This chapter has been upgraded as of 2022

1: Prologue

It was a year ago to the day that the earth empire was defeated, and in that time so much has changed in the united republic of nations. What damage Kuvira had caused has mostly been repaired, and the plans to expand republic city were well underway. With the Varrick Corporation backing it, and Future industries leading the charge; the future was looking as bright as the newly created spirit portal that now stood sentinel at the city's heart.

Suffice to say there was more than enough reason for team Avatar to celebrate. Asami had rented out the VIP room at Kwong's Cuisine just for the occasion, and since the world was once again blissfully in balance the whole gang was in town. Asami Sato the CEO of Future Industries, my brother Bolin, his girlfriend Opal Beifong, and of course Avatar Korra. It wouldn't really be a team avatar reunion without the Avatar herself. Even I managed to convince the chief to give me the rest of the night off.

We were all gathered around a table in the VIP room, swapping stories, reminiscing, and overall sharing what we've all been up to in the last year. Bolin spent most of his time re-touring the earth kingdom with Varrick; the both of them working hard to undo the damage they had inadvertently caused while working for Kuvira. They were also doing what they could to help Prince Wu in his quest to transform the earth kingdom into democratic states similar to the United Republic.

The former earth king to be had already made considerable progress in his endeavors thanks to Korra, Opal, Jinora, and the rest of the new air nation. Korra as the Avatar did her part by overseeing important political meetings, as well as serving as council for Wu, and his ever-expanding senate; providing insight and advice where she could. Politics of this caliber are no easy thing, but between Wu's charisma and Korra's stubbornness they were making slow but steady progress. With most of the gang helping to re-stabilize the earth kingdom, that left Asami and I to do our own thing here in republic city.

Asami for the most part had her hands full with the city's repairs, and expansion. Not to mention the social circus she'd had to deal with. About a month after their secret week long vacation to the spirit world Korra, and Asami made it public that they were together, and as can only be expected the paparazzi and the tabloids went crazy at the announcement.

Of course being the strong independent women they are Korra and Asami handled it all in stride. As for close friends, and family after the initial shock wore off everyone was supportive and happy for them. When they came out I myself wasn't so much surprised as I was disappointed. When I had told Korra that I would always love her, I had meant always. So as their friend I swallowed my personal feelings, slapped on a smile, and congratulated them.

Aside from that I've probably had the least interesting year of the gang. Thanks to scorching I got from the Spirit core powering Kuvira's colossus, I spent the first month after the incident on sick leave. Suffice to say it was boring as hell. If not for Pema, and my occasional visit with Asami I probably would have gone mad.

Luckily for me Tenzin's older sister Kaya had chosen to reside in republic city for a while to be closer to family. Between her skills as a healer, and her personal supply of spirit water my arm was out of its cast within a month. Thanks to Kaya the only thing remaining from my injury was the burn scars, most of which covered my entire left arm.

However, while my arm was mostly healed, I had still received a pretty good shock to my system from the incident. I still have the jagged burn scar on my solar plexus from where the spirit vine energy caught me in the chest. The doctors said I was very lucky, and that I would make a full recovery, so long as I took it easy for a while. Unfortunately for me this was all the reason Chief Beifong needed to put me on desk duty for the next seven months. Though now that I think about it with everything that had happened, I probably would have been slammed with months' worth of paper work anyway. After those excruciatingly dull months crawled by, I finally convinced Lin to let me back on the beat.

Now after four months of cases, and taking on the triads, here we are; team avatar together again. After hours of laughing, smiling, and catching up; Asami raised her glass in a toast.

"To the balance of the world, may it last a hundred years." Asami said with a bright smile.

"Hear, hear!" we all said raising our glasses of champagne.

Now unlike Bolin who bless his heart is ever the optimist, I always tended to lean closer to pessimism. So while everyone continued celebrating I just kept on smiling, and sipped my drink. All the while wondering just how long this balance can really last.