While the Future Industries airship continued on its journey to Ba Sing Se, accompanied by the Flying Bison, which was flying beside it, on its upper deck Jinora, along with Asami, Naga and Pabu were overseeing the training of Bumi and Kai in the Airbending.
"Light on your feet, Uncle Bumi," Jinora instructed her uncle. "Remember, you want to be quick and evasive."
Bumi, who was moving around Kai, replied, "Don't worry about me, little lady. I've been in a scrap or two, you know." He then fully focused on Kai. "Ha. Ha. Oh, you're just a youngster, so I'm going to go easy on you. I wouldn't want to hurt a child—"
He did not finish the sentence as Kai quickly ran toward him, slid and fired an air blast under his feet, which sent Bumi several meters away with a hard impact on the floor.
"Awww!" Bumi painfully sounded.
Jinora facepalmed and walked over to her uncle. "Uncle Bumi, you've got to work on your stance changes." She then and Kai helped Bumi to get back on his feet. "Kai… that was just… really good," she said to him nervously.
Kai, who was also quite nervous, rubbed his head. "Thank you, Jinora, you're a great teacher."
Jinora looked at Kai for a few seconds before, with a blush, she helped Bumi to take a walk a bit after such a hard impact.
Kai observed her for a second before he felt that someone was watching him. So, he looked at the upper wooden platform on the deck, to which stairs led, where Korra, along with Tenzin, were also observing the training. There was also Patrick, who was giving him a look that was saying: You're getting too close.
Bumi, whom Jinora was helping to move, then got a feeling that he was missing something, so he started searching his jacket.
"Hmm, did I drop my wallet?" he asked aloud.
Jinora looked behind her to see if she would spot Bumi's wallet on the floor, but she saw that Kai was holding it in his hand, which meant that he had taken it from the jacket when he helped her with Bumi and used it as a fan as he walked past them. So, she started to laugh.
Bumi turned around and noticed that Kai had his wallet. "Give me that, you little thief!" he yelled and started to chase him down.
Meanwhile, Patrick, who along with Korra and Tenzin had been watching the whole situation on the platform, was not happy about Kai still using his thieving skills, but it also worried him that Kai was showing considerable fighting talent in the Airbending.
"It's so exciting to be on a diplomatic mission to Ba Sing Se," Korra announced and turned her head toward Tenzin. "What's the Earth Queen like?"
"I've never met her but I've heard she can be quite…" Tenzin paused for a second as he searched for the right word, "demanding."
In other words, she'll be unpleasant as fuck, Patrick thought.
Then someone in a hurry hit him in the arm as he passed by with such force that he almost fell over the railing of the platform. Patrick, who quickly regained his balance, turned his head toward that person and it was Bolin who had the expression of a small child that was going for the first time into an amusement park.
"This is it, Mako! We made it!" Bolin exclaimed happily at his brother, who was walking right behind him at a much slower pace. "This is where our father grew up! Come here! Look, look!"
"Alright, calm down," Mako, who stood right beside him, replied. "I'm looking."
The Future Industries airship, which a moment ago had flown over a thick wall that, according to what Patrick had learned, was the Outer Wall of Ba Sing Se, was now flying above a truly impressive number of fields that were part of the Agrarian Zone, which was intended for feeding the population of Ba Sing Se, and was heading toward a massive wall that was called the Inner Wall, which encircled the city itself.
"I wonder how many Airbenders are down there," Korra wondered as the airship flew over the Inner Wall and all of them had a full view of Ba Sing Se.
It was truly a huge city, much more enormous than a Republic City. From what Patrick had also learned, Ba Sing Se was divided into three sections according to social class, each surrounded by a circular wall. The first and largest section was called the Lower Ring and was for the poorest and refugees, which was indicated from above by buildings with tiles of brown color and slums.
As they flew over the Lower Ring, they all could see and smell how miserable life was for the people living in this part of Ba Sing Se.
"Uhh, the Lower Ring looks terrible," Korra remarked as she, Bolin and Mako held their noses against that awful smell.
"No wonder father had left," Bolin added.
Yeah, there's nothing better than seeing and smelling social differences, Patrick thought as that smell reminded him of roasting very rotten meat but nothing could truly beat the smell of the demon known as the Golgothan.
Luckily, the airship was quickly approaching the border wall, beyond which the Middle Ring was located. This part of Ba Sing Se was for middle-class citizens and was considered to be the economic heart of the city due to the large number of shops and restaurants that, along with the local university and other buildings, had green roofs. There were also trees and flowers that would not have survived in the environment of the Lower Ring. Patrick had also noticed that several monorails were connecting all the sections of Ba Sing Se, providing transportation between them for the citizens.
"Hello, Middle Ring!" Bolin shouted happily as the airship continued its way to the Upper Ring.
The buildings in the Upper Ring, which belonged to the richest and officials, were opulent and had yellow roofs. In the center of the Upper Ring was the Royal Palace, surrounded by red walls that could, due to its size, be considered a city within the city with many towers, gardens, shrines, courts and plazas.
The airship began to descend to the outer court in front of the palace with the golden roofs, among the four green airships that were already docked there.
"Wow. Now this is more like it," Kai remarked as he observed the roofs of the Royal Palace glittering under the sun.
The airship, with the help of one of the soldiers of the Earth Kingdom, who was signaling with flags, landed, and the group exited the airship through the ramp where, at its end, was waiting for them an elderly man with a gray queue and blue eyes, wearing a dark green skullcap along with a long-embroidered tunic in various shades of green, all with the golden trimmings.
"Avatar Korra, Master Tenzin," the man said while bowing, "it is a pleasure to welcome you and your group to the Upper Ring of Ba Sing Se. I'm Grand Secretariat Gun."
Korra responded with a bow. "Thank you."
At that moment, Bolin, with Pabu on his shoulder, followed by Naga, passed by to enjoy the wonderful smell of the heart of Ba Sing Se. "Ahh, it's got that Upper Ring smell," he remarked with satisfaction.
Gun shifted his gaze to him and in a second his welcoming expression changed into an alarmed one. "Oh no, the queen hates animals." At that moment, he saw that the Flying Bison had also landed on the outer court. "You'll have to get them out of sight."
Bolin rubbed his head as he was trying to figure out how to resolve the situation. "Well, I can just stash Pabu in my shirt." He took Pabu from his shoulder and motioned his head toward Naga and the Flying Bison. "But with these two, it's going to be a lot harder." He turned his head toward Patrick. "Maybe you could help with that."
"If she's allergic to animals, then I could hide their smell, but it'll be harder to make them invisible because of the fact that they're big animals," Patrick replied.
"In that case, please follow me in a hurry. I'll take you to your quarters," Gun said and began to lead them through the paved pathway to the palace.
The group followed the Grand Secretariat into a part of the inner court of the Royal Palace, where the quarters for guests were located with gardens with ponds full of fish. As they walked, Gun instructed them on how to behave in the presence of the Earth Queen.
"Now, when you meet the queen, make sure you bow low enough; that's very important and don't look her in the eye; she can't stand that. If any food is served, don't eat before she eats. Well, actually, I have to taste her food first, then she eats, then you can eat." He paused for a moment as he was thinking about how to make it simpler for the guests. "Or better yet, just don't eat."
"Seems like an awful lot of rules," Korra commented. Although she too came from a noble family, neither she nor her parents had ever followed these kinds of rules.
"That's nothing," Patrick said, whom his grandmother had taught all about etiquette and protocols in the presence of monarchs. He then noticed the surprised look Korra gave him. "Don't worry; I'll help you if needed."
