm he had two months or so ago. "What happened to Kuvira?" He asked the floor.

Bumi almost burst from his skin. "Well, we lost her sorry but when a flaming dang zeppelin crashed down on her, and then the whole plume of lava swallowed up the rest-" He was cut off at the end by Suyin grabbing his cane and then proceeding to smack it over the top of his head. He then instantly retreated back into himself, realising the whole point of the meeting was to make sure all six of them knew what their cover stories were, and those for Kuvira and Zaheer and the rest. "Uh, missing?" He then asked.

Varrick took another sip, a drag and then hummed in positive affirmation. "That's right" he confirmed. "And Zaheer?"

Bumi let out a baffling laugh that came from the base of his throat, emanating in the pit of his stomach. "Well…" He began to trail off.

"Nervous breakdown" Suyin quickly intervened with a closed eyes smile.

Bumi took a sip of the lemon drink. "Or you could say that he went completely crazy, acted out and then someone stuck a shard of glass in his neck and then pulled it out, letting all the-" Opal and Suyin both let out a stern and fake cough in a way to tell Bumi to hush. "Well, he's missing too" he swiftly corrected himself again and continued to drink in a sweet silence.

Varrick at this point let out a belated and well earned sigh emptying all of his lung capacity before taking another smoke, using up the least of his cigar and gesturing for Zhu Li to bring forth the ash tray. "What about Asami?"

It was the question that he was dreading to ask, dreading to hear them all say what he had told them to say. In turn they had all been dreading him to ask. All of them were, not just the matriarch and her daughter. It had been lingering over their shoulders during the entire long journey home and now they had to finally fully come to terms with it. With what had happened after Korra had returned from the sky and Asami had noticed she had been shot. They had determined that she must have caught a stray round when Zaheer or Kuvira were firing upon her and P'Li as they formed the decoy to let the Beifongs get close with the saw. That meant she was holding the wound without telltale signs for over ten whole minutes. The most terrible thing was that the bullet was still inside her the entire time and it was only as the adrenaline had subsided and she was calm with Korra in her arms when she finally felt the plethora of pain.

Suyin silently decided she was to be the one to say it, since Opal was certainly abstaining and even P'Li could not bring herself to forward the fake answer. "Went down with the sub taking the Fisherman's Account with her" she explained quickly, wanting to get it out and away rapidly so they could move on to the next steps in their movements .

Bolin, meanwhile was getting very friendly with the lily vase by digging himself into the entire thing much like he did with the hole in the ground while they were camping around the firefly chandelier. He made a little laugh and turned off his flashlight.

"Lord give me strength" Suyin muttered, rubbing her fingers over her forehead while Opal took the cat, Asami's cat in her lap and stroked it peacefully. The way it acted, it knew Asami was not coming back at all.

Varrick stood up and walked over the fireplace, taking a stack of the photographs Mrs Beifong took in his hands and began flicking through them, looking at all the majesty and splendor of the South Pole and the Water Tribe and everything. He saw all of them, and Asami, having the time of her life and once he saw her with the biggest smile on her face throughout the trip he couldn't help but let out another sigh. "I'm going to miss that girl" he stated and took another drink that Zhu Li brought him. He saw a picture of Korra and then another and then more of Asami. "Well. At least she's in a better place now" he said to himself.

Lastly, at the bottom of the stack of papers that had been left to him by Asami Sato, Phd, was a small parcel with a single tear in the middle letting a slit of cool and warm blue escape.. He opened up the small package to reveal that the inside was the picture of Asami and her father, the one that Zaheer had stepped on. There was white writing on the picture.

'Dear Mister Varrick, I hope this piece of proof is enough of for. It sure was enough for me.' - Asami Sato, Phd.

He looked closely at the contents; a small and glowing crystal with a most wondrous water held inside, pleasant and cool to the eye, like some form of fairy. He placed it around his neck and suddenly his spirit was lifted, as if a little piece of Asami had made its way to him.

It was the equivalent of night back in the South and Korra was near enough finished with the new headstone. It would be the first and only one of its kind to join the ring of those in the sky. It would be made to look like her father, Tonraq on the cusp of his passing and her ascension to the throne of the South. It wasn't the only thing that would rise at night. Next to her, on a wheelchair brought with them on the trip, the only damn thing left from the surface that she would ever need, was Asami Sato, bandaged and slightly frail from the last bit of morphine that Suyin had left her. She may have had a gash in her where the matriarch and Korra had dug the bullet out with tools and bending and she may have had stitches crudely to keep her from bleeding, but she was completely, completely alive and well. And now, she would be together with Korra in the place she had spent her entire life fantasizing about. She had the woman of her dreams and the place of her dreams, and for those two thing she would gladly give every other reality she had ever know. For the first in her life, as she held Korra's hand tightly and watched the headstone of Tonraq float upward to join Raava in the sky, Asami Sato know that her father would be truly proud of her. For she was proud of herself.

The End.

AN: Of course I wasn't going to kill Asami, it was just a curveball to keep things sweet. Thank you all for reading what has been the best drunk idea I've had thus far. This has been a great fic to write from start to finish and an excuse to watch the movie again many times. I will definitely not be following up with 'The South II: Asami's Return' because of course the sequel to Atlantis was absolute garbage. Treasure Planet will be coming soon (as soon as I study the movie in close detail and find a form of the script to work with.) Until then you're welcome to check my other series and oneshots. If you guys liked the Korrasami dynamic or the tension check out my 'Book Five: Return' before I follow up with Book Six! Or instead you can request something, a oneshot or drabble if you have a prompt in mind I'll do my best. Thank you again for reading and leaving such positive feedback. It's been very much appreciated.

- V