Dwayne stood up from his chair when Mike stepped into the room at the police station after Beifong had cleared him to do so. His meager belongings were on the table, still in the partially burnt bag. "You're okay," Dwayne said, sounding relieved. "They wouldn't tell us where you were, if the Avatar had done something, l was so worried—!" The two hugged briefly.

"I'm sorry," Mike replied quietly. "I'm sorry I couldn't do enough to repay you for what you've done for us."

"Us…have you…?"

"I'm trying. It's getting easier to understand who's who. I think I've even met one of them, sort of," he admitted. "They didn't cause much more of a problem than usual."

Dwayne smiled a little. "That's great, I'm glad you're figuring it out, whatever it is…"

"How's Junior doing?"

"Physically, he's all better now. He hasn't talked much, but I think he'll be happy to see you again."

Mike nodded.

Junior had been waiting in a different room and was let in. "Dude," was all he said.

"I heard what happened, Junior, I'm sorry I wasn't there to help you—" Mike started to apologize.

Junior wasn't listening. "Where'd they take you? It's been like, a month! You're dressed like a monk, kinda, what's up with that? Are you a monk now?!" he asked in quick succession.

Mike blinked. "I'm not becoming a monk," he promised. "They didn't give me that option."

"Oh good, your hair is way too cool to shave off. My dad won't let me grow mine out," Junior huffed. He then lightly punched him in the side of the arm. "When were you gonna tell us you're kinda an earthbender, huh? Or a bender at all!"

"It looks like you've found your voice again," Beifong spoke up, reminding them all of her ever-looming presence.

Junior zipped his lips before suddenly saying quietly, "I don't want him finding out I ratted, or they might do something worse." Like hurt his dad, or his mom. Or find their house and destroy that too.

"They won't," Beifong promised. "If you tell us, we can find who did it and arrest them."

"You ain't finding them. They always moving, slippery little elephant rats. You'd be lucky to catch one before a cloud of smoke got in yo way and then there's nothing but an empty street and your own bloody knuckles."

"Well then, what would you have us do, Vito?" Beifong asked, easily recognizing who was here now by his voice.

"Make 'em want to crawl outta their hole. Give them what they think they want, yo," Vito replied.

"You sound like you're speaking from experience…" she remarked, narrowing her eyes a little at him. Their records did mention potential triad links…but they'd never been caught for it. They went to jail for minor stuff, not participating in organized crime.

"Ey, ain't that a good thing in this scenario?" he figured.

"We don't have the money anymore to pay them," Dwayne spoke up. "I spent it on repairs and Junior's healing."

"They don't know that. They don't know nothin' goin' on in here. That's as far as I got on ideas, yo," Vito pointed out before going quiet.

"It can't be that simple…unless we retain surprise. Since Junior knows what they look like, he'll have to be the bait so we know who to arrest," Beifong conceded.

"Huh? No, no way, I'm not bait!" Junior protested.

"Then quit acting like you work for them and tell someone what you know," she snapped back at him quickly.

"Fine, okay!" Junior caved and told Vito. Only Vito. He still didn't understand the whole 'there's multiple people sharing with Mike' situation but maybe Mike could hear too. Vito had been Mike earlier, or was that not how it worked? He'd have to ask after this was all over.

"'F it was just eel boy and the wonder twins it wouldn't be a problem, they a bunch of idiots, but he's got new meat doing the dirty stuff for him…hmph," Vito grunted. "Better to bring a bender or two, or four…" He wasn't trying to volunteer the others who didn't know what was happening, he didn't know who was and wasn't a bender amongst them anyway, other than that one airbender chick who kept them from falling to their deaths off a roof that one time. He'd have to find her name out one of these days. He was referring to anyone Beifong had available for the operation.

That wasn't how she interpreted it, unfortunately. "Why don't you handle it then? You're as versatile as Korra, so I'm told, under the right conditions." Maybe if they proved themselves useful in such a situation, she'd think a third time about letting them stay in the city.

"Nah, not gonna happen, Chief," Vito refused.

"You can kiss this city goodbye then. No point in keeping you here when you've got somewhere to go now," she said.

"Ey yo, we ain't goin' that easy!" he protested.

"He's leaving?" Junior clarified. "Like, actually leaving?"

"I was never told this was happening. I should've been told as his employer—!" Dwayne argued.

"Enough!" Her hand slammed onto the table.

Everyone went quiet.

She focused all her energy to look at Vito. "While you are still here in Republic City, you are under the watch of the police. That has not changed. You will help arrest the people who destroyed the store tomorrow, as they clearly could do more damage if not caught, you know what they look like and have the skills to defend yourselves if needed. I am going to bring a couple officers in to assist. After this is over, you will be released to your family outside the city. Am I clear?" She could feel herself sweating when she hadn't been before.

Vito had crossed his arms and was gripping them very tightly. The temptation to hit something and set it on fire was great, but that would only make things worse. "Your goons better keep up with us," he growled, smoke escaping from the corners of his mouth before walking out of the room.

His teeth look sharper than before, Beifong thought. "My officers are the best of the best, they'll be just fine."

"He looked like he was about to catch himself on fire," Junior noted.

"Surprise, kid, Vito's a firebender." She almost anticipated hearing someone yelling about a fire in the station.

"Chief! There's a fire coming from the hallway!"

There it was.

This was going to be one nightmare of an operation.