"Then I'd be forever in your debt," Gun replied with gratefulness. "I'm often the one who gets into trouble when people don't follow the rules, so pretty please, don't upset Her Majesty."
In the meantime, as Kai was following the group, he noticed that one of the citizens of the Upper Ring was walking past them. His eyes fell upon all the jewelry and gold that the citizen was carrying, so he stealthily separated himself from the group and went after him.
Gun led the group to a large, multistory house of grey color with golden colored roofs that was meant for the guests of the Royal Palace.
"Here we are," he said.
"Ohh, very swanky," Bolin remarked.
They entered the entrance hall with a marble floor with a small green carpet in the shape of a square in the center, where there was a small table with a foursome of chairs. On the other side of the entrance hall was a staircase that led to the upper floors of the house.
"Now, go in and make yourselves comfortable," Gun said as the group split up to inspect the house and, at the moment, when Bolin, who was carrying Pabu, walked past him, he quickly raised his voice, "and keep those animals out of sight in the backyard!"
Bolin, a little bit offended, quickly walked away with Pabu.
Gun then turned his head toward Korra. "Avatar Korra, if you would follow me, please, and also which of you is the Smartest Man in the World?"
Patrick raised his hand. "That would be me."
"Please, if you would follow me as well to Her Majesty," Gun said and led Korra and Patrick into the Royal Palace.
They followed Gun through a green illuminated hallway in the Royal Palace into a room with chairs and a table made of fine wood where a man was standing. The man had a medium height with a bald head with dark blue eyes and a thick mustache. Above his left eye was a deep scar from a slash wound that extended to the center of his forehead; another scar led from the left corner of his mouth to his jaw. He was wearing a long tunic of dark green color with sleeves of light chrome green color with a golden trimming with a cape of an olive color, dark brown pants and black boots. On the left side of his waist was a broadsword with a gold hilt and a ruby in place of the pommel, and on his index finger and thumb of his right hand were golden rings.
At the moment when they entered the room, the man immediately walked to Gun without paying any attention to Korra or to Patrick.
"Please, wait here until Her Majesty is ready to receive you," Gun instructed Korra and Patrick and quickly turned his attention to the man who had approached him.
"Gun…" the man said with frustration.
"Just wait for a little longer, General. Her Majesty will see you shortly," the Grand Secretariat replied and before the man could say anything more, he turned around and left the room in a hurry.
The man sighed and clenched his fists to repress his anger as he watched him leave.
Korra and Patrick sat down at the table and the trio was maintaining silence in the room for a few minutes until the man finally noticed them.
"Excuse me, but aren't you the Avatar?" he asked Korra as he approached them.
"Yes, I am," Korra replied.
The man then looked at Patrick and examined his clothes. "And… you must be the Smartest Man in the World, the one from another world, correct?"
"Yes," Patrick answered.
"And you are?" Korra asked.
The man bowed. "General Pang, one of the governors of the Earth Kingdom! At your service, Avatar!"
Patrick immediately recognized the name mentioned by the sheriff who wanted to arrest Kai. While it took Korra a few seconds longer, she also recognized that name.
"We heard about you," Korra said.
"Well, I do hope in a good way at least," General Pang remarked.
"Well… I'd like to talk about how you punish crime."
"You need to be more specific, Avatar."
So, Korra told him about how on their journey to find the Airbenders they had encountered the law enforcers who were after Kai and how it concerned her that they would send a small boy straight to prison, even though he stole the life savings of his adopted family.
General Pang sighed after hearing that. "I understand your concern, Avatar," he said as he sat down in the chair opposite them, "but you must also understand that I govern six regions and provinces, some of which are larger than the Ba Sing Se itself, and I must not only ensure the law and order but also maintain the roads and make sure that every village there has enough food and supplies. Tell me, in your search for the Airbenders, have you visited any villages in relatively inaccessible areas?"
Korra nodded. "We did."
"Then you can imagine that I have to maintain their infrastructure, make sure they are all healthy and a lot of other things; otherwise, those people wouldn't survive there. And don't even get me started about the raiders and outlaws. I've only 600 men and limited resources for all those regions and provinces."
"That's why you give heavy punishments even for minor crimes, to minimize the crime as much as possible," Patrick concluded.
General Pang looked at him and nodded. "Exactly. It's not perfect, but we have to do it." He looked back at Korra. "You said that boy only stole the life savings without hurting anyone? He would spend two or at least three months in prison and then he would go back to the orphanage. We're not monsters. The important thing would be that he was punished for his crime and that his adoptive family had their life savings back."
"Then why don't you tell the queen to send you more men and more resources?" Korra wondered.
General Pang turned his attention to the door as he expected Gun to be entering at any second, but no one came. So, he turned his gaze back to Korra. "My cousin… Her Majesty doesn't care about her own people; she only cares about power and the taxes from which she lives in luxury. I have tried it several times, believe me, but it was for nothing."
"Then why are you here?" Korra asked.
"Because she summoned me, and as a general and governor, I had to obey." General Pang leaned his back against the chair.
Then Patrick figured out the reason why General Pang was asking the Grand Secretariat about when the Earth Queen would finally receive him. "How long have you been waiting here?"
General Pang gulped down the bitterness and anger within him as he answered, "Four hours."
Korra's eyes widened in shock. "Four hours?" She could not imagine waiting for so long.
"Yes. Her Majesty likes to keep her guests and officials waiting. It took me five hours to get here and it will take another five hours to get back. So, in other words, I'm going to lose an entire day that I could have used to govern."
"Well, at least you can be happy that you will become the Earth King one day since your cousin has no children," Patrick remarked. "Unless there's a catch."
"There's a catch… And his name is Wu. He's in the succession line before me and he will be the most pathetic king that this kingdom has ever had," General Pang replied.
Then finally the Grand Secretariat Gun entered the room. "Her Majesty will receive you both now," he announced to Korra and Patrick.
Korra motioned to General Pang. "I think General Pang should go first after all that —"
General Pang raised his hand to stop her. "Please, Avatar. You should go. I'll manage to wait a little longer."
"Then good luck with your governing, General," Patrick said as he, along with Korra, stood up.
"Thank you and good luck finding the Airbenders here," General Pang replied, and as he observed them following Gun, he knew that even if they did find Airbenders in Ba Sing Se, his cousin would not allow them to take any of them from the city.
The Grand Secretariat Gun led the duo to the balcony of the Royal Palace, where with her back to them was standing an elderly tall woman with black hair pulled back in a bun, green eyes, red lipstick and long green nails with gold fingernail guards on her little finger and ring finger on both hands.
She wore a yellow fan-shaped hat with green trimming with pink flowers at both ends of the hat from which hung a pair of tassels, an elegant robe of yellow and green color with pale green trimming on the sleeves and a gold collar known as a piling around her neck inlaid with emeralds along with gold earrings.
"Your Majesty, may I present Avatar Korra and the Smartest Man in the World, Patrick," Gun introduced the duo to his queen.
While Korra simply bowed, Patrick put his left leg forward and brought his right hand to his chest while bowing with his left hand raised. This gesture earned him surprised looks from Gun and Korra.
However, the Earth Queen, Hout-Ting, was not paying any attention to them as she observed the renovation of the large garden below them. Then she noticed that one of the workers was placing topiaries near one of the ponds, which were ruining the aesthetic of the garden.
"You're ruining the koi pond!" she yelled in fury. "It's completely overshadowed by the topiaries! Guards, take that buffoon away and get me someone who knows what they're doing!"
