[AN] Thanks for the reviews! Also, if you're reading this and you haven't read RAaVA yet, please do yourself a favor and go do so — an increasing amount of this story will be a tad confusing without the right backstory.

Anyway, enjoy!

I pull open our front door to see Bumi standing there, his usual smirk firmly in place as he holds out a bottle of wine.

"For the lady of this fine establishment."

I scowl at him. "If I catch your flirting with her I'm going to make you eat your liver."

His laughter is rich and full and I slug his shoulder only half-heartedly.

"You're such a dog."

"That I am," he agrees companionably. "But all of us are in our way, I expect." He glances at me sideways. "All the more reason to cherish the exquisite manners that Doctor Sato and other non-heathens possess."

I have no rejoinder to this, but as we enter the kitchen I hand the bottle to Asami. "Here honey, a present from one of your harem."

She rolls her eyes at me but I just grin. I could never admit it out loud, but Bumi's not wrong — Asami represents loving civilization to all of us coarse, rough and tumble military types. It still catches me by surprise on a regular basis that I'm allowed to be her girlfriend but everyone, even Kuvira, treat her with a certain playful reverence. She, and her creation Raava, have become the conscience of us all.

"Oh, how lovely," she exclaims, catching sight of the label of the bottle. "Thank you, General."

Bumi winces at the now despised honorific, but he merely nods. "I remember you saying you were fond of this winery."

"I am indeed, and this is an excellent vintage," she replies warmly before stretching up to plant a quick kiss on his cheek. "It will go beautifully with our dinner."

"Finally!" Kuvira strolled into the kitchen, a bottle of beer in her hand. "Thought you'd never get here, old man."

Bumi huffed in exasperation. "I am precisely on time."

"Is that how you Special Forces types work? In the Space Fighter Corps on time is late."

"Only if drinking is involved, Lieutenant Colonel Kuvira," said Izumi wryly from the opposite side of the kitchen, unnoticed until now. "If it were a more enforced policy to be on time for everything, you'd have been dishonorably discharged years ago."

Kuvira shrugs, unrepentant. "Makes more sense to be early for drinking and late for being shot at."

Izumi blinks then also shrugs. "I suppose there are worse ways of looking at it."

—-

Dinner is a hearty stew, hot fresh bread, and an apple blueberry crumble served fresh out of the oven under lumps of deliciously melting ice cream. Asami used to freak out about inviting us all over until I finally convinced her that as we're all used to eating out of the canteen with its piles of gray vegetables and slices of mystery meat, anything remotely resembling real food was a feast, and anything too fancy was a waste on our worthless palettes. As it is the rich wood furniture and huge windows of the dining room make us all feel like a bunch of Neanderthals and we're usually good about not throwing food around.

Much.

I live here now, after all. A certain amount of tomfoolery is to be expected.

Wing and Wei fight over the last chunk of bread while Jinora leans back in her chair and pointedly unbuttons the top button of her trousers.

"Dammit Doc, once I started eating your food on a regular basis, I swear I've put on ten pounds."

Asami blushes and I inwardly coo at how adorable she is.

"Well," she says shyly, "I assure you that I have been very mindful of making sure what I cook is healthy and packed in protein to support your training regimens."

Jinora waves one hand feebly. "Does that account for the fact that I always come back for seconds, thirds and sometimes fourths because it's so damn good?"

"Fifths, I think," Opal mumbles, her own hand rubbing her stomach with a rueful expression. "And I don't know where you put it."

Wei mutters under his breath then coughs suddenly as Wei elbows him hard in the ribs.

Kuvira raises one eyebrow. "What was that, Wei?"

"No-thing," the brothers sing out before winking at Opal and leaping up from the table. "We're going to make some coffee, who's in?"

There's a general rumble of assent around the table and the twins disappear into the kitchen to play with Asami's latest toy, an elaborate coffee maker she's testing on behalf of the manufacturing arm of Sato Industries.

Since her father's death she's become the head of the whole corporation, but I badgered her unmercifully until she agreed to restructure the company so that the individual heads have more direct control of their divisions, and she can actually get a full night's sleep.

