Responses to Reviews:

RonaldM40196867: It seems an alright place to live, sure. And I think we all know who my least favourite villain is, to the point that it's so obvious that I'm not sure I even need to say it. I think the Red Lotus are my favourites.

As Always, Please Review!

Bolin

Bolin lay back on his bed, and stared up at the ceiling.

He was currently in a wooden cell leading into a wooden corridor that was 50 feet in the air, high above the Prison complex that he had been taken to by the Police.

Raiko had explained to him that he was here because of politics, but it still felt deeply unfair to Bolin. As far as the United Republic was concerned, he had done nothing wrong, and now here he was stuck in a cell while his friends walked free.

He missed his brother. He missed Opal. Did she even know he was here? He hadn't exactly had time to call her upon arrival. He missed Pabu the Fire Ferret. Kuvira had not wanted him to take his companion into her army and so he had been forced to leave him on Air Temple Island with a promise from Opal and the other Airbenders to look after him. He missed the rest of his friends. And they were now tasked with dealing with Kuvira while he could do absolutely nothing to help.

It was not a very nice feeling.

Still, it was at least a full moon, and the pale glow of moonlight flooded in through the bars in his window to cast a strange light on his cell. It was quite an atmospheric scene, which was scant consolation.

He was so lost in his own thoughts that he didn't notice the room get darker as the moonlight was blocked by something floating in front of the window. That was until something hit him in the head.

"Ow!" Bolin sat up and rubbed his forehead angrily. "You can't just throw rocks at people!"

"Then how else am I meant to get their attention?" A familiar voice demanded from behind him. He jumped up, turned around, and saw Opal Beifong looking down at him, a strange look on her face.

"Opal!" He said happily, and rushed towards the window. He had to drag his bed over and stand on it to get his face level with it, and when he did he saw that Opal was sat on a Sky-Bison. Bolin vaguely remembered that she had called it Juicy. She was dressed in a red and orange jumpsuit that hugged her figure closely, providing improved aerodynamics. He could see more fabric hanging down from her arms and attached to the sides of this jumpsuit, and he guessed that it must be some kind of wingsuit. She did not look entirely pleased to see him, and shushed him quickly. Bolin hurriedly lowered his volume.

"How are you? How have you been?" He asked.

"Oh, the usual," Opal waved a hand. "Learning airbending, finding out that the tyrannical dictator you supported attacked my family and locked up my mother and aunt."

Bolin realised all at once that she was angry at him.

"Sweetie-"

"Don't call me that!"

"Fine, Opal, I'm sorry! Why do you think I'm here? I couldn't see it before, but now I have!"

"Took you long enough," she sneered.

"Hey, as soon as I found out what she was doing with your family, I turned on her! I would never have chosen her over you! Over any Beifong!"

Bolin thought he saw something in Opal's eyes soften at that.

"If you've come here to be angry at me, then fine," Bolin finished. "But I came here to set things right."

"And how are you planning to do that from in there?"

Bolin shrugged.

"I don't know," he admitted. "Raiko thinks my defection was a bad thing."

"So he locked you up."

"So he locked me up," Bolin agreed.

Opal appeared to consider for a second, and then nodded.

"You said you wanted to make things right," she said. "So make it right."

"How?"

"Come with me," Opal told him. "Help me my mother and my aunt, rescue them, and bring them back!"

"Of course!" Bolin did not hesitate for a moment. Then he paused.

"Where are the others?"

Opal sighed.

"Apparently Suyin planned to get herself caught to allow them to escape. She's made them promise really hard to stay here and look after the refugees. Besides, we can travel light with just two of us."

Bolin considered this. It made sense.

"What about you?"

"I made no such promise."

Bolin tapped the bars.

"Wait, are you going to help me get out of here first?"

Opal sighed again, exasperated.

"I already did," she told him.

"What?" Bolin was puzzled for a moment, and then he remembered the rock that she had thrown at him (with more force than might have been necessary.)

He scrambled down from the bed and searched on the floor for it, finally locating it just next to one of the legs of the bed he had moved. He picked it up, and weighed it in his hands. It wasn't very big, but it would do.

"Hurry up!" Opal hissed at him. "We haven't got much time! Juicy isn't the most subtle animal!"

"Yes, coming!" Bolin replied. He moved his hands and the stone began to fizz with heat, until it finally dissolved into a whirling ball of magma. He flattened it, and then moved it towards the bars. They gave way easily, each one falling outwards. Opal caught them to prevent them clattering to the ground and potentially attracting attention.

Once Bolin was sure that the hole he had made for himself was big enough, he solidified the stone again and threw it back to Opal, who caught it, tossed it between her hands a couple of times because it was still vaguely hot, and put it back in a travel bag attached to Juicy's saddle.

Then he jumped up and grabbed hold of the bars, using them to hoist himself up and out of the window. For a moment, he made the mistake of looking down. It was a long way to the courtyard below, and it caused him to hesitate just enough to cause Opal to become impatient and make a gesture with her hands. Air rushed out of the prison cell through the window, sucking Bolin out through it and causing him to land heavily in the saddle.

Immediately, Juicy was moving as they soared away from the prison and into the Republic City night.

"Thank you Swe-I mean Opal," Bolin told her gratefully. "So are we still a couple or not?"

Opal looked at him sharply. "I guess I never thought about that. You did help Kuvira, but you also came back. I suppose it depends."

"Depends on what?"

"Depends on how successful we are."

A short silence fell over the conversation as the city passed by beneath them.

"Do my friends know I'm with you?"

Opal shook her head.

"No. Well, none apart from one that is."

"Who?" Bolin asked curiously.

"Look in that bag."

Opal gestured to another saddlebag that appeared to be moving. Cautiously, for Bolin was still not confident on the Bison, he shuffled over to it and opened it. A familiar red and white blur whizzed up his arm and materialised in front of his face.

"Pabu!"

Meanwhile, as the Sky Bison vanished into the night, the doors to the cell block opened, and two guards stepped through, trying to act confident. The wood creaked under their feet as they checked each cell in turn. They stopped in front of one of them.

"Cell 362, wasn't it?" One of them asked. The other nodded. Mako, trying not to look to nervous, tapped on the door. It had been a matter of finding a sympathetic colleague, borrowing their uniform, forging some orders, and sneaking into the Prison. A hasty plan, hastily executed, but one that seemed to have gone very well so far. It had been very lightly guarded.

"Bolin?" He called. "Bolin?"

There was no reply.

"That's odd," Asami muttered next to him. "Is he asleep?"

"I wouldn't have thought so," Mako replied, as he jangled a stolen set of keys in his hand and unlocked the door. He opened it to find the furniture strewn all over the room and the bars of the window gone, their stumps still glowing slightly.

"He's... gone?" Mako asked, slightly incredulous.

Asami looked equally surprised.

"We should go," she told him eventually. "It's too dangerous, we could get caught and there's nothing for us here any more."

Mako was forced to agree. As he walked back out of the room and locked the door, he could only wonder what his brother was up to.