Patrick leaned a bit forward and could see that at the pond were two large bushes in the shapes of turtle ducks and two workers standing beside them. One was an older man and the other a younger woman. But then his attention was caught by the pair of guards that were approaching the workers because they did not look like regular guards. They were wearing metal cone-shaped hats with golden spikes on the top with green tassels and long robes of dark green color with yellow trimming and light green circles in the center.
The two guards grabbed the older man and took him away while the younger woman was observing them in fear.
"You, rip everything out and start over!" Hout-Ting commanded the young woman.
A young woman, an Earthbender, immediately used her Bending to manipulate the ground underneath the bushes and turned it over onto fresh ground.
"I'm surrounded by idiots," Hout-Ting remarked and finally turned around to face her guests. "So, I finally get a visit from the Avatar." She then looked at Patrick and snorted in disgust. "And you're the Smartest Man in the World? You look like a peasant." She looked back at Korra. "Let me guess, you want something."
Korra stepped forward. "Well, actually, Your Majesty, we were hoping you could —"
"I hardly think you're in a position to ask me for favors after everything the last Avatar did to the Earth Kingdom," Hout-Ting interrupted her as she turned away from her. "He and Fire Lord Zuko took advantage of my father's weakness and stole our lands to make their own little empire." She then looked at Korra with anger. "The United Republic is Earth Kingdom territory! As is Kyoshi Island!"
Although at that moment Patrick could not deny that the Earth Kingdom had claims to the territories where the United Republic and Kyoshi Island were located, he really doubted that these territories would flourish under the rule of this Earth Queen.
"Well… I, uh, I'm not sure what I can do about that," Korra replied nervously as she could not think of a better way to respond to the Earth Queen.
"Not that you care," Hout-Ting said surly, "but what's left of my kingdom is falling to ruin. Roving bands of barbarians are raiding villages in the countryside. And now, some of my subjects are refusing to pay their taxes." She turned back to oversee the renovation of the garden.
I think I know why, Patrick remarked in spirit.
"I'm very sorry for your troubles," Korra said in a diplomatic tone, "but your cousin, General Pang —"
"That topiary is supposed to be an eel swan," Hout-Ting interrupted her as she spotted that another worker was making a wrong animal shape of a bush, "not a turtle duck!"
And while Gun lowered his head in fear of the wrath of his queen, Korra and Patrick were annoyed by this audience.
Meanwhile, in the entrance hall of the house for the guests of the Royal Palace, Jinora noticed that Kai was missing.
"Has anyone seen Kai?" she asked the others.
Tenzin, who was sitting at the table, immediately stood up. "Kai?"
Bolin, who was on the second floor of the house, came down and shouted, "Kai!"
Bumi, who immediately started searching the adjacent room, yelled, "He's not over here."
"I don't think I've seen him since we landed," Asami said as she remembered the last time she saw Kai.
Mako sighed. "Patrick was right. He was just waiting for an opportunity to run away."
"We have to find him," Jinora said.
"What's the point? He obviously doesn't care about us," Mako argued.
"But he's my new little brother," Bolin said and began to imagine what horrors Kai could experience in such a large city like Ba Sing Se. "He's probably lost and scared."
"He's just a little boy and we're responsible for him," Tenzin said. "Besides, he's the only Airbender we've recruited so far and we can't lose him."
"Alright…" Mako replied in a defeated tone since Tenzin was right. "Bolin and I will find him."
Meanwhile, on the balcony of the Royal Palace, the Earth Queen kept yelling at the unfortunate workers, who were trying to obey the whims of their ruler.
"Do you have these problems with your servants?" Hou-Ting, who had stopped yelling for now, asked as she turned back to her guests.
"I don't really have servants," Korra answered.
"And neither do I," Patrick added his own answer. Although his family also had servants, he and his siblings and cousins were raised to be able to take care of themselves.
I could give you a Mr. Meeseeks Box but I'm quite afraid that the Jerry Smith incident would happen again, he thought.
"Your Majesty, the reason for our visit is that we're trying to gather all of the new Airbenders who started to appear in the Earth Kingdom and we'd like your help finding the ones in Ba Sing Se," Korra said.
"Airbenders in Ba Sing Se? Where did you hear that?" Hou-Ting asked a little bit surprised.
Patrick noticed in her tone of voice that she was not surprised that there were Airbenders in Ba Sing Se; she was surprised that Korra and he knew about their existence in Ba Sing Se.
"Before we left Republic City we got some reports," Korra answered.
"Hmm," Hou-Ting said as she began to think. "Well, before I even consider helping you. I'll need you to do something for me."
"And what will it be?" Patrick asked.
Hou-Ting turned her back to them. "I have a vault full of tax money sitting in a village south of here. Bandits have stolen my last two shipments. Go collect my money and bring it back here," she instructed them with a malevolent smile.
Korra bowed again. "Yes, Your Majesty."
The Earth Queen then gestured to them that they should leave already, and Korra, along with Patrick, turned around and left the balcony while Gun stayed with his queen.
"You know, I always wanted to be a tax collector when I was little," Patrick remarked with sarcasm as they walked through the hallway of the Royal Palace. "And what about you?"
"Oh, come on, I'm not happy about it either, but if we help her, she'll help us," Korra replied.
"The question is if she will be willing to help us at all."
Korra looked at him puzzled. "What do you mean by that?"
"When she asked you about those Airbenders, she wasn't surprised that they were in Ba Sing Se, but she was surprised that we knew about them at all. As if their existence in Ba Sing Se is supposed to be a secret."
And as they walked through the hallway, he spotted a group of guards in the same clothes as the ones who took away that old worker in the garden, standing aside. Even though they acted as if they were talking among themselves, Patrick could feel that they were watching them. "Do you know who these guys are?" he whispered to Korra as he beckoned his head toward the group while they walked past them.
"I think those are the Dai Li, the elite secret police of Ba Sing Se."
Patrick looked at her surprised. "You have secret police in this Universe?"
"Yes. You also have them in your world?" Korra asked.
"We do, and in many forms," Patrick replied. And also in the family, he added in spirit, given that the brother of his grandmother, Vasil Barinov, was a member of the KGB and liaison officer in the Stasi until his life was ended by the man he was hunting, nicknamed Agent Unknown.
"Well, and during the Hundred Year War, Dai Li helped the Fire Nation to overthrow the father of the current Earth Queen," Korra continued.
Then why the fuck are they still here? Patrick asked in spirit.
Meanwhile, Bolin and Mako kept searching for Kai in the Upper Ring with no success at all.
"Kai, did you go fishing?" Bolin shouted as they got close to one of the small stone bridges and looked underneath. "You under the bridge?"
Mako, in the meantime, was looking around and then he saw that several meters from them, a strong wind had suddenly blown up the robe of some wealthy citizen of the Upper Ring and blew off his hat to the ground. In less than a second, Kai appeared by the man and picked up his hat.
"Here, sir, let me help you," Kai said as he returned the hat to the man and began fixing his robe as a means of robbing him.
"Oh, thank you, young man," the man said. "What a strange, sudden breeze."
"Sure, that was really weird," Kai agreed as he secretly put the man's money into his pouch.
"Thank you for your help again," the man replied and walked away.
"Kai!" Mako yelled angrily at the small thief as they almost searched the entire Upper Ring because of him. He then, along with Bolin, watched as Kai turned to them, grinned at them and ran away. "Get back here!" And he ran after him.