The weapons division, however, she keeps a closer eye on, having lured Captain Saikhan, our former cadet instructor and later Psycho Bitch of the Fire Ferrets squadron, away from the United Forces into civilian life. He's now the co-president and military liaison of the division, ensuring our force's needs are met and the other co-president behaves himself.

Izumi had been a little disgruntled by his defection but couldn't disagree that he was perfect for the role. Years of dealing with United Forces beaurocracy on one side and recalcitrant cadets on the other made him uniquely positioned to insert himself into that organization with aplomb, and he was now overseeing a ton of research being done into a variety of defensive technologies; Asami would rather spend the time and money of the research team inventing cool things like planetary sized shields than just building bigger and better guns.

This didn't go over well with some more hawkish members of the company, but Saikhan dealt with all the bribery attempts, as well as political and physical threats (including one drunken attempt to kill him at a company party) with ruthless efficiency. In the case of the intoxicated middle manager that tried to push him off a balcony at Sato Tower in a rage, he dangled the screaming perpetrator five floors above concrete for a full ten minutes, then nonchalantly let go as soon as he saw the safety net erected below.

The terrified shrieks made him grin.

He then turned back around and announced that the next time anybody else gave him or Asami any trouble, he wouldn't wait for the net.

Things have run smoothly ever since, and Asami made sure to give him a raise.

As if summoned by my musings, he's let into the dining room by Asami's housekeeper. He plops down into an empty chair with an grumpy expression. "Sorry I'm late. I had to fire somebody."

Asami rolls her eyes. "Do I want to know who?"

"Nobody important. An asshat supervisor on the propulsion team was caught trying to assault one of the techs." At Asami's look of fury he hastens to add, "She's fine. She was smart and screamed bloody murder. Her bench partner heard her and found her cornered." He suddenly laughs. "He didn't even have to intervene. As soon as the door opened the asshat turned to look to see who was coming in, and she took the opportunity to kick him so hard in the junk he was still in a fetal position thirty minutes later. She's probably smaller than Wee here but I don't think even Bumi would have messed with her in that moment."

Everyone at the table roars with laughter. Bumi grins and raises his glass.

"And though she may be but little, she is fierce," he quotes with satisfaction.

"I hope you give that woman a promotion and a raise," Kuvira chortles.

"I gave her his job, as a matter of fact," says Saikhan smugly. "Right in front of him."

Opal claps in appreciation. "You are the fucking best."

He shrugs. "Eventually we'll weed out all the assholes. No offense to your father, Doc, but his hiring practices left a little to be desired."

She sighs, her face sad. "The only thing he looked for was ability and ambition, I'm afraid. Collaboration and compromise were not nearly as important. It was in line with his own views after my mother died."

I reach out and gave her hand a squeeze, and decide it's time to get things going. I accept a cup of coffee from Wing and then rap my knuckles on the table a couple of times to get everyone's attention. "Welp, that guy's nutsack notwithstanding, I think we need to move on. No point in beating around the bush, but we're getting the band back together. There's some shit going down. Consider this our first mission briefing."

It's almost unnerving how quickly the room settles down, all attention focused on me.

I turn to Izumi and she places a portable holo-machine on the table. After a moment for it to boot up a couple of planets and a old refueling station come into view as a set of flickering holograms.

"This is star system Z983 and it's associated bodies. It was until recently the site of a scientific expedition, since destroyed." She walks everyone through the same information she'd given Kuvira and I earlier (sans the fact that Unalaq is my uncle), and there's a collective narrowing of eyes at the revelation that there's likely an old weapons cache coming into play.

"When we hit our lowest point, we are open to the greatest change," Bumi murmurs.

I blink. "What?"

He smiles, but there's no mirth in it. "Something General Aang used to always say. It was the discovery of the planet killer weapons program that led him to overthrow the Empire or die trying."

Izumi reaches out and rests her hand on his arm. "He was a great man."

The rest of look at each other confused, until I notice that Jinora is also watching her uncle with a sorrowful expression on her face.

Wei looks around. "What's the deal with Aang? I mean, other than being a hero—"

"I suppose you might as well know," Bumi clears his throat. "He was also my father."

