[AN] There's many references in this chapter to incidents that happened in R.A.a.V.A (Tales Part 1), so check there if you need a refresher…

With a great deal of wheedling, bribery, and — I'm ashamed to admit — a small number of subtle threats, I get myself a wheelchair and a ride to Kuvira's room. Asami is on her way but she had finally gone all the way back home to the estate so it would be a bit before she arrived.

Kuvira is eating breakfast when I enter, her mouth full so she just raises her eyebrow at me while she chews.

I thank the nurse, ignoring the disapproving glare she shoots at me as she leaves.

"So," says Kuvira. She puts down her fork and picks up a piece of toast. "What's an asshole like you doing in a place like this? Pretty sure you're not supposed to be wandering around right now."

"No, probably not."

"You're going to get yelled at," she says sagely.

I shrug. "What else is new? Boss—" I pause, trying to organize my thoughts. "Do you remember anything about what happened after you got shot?"

She looks at me strangely. "I mean, I remember waking up in that goddamn box in a shitload of pain…"

"Before that," I blurt, then bite my lip. "It's okay if you really don't remember, but if you remember anything I'd really like to know."

She looks at me for a long time, then closes her eyes. I wait, but after a long while it seems like maybe she's fallen asleep and I think about trying to wheel myself out but freeze when she starts speaking.

"I sort of remember you picking me up, but I was already pretty out of it… There was shouting. Screaming. Smoke. I felt like I was fucking dying with all those holes punched in me."

It's only because I know her so well that I catch the faint tremor in her voice. We're both aware she's never been closer to death.

She tilts her head back, eyes still closed. "I think— I think I dreamed maybe."

A chill goes through me.

"What did you dream?" I whisper.

Her eyes snap open and she stares at me.

"I had a drink — I remember looking at it. But I didn't know where it came from." She frowns, looking down at her hands. "I remember seeing the guys. Macho and Ironman. Maybe you?"

She trails off, her voice uncertain. "I didn't see the Bitches though. Or Little Mouse, now that I think of it."

She gives a little laugh, though it's tense rather than joyful.

"The whiskey though, I remember thinking it tasted to so good. Like if there was ever a perfect whiskey, and a perfect place to drink it—" She trails off uncertainly.

I had been holding my breath and now I let it out in a huff.

"Well, fuck."

—-

Asami is pacing slowly around my room, one set of fingers pinching the bridge of her nose and the other tapping a restless rhythm against her thigh. She's been doing this since I explained, haltingly, everything I could remember about my dream, and Kuvira's dream, and Bolin's urgent words. This was after she yelled at me for a solid five minutes while she got me back to my own bed. Her gaze is unfocused and my past couple of attempts to ask her questions have been ignored so once again I sit and wait as patiently as I can.

She's been at this for the better part of twenty minutes, though, which has got to be a goddamn record for me keeping quiet as I feel like I'm about to bust my stitches.

Finally I break.

"Raava can't actually see my dreams, right?" This has been driving me nuts. "What could Bolin has have possibly meant that Raava knows things?"

Asami turns to look at me, then sinks against the nearby wall. "She generally access to all measurable bodily functions through your implants, certainly, and she can tell when you're dreaming because that's detectable through brain function."

She sinks down onto the stool next to my bed, her face drawn. "I feel like I've lost any hope of being able to understand or anticipate how Raava may react to a given situation." She takes a long, shuddering, breath. "And this terrifies me."

I frown. "She wouldn't hurt Bolin, though, right? Or, well, anyone."

She sighs and her shoulders slump. "Remember that night back at the house, when Bolin wanted to make sure we wouldn't take his implant away?"

I think back. "Vaguely. I mean, it lets him interact with Raava in a way that seems to help him."

"And that she had been acting strangely," Asami adds. "My fear then is more acute now. I think that she's developed a synthetic equivalent to puberty — all the hormone rushes that make you have crushes, and be awkward and stupid around people who you're attracted to."