"Kai, it's us. Mako and Bolin, your new family," Bolin shouted before he joined the chase.
Mako ran after Kai through the streets of the Upper Ring. Kai then turned right and Mako followed him into an alley wide enough for the two rickshaws that were passing each other in the middle of it. Kai, thanks to his small size, slid underneath one of the rickshaws while Mako chose to jump against the wall on the right to get over the rickshaw. However, before he landed, Kai did a barrel roll to evade him and get into a small alleyway to the left.
And while Mako kept chasing him, Bolin squeezed in between two rickshaws. "Excuse me, excuse me. Thank you." And then he quickly went after them.
The chase led to a nearby monorail station, where, as Kai ascended up the stairs of the station, a monorail of green color was about to leave the station. So, Kai decided to enter it in order to shake Bolin and Mako off. But as he was making his way through the passengers of the monorail car, he suddenly bumped right into Mako.
"You're running around and robbing people?" Mako asked with frustration because chasing Kai gave him quite a workout after spending some time behind a desk.
"I was just practicing my Airbending," Kai replied with a fake innocent smile while Bolin caught up with them.
"Sure…" Mako said with sarcasm and grabbed Kai by the collar of his tunic. "Let's go. You're in big trouble," he added as he was about to drag him back into the house.
But Kai, with ease, slid out of his tunic, which he then wriggled out of Mako's grasp. Afterwards, he quickly took advantage of Bolin's and Mako's being caught off guard and sent an air blast at them that launched them to the other side of the monorail car. And before Bolin and Mako could get back on their feet, he ran off the monorail with his tunic in hand.
Bolin and Mako attempted to run after him as quickly as they could, but the doors of the monorail car closed right in front of them.
"Hey!" Mako shouted as he and Bolin could only watch as the monorail drove out of the station with Kai waving at them. He turned his head toward Bolin. "Your little brother, huh?" he asked him angrily because they would not be in this situation if Bolin had helped him and not treated Kai like a little brother.
Bolin nervously smiled and gulped. "Just a lovable little scamp, isn't he?"
Mako averted his gaze to the window of the monorail car that was showing them leaving the Upper Ring of Ba Sing Se. "Reminds me of my little brother."
"Designated express line to the Lower Ring. Next up, Poh Kong Station," the conductor announced.
After a while, the monorail stopped at Poh Kong Station, which, unlike the station in the Upper Ring from where it departed, which was nice and clean, was in quite a desolate state.
"All right. Let's see if we can catch a train back to the Upper Ring," Mako said as he and Bolin, along with other passengers, got off the monorail. He immediately spotted a waiting monorail on the opposite side of the station but there was something different because there were uniformed men standing in front of the doors of the cars.
As they approached one of the doors, they noticed that some woman who was walking ahead of them showed one of the uniformed men a ticket before she entered a monorail car.
"Passports and tickets," the uniformed man said to them when they got to him.
"We can pay; hold on," Bolin replied and began to search his pockets. Mako did that as well in case the tickets were expensive but something was wrong. Neither of them could find their money. "Where's my money?" Both he and Mako widened their eyes as they realized that Kai had stolen their money when he was with them. "No, Kai wouldn't…" he said as he was trying to find some other reason why they did not have their money, but the truth was painful. "Aww, man!" he vented his frustration.
"If you don't have tickets, then get out of here!" the uniformed man yelled and shoved them both back. "Before things get ugly!"
Mako was not going to tolerate such behavior toward him and his brother, but then he spotted that there were also two Dai Li agents on the station who were looking at them threateningly. So, he and Bolin turned around and left the station because anyone with any sense knew not to mess with Dai Li.
"The bad news," Bolin remarked as they both entered the streets of the Lower Ring, where poverty and despair were everybody's neighbors, "is that we're stuck here." And then he placed his hand on Mako's shoulder as he turned his voice to a more positive tone. "The good news is we can go to the bathroom wherever we want."
Mako gave him an upset look that was saying: Don't talk to me for a while.
So, Bolin quickly retracted his hand from Mako's shoulder.
Meanwhile, Patrick entered the entrance hall of the house for the guests, where Asami and Tenzin were.
"Hey, Asami, can Korra and I borrow the airship so that we could collect the tax money for the Earth Queen?" he asked. "In exchange for that, she would help us."
"Of course," Asami replied. "But wouldn't you need more people for that?"
"No. Korra and I will handle that." Patrick then looked around and noticed that both brothers were missing. "By the way, where are Bolin and Mako?"
"They're looking for Kai," Tenzin answered. "He ran away."
Patrick sighed. Of course. That little shit. "Well, if they don't come back by the time Korra and I get back, then I'll look for them," he announced as he left the house. And then I'll kick Kai's ass, he added in spirit.
Several minutes later, the Future Industries airship with Korra and Patrick on board, piloted by one of Asami's employees, lifted off the ground and headed in the direction of the village, accompanied by sunset along with the gaze of Hou-Ting, who was standing in the middle of one of the balconies of the Royal Palace while Gun appeared behind her with General Pang.
"Here I am…" General Pang said while sighing, "Your Majesty. So, what is it?"
"I just wanted to say hello," Hou-Ting replied with a mischievous smile as she watched the airship flying away from her city.
General Pang grabbed the hilt of his sword with one hand while clenching his fist with the other in an attempt to repress the immense rage over his cousin's profligacy. "You made me travel here for five hours and then made me wait for another six hours to JUST SAY HELLO TO ME?"
The Grand Secretariat wanted to say something to defuse the impending situation but after serving the Earth Queen for so long, he knew that it was wiser to remain silent in such situations. And even if he were to try to do so, General Pang or the Earth Queen would silence him immediately.
Hou-Ting slowly turned to her cousin. "You dare to speak to your queen like that?" she asked offended.
"Oh, I dare, because it'll take me another five hours to get back to the governor's compound from which you summoned me, so I'll lose a whole day!" He then crossed his arms. "But go ahead! Remove me from my governorship. But then I wonder how you or any of your bootlickers are going to be able to govern those regions, because as far as I know, my regions are the only ones that are providing regular amounts of tax money for your clothes, food and other things."
Hou-Ting gave him a stern look. Although she would not have tolerated this kind of behavior, even from her own family, she was not stupid. So, she simply turned away from him and gestured for him to leave, but after a few seconds, she noticed that her cousin was still standing there.
"And one more thing: End that "military" project of yours right now," he added with a cold tone.
The Earth Queen turned her head toward him with a raised eyebrow. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Then let me refresh your memory, cousin. I'm talking about the Airbenders who appeared here in Ba Sing Se and were taken away by Dai Li agents on your command. So, I say that again: End that "military" project you have under your temple."
"How did you…" Hou-Ting walked over to him very close. "They're my subjects! I can do whatever I please with them!"
"Yes, you're right. They're your subjects, but as their ruler, you have a duty to protect them and lead them. Not kidnap them!"
"I think the time you spend outside the walls of Ba Sing Se is not doing you well."
"Quite the contrary. I think you should try it sometime." General Pang turned around to leave. "So don't you ever summon me just to say hello to me again and end that thing with the Airbenders and let them go before it all ends badly." And with these words he walked away.
While the enraged Earth Queen observed her cousin walking away, Grand Secretariat Gun quickly followed General Pang and caught up with him in the hallway.
"I think such behavior was… exaggerated, General," he remarked in a whisper as they continued walking.
"Really, Gun? And I thought that you were a hard-working servant of the kingdom who would do everything for its best interests," General Pang replied with sarcasm.