You could have heard a pin drop.

We all stare at him, then turn to stare at Jinora.

She rolls her eyes. "Yes I knew, but I'm not supposed to know. I found an old photo album when I was snooping in my dad's desk one time."

"Figures," Bumi mutters. "Sentimental old fool."

Izumi sighs. "When the Alliance started to fail, Aang's family was placed into protective custody at his insistence, then provided a completely new set of identities. He knew what was coming."

"That he did," Bumi muttered. He glanced at her. "Surprised you know about it though."

She ducked her head. "Our fathers were the best of friends. When my father died, I came into possession of many of his letters and correspondences. He needed to make sure someone he trusted knew, in case your family needed help."

"Admiral Zuko," Bumi chuckled. "Now there was a tough old bastard." He squinted at Izumi. "I'd put money on you being tougher though."

She smirks. "Flatter will get you nowhere, you old pirate. Now," she looked around to me. "Colonel, will you do the next part of the briefing?"

I frown and nod as she touches the holo-machine and brings up a bust of someone I'd be happy never seeing again. "This is Unalaq, the causer of our problems. I am sorry to say that in addition to his other shitty qualities he's my father's brother. Came out into the world with a chip on his shoulder. Graduated from juvenile delinquency to full on organized crime syndicates at a relatively young age." I take a deep breath. "He's also mentally somewhat unhinged — highly intelligent, but also utterly unpredictable and absolutely ruthless. My father was instrumental in helping bring him down, but the process just about killed him." My jaw clenches. "It's why he and my mother spend most of their time offworld." I grimace. "The assassination attempts got old after a while."

Asami rubs my back. A lot of this is news to her, but despite my trepidation there's no judgement in her eyes.

"Anyway," I continue, "my parents had a fit when I told them I was coming back here to enlist, and sat me down to give me the whole story." I'll never forget that conversation, but I manage a small smirk. "Backfired though — made me more determined to do some good to make up for what a douche he was."

Kuvira snorted. "As if you needed motivation to be an idiot." She leans back, swirling her glass of whiskey thoughtfully. "So, he was in prison for a long time and his organization was supposed to have been broken up. Where'd he get the funds? Paying for that kind of expedition is big coin."

Izumi nods grimly. "Something the civil authorities are still trying to figure out. Much like we discovered with General Amon and the conspirators within the United Forces, there's apparently a vein of corruption in United Planets law enforcement as well, when it comes to connections to organized crime."

I sigh and she looks at me with some sympathy.

"I'm sorry, Colonel—Korra. This can't be easy for you."

I finish off my coffee. "All the more reason to deal with it as quickly as possible."

Bumi steeples his fingers together, his face thoughtful. "Do we have any idea of what kind of weapons were at this facility, assuming they are in fact still there?"

Izumi shakes her head. "As yet no, so that's the first order of business. We need a reconnaissance mission to figure out what we're up against. Then we'll have a better idea of what we need to do next."

Kuvira pokes the holo-machine back to the system map and grunts. "We'll need to be very discrete. There's not a lot out there to allow for much sneaking."

"Not every system has a handy asteroid field, Boss," Opal comments.

"Shut up, Mad," Kuvira replies absently. "Is this holo live? The positions of everything relatively accurate?"

Izumi squints. "Not live, but it's fairly recent."

Kuvira leans forward. "How do I zoom out, dammit—aha!"

The planets shrink as she backs out to get a broader view of the quadrant, and we all look for possibilities.

"Oh!" Jinora blurts out as Opal groans.

"Oh yeah, Wee," Kuvira says with satisfaction. "That'll work."

Saikhan, sitting next to her with a better view, chokes. "Tell me you're not thinking what I think you're thinking."

The rest of us follow his gaze as Kuvira flips the view around again, centering on a small object heading towards the Z983 system. A few more touches and a line appears, plotting a path leading fairly close (in space terms) to where we want to go.

"You got a better idea, now's the time. That thing's current trajectory gives us about," she peers at the readout at the base of the holo. "Two weeks to get ready, give or take."

Asami turns to look at me in shock. "She wants to fly in behind a comet?"