"Write bad poetry," I comment with a wince. "Blow your allowance buying bad jewelry."

She manages a small smirk. "I'm sensing some stories here." Then her expression falls again.

I consider her for a long moment, trying to catch up to the conclusion she's clearly already arrived at. "Wait. Are you saying Raava and Bolin are in love?"

"Or some approximation, yes. She's developed a level of concern and care for him during his treatment that clearly had an impact on her emotional development. He has a severe traumatic brain injury that has progressed beyond any normal expectation but it is not gone. It's not clear he can function without her and she has the ability to interact with him in a way no human could possibly replicate, especially once she was able to create the haptic interfaces that provide sensory feedback. It's not entirely surprising this has resulted in emotional investment for him as well."

"But—"

She stands back abruptly and starts her pacing again. "Tell me again what Bolin said."

"He said that she's so alone, that they're together but not really. And he said—" I pause. "He misses his team."

"His team?"

"The Fire Ferrets squadron originally had two teams — the Boys and the Bitches."

I can see her working to remember. "Bolin, his brother, and Lieutenant Iroh. The Boys."

I nod, starting to feel queasy. "That was the joke with them. Whoever had the best kill count got to pick the names. The mission where Mako and Iroh died, Bolin was holding the record, so their call signs at the time were Ironman and Macho Man."

Asami looks at me strangely. "But he was Little Mouse?"

"Yeah, unless Mako or Iroh had the record. Then he was Little Man."

"Men. Boys"

My throat feels tight. "Brothers." I say hoarsely. "They were brothers in arms."

Asami's gaze is unfocused and her lips are pursed. I once again struggle to remain silent while she thinks. Unfortunately, Asami's time for thinking is interrupted when the door to my room slides open and three Space Fighter Corps MPs trot in, looking stressed while they case the room.

"Admiral on deck!"

Izumi comes through next, looking absolutely ragged.

"At ease," she mutters irritably at the MPs before waving them back into the hallway. When the door slides shut behind them she turns to me. "We have a problem."

Asami returns to my side and I grasp her hand gratefully.

"Lieutenant Bolin, despite not being active duty, has managed to defeat our security measures and has taken a fighter offworld." She glares at Asami and I wince. The 'again' is loud and clear, given that Bolin had previously managed to get onto the Valkyrie and thus sneak into our extremely top secret mission.

Asami's expression is hard to read but her fists are clenched and I know she's thinking the same thing. "We have to assume Raava was assisting him in the breach, as well as his previous ability to board the Valkyrie."

There's a long pause while we all digest this.

"Doctor Sato," Izumi says carefully. "Do we need to classify Raava as a threat?"

I assume Asami is going to immediately dismiss this but to my surprise she does not. She ponders this for a long moment before she finally responds.

"She is not an active threat to the United Republic." Her voice sounds very confident in this, but her face shows her concern. "However, I believe her priority is Lieutenant Bolin, and that could very well be at the expense of the anything else."

Izumi suddenly looks very sad. "I suppose I can hardly fault her for that. We train our own soldiers to draw strength from their squadmates from the first day of basic training. It's only as they climb the ranks they are forced to learn the horrible lessons of leadership, when you have to bear the burden of sacrificing one for many."

It suddenly occurs to me that even as a high ranking officer I hadn't exactly made a habit of making the right choices by Izumi's definition. I had dragged the Ferrets into taking on a doomed dreadnaught to rescue Asami, after all.

I would never regret that decision.

It might be time for me to retire.

Rather than follow that thought any further, I focus on the more immediate problem. "Do we know where Bolin is now?"

Izumi sighs. "He went into the asteroid belt."

I blink. "The cave?"

She regards me for a long moment, then nods. "It appears so."

My head throbs.

"…my theory is our energy is really focused when it's on something we love a whole lot…"

Mako's ghostly words sear themselves across my consciousness, and I know what I have to do.

Asami's going to be pissed.