"It's not that easy, General, and it never was!"
"Of course, but you know, your predecessor Long Feng, although he was a traitor and a despicable scoundrel, he at least had what we call a "backbone". I think that's something you should acquire rather quickly before the stupidity of my cousin causes the downfall of our kingdom." And with these words, General Pang hastened his pace to get aboard his airship and leave Ba Sing Se as soon as possible.
In the next morning, in the blind alleyway in the Lower Ring, Bolin, who had used the newspaper as a blanket, woke up along with Mako, who, on the other hand, had slept on the trash by the wall.
"Ohhh, my back!" Bolin said as he stretched out to get rid of the pain caused from sleeping on the ground. "It's been a while since we spent the night in a trash pile."
"I bet everyone… well, except for Patrick, is freaking out that we've been gone all night," Mako replied as he stood up and brushed off some of the trash from his clothes.
"I'm worried about Kai; he's just a little kid out there on his own. He's probably really scared," Bolin mused aloud.
Sure, he is… Mako thought sarcastically.
Meanwhile, in the room in the luxurious hotel in the Upper Ring, Kai, who woke up in a soft bed, rang the bell on the nightstand beside the bed to summon his breakfast.
In less than a second, a servant came through the doors of the room holding a tray with a breakfast on it, which he placed on Kai's bed.
"Your breakfast, Master Fong," the servant announced.
Kai tossed him a gold coin from his pouch. "Keep the change." And as soon as the servant left the room, he relaxed completely in his soft, large bed. "I love Ba Sing Se."
In the meantime, Bolin and Mako wandered through the Lower Ring and came to a street lined on both sides by stalls selling food and other things.
"I'm getting really hungry," Bolin commented with a rumbling in his stomach, but alas, they had no money, but when he spotted a stall selling fruit, he immediately got an idea. "We might have to hustle up a little breakfast with the old, classic fruit stand scam. Come on." And before Mako could say anything, Bolin dragged him over to the stall. "You remember how it goes, right?" he asked and made a shoving motion. "I push you into the stall," he said and then raised his voice a little, "you scream." He placed his hand dramatically on his head. "And I pretend to faint."
"I won't do it," Mako refused because he was now a member of the police force and also because when they got close to the stall, they could see that almost all of the offered fruit was in terrible condition with flies buzzing around it. "Besides, look at this fruit; it's disgusting. We don't want to steal this."
And at the exact moment when he finished his sentence, from under the stall emerged a young man with black hair with a green band around his head with yellow trim at the bottom and green eyes, dressed in a green tunic with yellow lapels and torn-off sleeves and brown pants.
As Mako looked at him, he could swear that the man who had appeared in front of them looked almost like Bolin.
"Hey, you trying to steal my fruit?" the stallholder snarled at them.
"No, I just said I don't want any of this rotten fruit," Mako replied.
The stallholder leaned over the stand and placed his hand on the stack of rotten apples, which, under the pressure of his hand, turned quickly into a disgusting mush. "Oh, you're too good for my fruit? This is the best fruit on the block."
"So you want us to steal it?" Mako asked.
The stallholder showed them his fists. "Just try me." He then kissed the bicep of his left arm. "Go ahead."
Bolin leaned toward Mako. "I'm confused. Are we stealing the fruit or not?"
"I knew it!" the stallholder yelled. "Thieves!" And before Bolin and Mako could run away, he jumped out of his stall and tackled them to the ground.
"What's going on here?" the older man's voice asked.
The young man raised his head toward the source of the voice. "Father, these fruit thieves are insulting our fruit!"
Bolin and Mako raised their heads and saw that a man standing in front of them was an older version of the stallholder who had just tackled them to the ground. He had brown hair with a yellow band around his head with a short goatee and green eyes. He was wearing a pale green vest and underneath a green tunic with rolled-up sleeves and an apron around his waist and darker green pants and boots.
As soon as they looked at the man, he immediately started to look at them more closely as well as at Mako's scarf.
"Bolin… Mako…" he said with shock.
"How do you know our names?" Mako asked.
"Well, I mean I am famous, so I get that," Bolin added and then motioned toward Mako, "but how do you know his name?"
"You look just like San," the man answered and looked at his son. "Tu, those are your cousins! My brother San's children."
Meanwhile, in the skies above Agna Qel'a, the capital city of the Northern Water Tribe, which was built into the ice landscape and surrounded by the ice cliffs, was Druk flying, and on his back were Zuko and Tonraq, whom Zuko had picked up along the way because the travel by ship would take time they did not have.
As they were slowly descending to the ice multitiered city, Zuko noticed how Tonraq was looking at his former home.
"Bad memories?" he asked Tonraq since they both shared a similar history with their siblings.
"Yes," Tonraq answered as he, from the view above, could see the streets and places where he and Unalaq used to play when they were little. "The city hasn't changed much since I left. I… I was just trying to find the precise place or remember the right moment when I failed as a brother and when my brother turned into the monster that killed our father."
Zuko nodded in understanding. "You'll be looking for a long time and you might not find the right ones regardless. But right now, you should focus on protecting your daughter."
"You're right. I've beaten Zaheer before and I'll do it again. Doesn't matter if he's an Airbender now."
The dragon landed on the highest tier of Agna Qel'a, in front of a palace that was resembling a multi-tiered ice pyramid with a grand staircase bordered on either side by totems that were depicting animalistic spirits.
When Tonraq got off Druk, he took a deep breath; the smell of his home that he was forced to leave did not disappear at all, but on the other hand, the Royal Palace of the Northern Water Tribe was now an ominous place for him. He then noticed that a familiar face was heading down the staircase towards them. "Bolor?"
"Prince Tonraq!" Bolor said and bowed. "Lord Zuko. Why have you arrived?"
"Are the twins inside?" Tonraq asked.
"Yes, they are."
"We need to speak with them. It's an urgent matter," Zuko declared.
"Of course," Bolor replied.
"And is Danrok also in the palace?" Tonraq asked.
"He's in the city celebrating his birthday, Prince Tonraq."
Tonraq sighed, scolding himself in spirit for forgetting that today was Danrok's birthday. He did not want to spoil the celebration of his friend, but for the upcoming fight, they would need every help they could get. "We'll need him too. Go get him and tell him that Zaheer has become an Airbender and escaped."
"Of course, Prince," Bolor announced, bowed and ran straight into the city to get Danrok.
Zuko and Tonraq entered the palace and pretty soon reached the large throne room, where on the opposite end was a decorative ice structure with a pair of totems on either side that depicted animalistic spirits. Below the structure were two thrones on which sat Eska and Desna, both with bored expressions that quickly changed once they saw their guests.
"Lord Zuko. Uncle. This is a surprise," Desna said as he, along with his sister, stood up.
"Finally something exciting happens. Ruling the tribe is so tedious," Eska remarked.
"Then you'll enjoy what's to come," Zuko replied.
Then into the throne room entered Danrok, accompanied by Bolor.
"Tonraq!" he said.
"Danrok!" Tonraq replied as they clasped hands. "I'm so sorry that we have to ruin the celebration of your birthday, but the situation is urgent."
"It's alright," Danrok responded. "So, really, Zaheer has become an Airbender and escaped."
"And he also already freed Ghazan and Ming-Hua," Zuko added. "We need to check and secure your secret prison in the western tundra as quickly as possible."
"What secret prison?" Desna asked.
"We'll explain it to you and your sister on the way, Chief Desna," Danrok answered.
In the meantime, Tu and his father Chow took Bolin and Mako to their home, which was a multi-story wooden building among other similar buildings in the Lower Ring, designated to house several families at once.
"Your father sent us a letter years ago with your names, but that was the last time we heard from him. Then we saw your pictures in the sports magazines with your Pro-Bending team," Chow explained on the way how he recognized them and knew their names, and although he was friendly toward them, his son Tu still looked at them as adversaries. "And, Bolin, we love those Nuktuk movers. They're hilarious!"
Bolin, who, despite knowing that they would encounter their father's family, was nervous about meeting the other members of the family, replied, "Well, they're not really comedies, but uh…"
"I could be a Pro-Bender or an actor or something if I lived in a mansion in Republic City like you two," Tu interrupted him and flexed his muscles. "You don't know what it's like on the streets. You got to be tough."
"Oh, Mako and I grew up on the streets," Bolin said. "We were homeless, then we were kind of in a gang… Then we lived in a gym…"
And before he could continue, Chow grabbed him and Mako and burst with them into the doors at which they stopped on the highest floor of the building. "Hey everybody! Look who's here, San's children: Mako and Bolin!" he announced happily.
They entered a surprisingly large room that was full of people, young and old, and Bolin, along with Mako, quickly realized that all of them were their family.
"No way!" one of the older male members of the family reacted.
"Come in!" one of the female members of the family urged.
Bolin and Mako were quickly surrounded by their newfound family members and then they noticed that through the crowd of surprised and smiling faces was approaching them an older small woman with grey hair pulled back into a bun with emerald green eyes and a wart on the left side of her chin. She was wearing a long green vest with yellow trimmings, under which were clothes of pale green color, yellow pants and brown shoes.
"Is it true? After all these years?" she asked in a tone like she could not believe her own eyes.
"Boys, this is your grandmother, Yin," Chow introduced her to Bolin and Mako.
"Aw, it's so wonderful to meet my long-lost grandchildren." Yin hugged both Bolin and Mako. "So, where is San and your mother?"
Bolin and Mako looked at her in shock. "Wait, you mean you don't know?" Bolin asked and the unsure expressions of all their family members gave him the answer. So, he and Mako exchanged glances with each other as they were thinking of how to tell them what happened to their parents.
"I'm sorry…" Mako said. "They were killed when we were little."
The warm and welcoming atmosphere in the room darkened, and Yin, who had begun to cry, was struggling to stay standing with all her strength while screaming inside from the grief.
Meanwhile, the Future Industries airship arrived at the village where Korra and Patrick were to pick up the tax money. It was quite a large village with a square big enough for the airship to land in. When Korra and Patrick left the airship and headed toward a government-looking building, they noticed something: There was no one to greet them.
Korra looked around and saw that the villagers were looking at them covertly from behind the windows and balconies of their houses.
"I don't like the looks of this," Korra remarked. "Let's hurry up and get out of here."
"Agreed," Patrick replied and noticed that some of the buildings in the village were in a rather terrible and desolate state.
When they arrived at the doors of the building, an armed guard opened them.
"You here to pick up the tax money?" he asked.
"Go ahead and load it on the airship," Korra answered.
A few minutes later, four guards loaded a wooden handcart with several green sacks full of gold. Then they headed with the handcart toward the airship when suddenly, from the right side outside the village, a small red light shot straight up into the sky, which made the guards stop midway toward the airship.
Signal flare, Patrick thought as he quickly realized that picking up the tax money would not be so easy. This assumption was quickly supported by the sound of incoming motorcycles.
A few seconds later, six motorcycles at full speed jumped over a wooden fence of a nearby building, and along with two more motorcycles that were accompanying a large truck on the main road in the village, were heading toward the airship. The guards wasted no time and ran away from the handcart as fast as they could.
"Well, it seemed too easy to be true," Patrick remarked as he activated his gauntlets.
"Maybe we should have brought everybody else," Korra added.
Motorcycles driven by men dressed in leather clothes with spikes and painted faces, with similarly dressed pillion passengers who wielded clubs, spears, and other types of melee weapons, began circling the duo.
Shit. All that's missing now is Mad Max. Patrick thought as he observed them with Korra. These men were reminding him of the War Boys from the Citadel.
The truck stopped and out of it stepped a huge man with a long ponytail from the center of his head that was dyed green while the rest of his head was shaved and a long black goatee with a green streak in the center. He had a white war paint on his face with black eye shadows and three thick black vertical lines across his mouth. He had a bare chest with a metal shoulder guard on his right shoulder along with the metal wristband and bandages wrapped around both arms and black pants with a knee guard on the right leg with boots of the same color.
"Step away from the gold and you won't get hurt," he said to them with a harsh tone.
"Sorry to disappoint you but we're taking this gold back to Ba Sing Se," Korra responded.
"Aww, we love girls with spirit," the huge man, who was certainly the leader of the group, commented amusedly to his men, who responded with a chuckle.
Patrick stepped forward. "I think you don't understand, so let me rephrase that. She and I are giving you and your men one chance to get out of here before it gets ugly."
The leader of the bandits began to laugh. "You? What a nipper like you is goin—"
He did not finish the sentence as Patrick shot the sonic wave at him that launched him backward and smashed him against the side of the truck.
And before the bandits on the motorcycles could react, Korra quickly used her Earthbending to lift the earth beneath two of them and launched them into the air. The remaining motorcyclists attempted to drive away, but Korra sent most of them into the air in the same way as well. Patrick spotted that one of the motorcycles, driven by a bandit armed with a club, was heading toward him, so he quickly activated the shield field around himself and the following impact threw the driver off the motorcycle several meters behind him. Then another motorcyclist charged at Patrick from behind, but Korra quickly formed a wall from the earth that stopped him. One of the motorcyclists with his passenger, who was wielding a spear, drove toward the sacks with gold and attempted to steal one of them, but Patrick, in time, shot a laser beam at the motorcycle's tire, which caused, thanks to the momentum, the motorcycle to flip forward and launch both bandits across the square. Now only one motorcycle remained, and it charged at Patrick. Patrick aimed at the duo of bandits and shot a sonic wave that blasted both of them off the motorcycle, and then he simply stepped out of the way of the uncontrolled vehicle that crashed into the wall of the government building.
The leader of the bandits ran over Korra and tried to attack her with kicks but Korra responded by raising an earth column that launched him backward. The huge bandit, who quickly realized that they had lost this fight, quickly got back to his feet and ran to the truck.
"Retreat, retreat!" he yelled at his men, who were still standing as he jumped onto the truck. The driver of the truck, along with the fleeing bandits, drove away from the village. As they were departing, the leader of the bandits turned his head toward Korra and Patrick. "You're on the wrong side of this fight, Avatar! That gold belongs to the people, not the queen!"
"Oh, really? I didn't see you were giving it to the people, dumbass!" Patrick replied aloud.
"Nevertheless, why do I get the feeling he's right?" Korra remarked.
"Because he is," Patrick declared and walked over to one of the sacks to open it to look at its contents. "Do you remember the amount of gold that was the life savings that Kai had stolen from the family that adopted him?" he asked her as he showed her the contents of the sack.
Korra looked and was certain that if what Kai had stolen was the life savings of one family, then inside those sacks were the life savings of probably several generations of several families. It was no wonder that most of the buildings in this village looked so desolate when the Earth Queen was sucking dry her own subjects like that. "So, what do we do?"
"Well…," Patrick said as he scanned the sack and its contents with his bracelet, "when the system and also those who are fighting against it are failing, I think it's up to us to restore the balance a little bit." He then picked up the sack, tossed it back into the handcart and headed with it to a nearby house where he knocked on the door.
A few seconds later, an elder man opened the door. "What… is it?" he asked with a shaking voice.
"Are you the leader of this village?" Patrick asked.
"Yes…" The elder man shifted his gaze to the sacks in the handcart. "Everything should be in there! Not a single gold piece is missing, I can assure you and Her Majesty of that!"
Patrick handed one of the sacks over to him. "Here. Take it all back."
The elder man looked at him in shock. "What? No, we can't… That gold belongs to Her Majesty!"
"Then take it as a form of "thanks for your unswerving loyalty to her"," Patrick replied.
The elder man looked at the sack he was holding for a moment and then, with understanding, pressed it to his chest. "Thank you so much!"
"If you want to thank me, don't spend it all in one place; otherwise, the queen or those bandits will know about it."
"Don't worry, we will." The elder man stepped out of the house. "People! Come! Take your gold back!" he called out, and as the villagers came out from their houses to distribute the contents of sacks, he bowed to Korra. "And thank you so much, Avatar, that you and your partner drove away those horrible bandits!"
"We're not a couple," Korra corrected him and bowed as well. "And you're welcome and follow Patrick's advice." She and Patrick then headed to the airship. "To be honest, I didn't expect you to be capable of such generosity."
Patrick simply shrugged. "Well, I sometimes surprise even myself."
Korra chuckled and shook her head at Patrick's vanity. But honestly, after all that time they had known each other, it would have been impossible for her to imagine Patrick without it.
They then stopped at the airship, turned around and observed the villagers celebrating that they had their hard-earned gold back. "And besides, that money will be much more useful here than in Ba Sing Se," Patrick continued.
"Still, it doesn't change the fact that we should have delivered that tax money to Her Majesty," Korra remarked. "But I believe you've already got that covered, don't you?"
"I do." Patrick reached into his pocket and pulled out a small glass that contained metal dust. He opened the glass and emptied the dust onto the ground. And then he pressed a button on the display of his bracelet and the dust, at quite a high speed, headed toward the rocks that were scattered across the square after the fight with the bandits.
"What is that?" Korra asked shocked.
"It's a swarm of nanobots, very small machines," Patrick answered. But these nanobots, unlike those he had used to decompose the bodies of Tarrlok and Noatak, were equipped with the technology to rearrange the molecules of any material for however long they were programmed. "They are capable of creating almost everything out of anything."
Korra then, along with some villagers, observed as the metal dust engulfed the rocks and in the following seconds vanished with them, leaving only the exact replicas of those sacks and their contents.
"Wow!" she commented in amazement. "And where are those nanobots now?"
"They're inside. They now serve as binders for the rearranged molecules for however long they're programmed for. Otherwise, those sacks and the gold would turn to dust very quickly."
"And we'll give this to Her Majesty."
"Yes."
Korra wanted to reject this idea because the use of the fakes was objectionable to her but after meeting the Earth Queen and seeing the situation here, she realized that this was a much better option.
In the meantime, in the western tundra of the North Pole, Lord Zuko, accompanied by Tonraq, Danrok, Desna and Eska, arrived at a metal compound consisting of two watchtowers and a metal door. And while the White Lotus Sentries opened the door for them, and Zuko, along with Tonraq and Danrok, proceeded calmly inside, both Eska and Desna looked at the place in surprise, as they were unaware of its existence.
"Why didn't anyone tell us we have a secret prison we could put people in?" Eska asked.
"I'd like to put my tailor in here," Desna added. "He never gets my cuffs right." He looked at the cuffs of his clothes. "They're so… crease-y."
The group continued through the round metal room where, on the other side, was waiting an elevator.
"We built this place secretly with your father to hold a very special prisoner," Zuko began to explain as the elevator with the group inside headed down. "She's a powerful Firebender named P'Li who can create explosions with her mind." He then sighed as he remembered someone similar from his past. "Ironically, I hired a man with a similar ability to kill the Avatar myself once." And as he paused, Tonraq, along with Danrok, just glared at him, while both twins maintained their emotionless expressions. Zuko noticed how Tonraq and Danrok were looking at him and turned his head toward them. "Didn't work."
Then there was a silence in the elevator for a few seconds until Eska spoke. "Don't feel bad. I tried to kill Korra after she ruined my wedding. It happens," she said to Zuko.
"Let's just focus on keeping this woman in prison," Tonraq declared as he felt uncomfortable hearing about attempts to kill the Avatar due to the fact that his own daughter was the Avatar. He then noticed that Danrok was brooding about something. "What is it?" he asked him.
"Hmm… Maybe it's nothing… But I just remembered that Unalaq, a month before that whole matter with the Harmonic Convergence, was visiting P'Li quite often," Danrok answered.
"Do you know why?" Tonraq wondered.
Danrok shrugged. "No. He only visited her privately. He even forced the White Lotus Sentries to leave their posts when he was talking with her."
The elevator stopped at a metal platform built deep underground in the tundra. On the edge of the platform was a huge chasm and on the other side of it was another metal platform with a cell guarded by a duo of White Lotus Sentries.
"The intense cold prevents her from Firebending," Zuko explained the reason why the prison was built so deep underground in the frozen tundra as the group made it across the chasm via the sliding metal bridge.
"There's certainly no way anyone's breaking out of here," Desna remarked due to the complexity of the prison.
"That's what we thought about the other three prisons," Zuko replied.
When they reached the other platform, they could see a figure wrapped in a long cloak walking back and forth behind the bars of the cell.
"There must be something exciting going on," the figure said. "I haven't had so many visitors at once in thirteen years."
"Don't get used to it," Tonraq proclaimed in a harsh tone.
But the figure smiled. "He's out, isn't he? Mmmm, I'm feeling warmer already."
Meanwhile, in the home of Bolin and Mako's newfound family, both brothers were enjoying the family dinner that celebrated their arrival.
"This is so great!" Bolin commented with satisfaction. "We never had a family before. And now we've," he began to count the faces that were surrounding them, "got one, two, five… eleven…" He quickly realized, however, that there were so many members of his family that he could not count them all. "A big family! Awesome!"
"So why did our father leave Ba Sing Se?" Mako asked.
Chow, who was sitting opposite them along with his mother, put down the bowl of rice. "Well… he always had big dreams. He couldn't wait to get out and see the world. Your grandfather thought it was ridiculous. He wanted San to stay home and work at the fruit stand. But San was determined to leave and they had a huge argument. And that was the last time they ever spoke." He then noticed that his mother turned her head away in sadness because of the revival of the bad memories. "Oh, um… sorry, Mother."
Yin turned her head back toward her newly found grandsons. "Come with me. I have something to show you."
Bolin and Mako followed their grandmother to the upper floor, where Yin sat down on the sofa and from underneath it pulled out a box.
"This is the only letter we ever got from San," she said as she pulled a sheet of paper out of the box. "It says he married a beautiful girl from the Fire Nation and had two wonderful sons. He also sent this picture of you all on his birthday." She waited for Bolin and Mako to sit with her before showing them the picture.
Both brothers looked at the picture of them as quite young with their parents and they were all smiling.
"Look, Mako! Father's wearing your scarf!" Bolin remarked to their father in the picture, who had little Bolin sitting on his lap.
"I'm so sad that I never got to meet your mother," Yin said as she turned her head toward Mako, "but you have her eyes." She then turned her head toward Bolin, who started to cry. "I know from looking at you two that she must have been a wonderful bride for my boy."
Mako looked at his scarf, the only memory of his father, and then took it off to wrap it around his grandmother's neck. "I'm sure they would want you to have this."
Yin smiled at the given scarf and then hugged both of her grandsons.
Sometime later, when Bolin and Mako were fully occupied with talking with the other family members, Yin made her way to a smaller room where she lit a candle and pulled out of her pocket a sheet of paper. One more letter from San existed. Neither Chow nor anyone else in the family knew about it, as it was addressed directly to her, and in its content, San was asking her to keep the letter in secret. The letter also contained information about the origins of Naoki, San's wife and the mother of Bolin and Mako, which was certainly the reason why they were murdered. If Bolin, Mako or anyone else in her family had read that letter, they would have set out on a path of revenge, which might have ended in their own deaths because they would have stood up against the nobility.
And as she held the letter while making sure that no one would enter the room, she was considering burning the letter to keep her family safe.
Meanwhile, at the Royal Palace, the Grand Secretariat Gun led Korra and Patrick after their return to Ba Sing Se to the throne room.
They entered an impressively large hall with eighteen stone pillars that ran down its entire length, on which were hanging green lanterns whose light made the hall almost entirely green, and which lined the green pavement that led directly to the throne. The golden throne itself was surmounted by a huge statue of the badgermole holding the emblem of the Earth Kingdom, made also of gold, with five stairways, four smaller ones on the sides of the throne and one large one in the middle.
"Your Majesty. The Avatar and the Smartest Man in the World have returned with the tax money," Gun announced to his queen.
"Finally," Hou-Ting replied with satisfaction. "Secure it in the vault."
"It's being done as we speak."
"So now, Your Majesty, if we could start meeting some of the Airbenders here in the city," Korra requested.
"The Dai Li thoroughly searched the city but it seems your reports were incorrect. There are no Airbenders in Ba Sing Se," Hou-Ting responded.
Patrick knew this was a lie, although he did not know the exact number of agents of the Dai Li; it would be impossible for them to search the entire city of the size of Ba Sing Se in less than two days and not have encountered any Airbenders, some of whom would surely be as clumsy as such as Daw.
The main question then was why the Earth Queen was keeping their existence in the city as a secret. And then a probable reason occurred to Patrick.
Hou-Ting leaned forward on her throne. "So… you can gather your little band and be on your way tomorrow," she added in a commanding tone.
Even though Korra knew that the tax money they handed over to the Earth Queen was fake, so she was not too angered by the response of Her Majesty, she still had to comment on the situation in the Earth Kingdom. "You make us extort your own citizens for your stupid palaces and topiaries and then you just send us away?" She made a step forward. "We're not going anywhere until we find some Airbenders. We know there are some here!"
Hou-Ting shifted her gaze to Gun. "Get them out of my sight!"
Gun immediately began to escort Korra and Patrick out of the throne room when, after a few steps, Korra quickly turned around and pointed at the Earth Queen, which caused Gun to fall on his butt due to the sudden startle.
"This isn't over! We're going to find those Airbenders!" And with these words, she and Patrick walked out of the throne room alone. A few minutes later, when they were walking through the hallways of the Royal Palace, she turned her head toward Patrick. "Sorry. I know we gave her the fakes but I couldn't stand her attitude anymore," she said as she was quite surprised that Patrick was not attempting to stop her from causing a diplomatic incident there.
"It's alright. And if it makes you feel even better, I can deactivate those nanobots so she can't use those copies at all, but I'd suggest waiting a few days after she forgets that she even got some tax money," Patrick replied.
"That's great, but anyway, you were right that she won't help us. However, why would she hide those Airbenders?"
"I think she's building an army from them."
"What?" Korra asked shocked.
"It's military logical. Imagine that you're a ruler of one of the nations where its people control one element along with some of its variations when suddenly some of them begin to control another element. This would give you an edge over the other nations."
"And she's using Dai Li to do it," Korra took up. "But then why didn't she kidnap any of those Airbenders we encountered during our journey here to Ba Sing Se? Like perhaps Kuon?"
"Because she wants to build that army of Airbenders in secret and even though Ba Sing Se is a large city, it's still a restricted area where she can control the flow of information, while in the countryside she cannot."
Meanwhile, in the home of Bolin and Mako's family from their father's side, the celebrations continued.
"You know, San would've been so proud of you boys!" Chow commented on how the sons of his brother had gotten so far at such a young age. "Traveling the world with the Avatar along with the man from another world? He would've loved that!"
"Well, he would clearly not like Patrick at all," Mako replied in a low tone of voice and then turned it back to normal. "We actually need to get back to the Upper Ring. We were supposed to help them both to find Airbenders in Ba Sing Se."
The entire family gasped in shock when they heard that.
Bolin quickly looked around. "What? What happened?"
"One of our neighbors started Airbending about a week ago," Chow explained. "A couple of days later, two Dai Li agents came out of nowhere and took him away. No one's seen him since."
"They say the Earth Queen's locking all the Airbenders up somewhere and using them for experiments," Tu added.
"Tu!" Yin said with a raised voice as she stood up. "Don't talk like that about Her Majesty!" She turned around to the portrait of the Earth Queen that was hanging on the ceiling above the entrance door. She then blew a kiss and bowed to the portrait. "Long may she reign." Unlike her grandchildren, she had been raised to worship the royal dynasty that ruled Ba Sing Se.
Mako turned his head toward Bolin. "We have to get back to the Upper Ring and tell Korra and Patrick."
Bolin nodded because after learning that Dai Li was kidnapping Airbenders in Ba Sing Se, he realized that Kai was in great danger. "I hope Kai will be alright."
In the meantime, in the streets of the Upper Ring, Kai targeted his next victim, another wealthy citizen. So, with his Airbending, he made an air blast that knocked the hat off the head of the wealthy citizen.
"Here, sir, let me help you," he said as he picked up the fallen hat.
He then, with the stolen pouch of gold, headed with satisfaction into a nearby dark alley. His joy over another easy income quickly vanished when he saw a figure standing threateningly at the end of the alley. His instinct was telling him to run away, so he turned around to only see that another similar figure was standing there and this time he recognized that it was an agent of Dai Li.
Fortunately, Kai noticed that opposite him was a smaller alley with a closed wooden door at the height of an adult person. He quickly ran to the door with the intention of climbing over it, but as he gripped the edge of the door, his hands were hit by some rocks. Kai looked closely and could see that the rocks were in the shape of hands, which were grasping his hands so tightly that he could barely move them. Then the rock hands lifted him into the air and slowly turned him toward the Dai Li agents.
"Hey! What's going on? I didn't do anything! I'm with the Avatar!" Kai yelled with desperation.
However, the Dai Li agents ignored his yelling and put a black bag over his head. The next thing Kai remembered was that he was taken to some underground stone spaces where they removed his clothes and replaced them with simple clothing. Then they grabbed Kai and took him through the stone hallway illuminated by green lamps to a huge metal door. In the next second, they opened the door and threw Kai into a dark stone square room.
Kai quickly looked around, and thanks to the light from the lamps in the hallway, he could see that the room was filled with people of different ages and genders, all dressed in the same clothes as him. He shifted his gaze to the duo of the Dai Li agents, who had brought him here and who gave him cold smiles.
"Welcome to the First Airbending Regiment of Her Majesty's army," one of them said as he began to close the metal door. "From now on, you live to fight for the Earth Queen."
Frightened, Kai could only watch as the door slowly closed and the light disappeared with it.