CW for mentions of past injuries and dissociative experiences, and chi blocking after effects. Also, bad flirting.

Enjoy!

"Please tell me you're joking," Korra said straight-faced. "You're not being serious. They didn't just—they're just gone."

"I wish I was, Korra, I really do," Mako said, pacing back and forth in front of her as she sat on the edge of her bed. He'd come on the last ferry to the island and it had already been past dinner time. "Beifong trusted me to watch them and I didn't, I feel like such an idiot-!"

"Hey. You did what you thought was the right thing, Mako. You couldn't have known they'd do that," Korra insisted. "Sure, you probably should've stayed there, but how many more officers would've been chi-blocked if you hadn't?"

Mako ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath. "You're right, you're right…but I still need to fix it. I have to fix it," he half-agreed. "Or I might be out of a job."

"You will. You found them out the first time, didn't you? And I can help again if you want me to, Officer," she said with a flirty tone on the end of her words.

"If your precious time wouldn't be wasted on me, Avatar, I'd be more than happy to have your assistance," he replied. "Whether Beifong allows it is another thing entirely, but…"

"That's never stopped us before," Korra reminded him.

He smiled. "No, it hasn't. We'll start in the morning."

"Explaining this to Tenzin is going to be so much fun…"

"What a treat this is. So kind of you to help these two get away from your little police friends, Yizo," Alejandro said with a smirk as he circled around the chair that 'Mike' had been tied to following their chi-blocking and arrival at…somewhere. "I hope they made their gratitude clear."

"Y'know, I've been shackled an awful lot recently, and I'm getting pretty tired of it," Mike said with as much fight as he could muster when his entire body felt like putty. There was a blindfold over his eyes. The constant buzz inside his head was muffled, as if the radio signal was cutting in and out.

"That wasn't my call, Courtney thought it best to keep you this way until you woke up-"

"You literally told us to tie him there when we got here, Alejandro-"

"Details, details. I'd like us to be alone now, Courtney, Zoey, thank you for bringing him back," Al shooed them out with a mechanical gesture before turning again and having his hands behind his back. "I see you trying to burn the ties off," he said with a brief chuckle. "The chi blocking must have worn off." He didn't sound phased at all by this.

Vito frowned. He was able to bend but it was taking all he had to do it. The warmth he always felt within himself when he brought his fire forth was stunted like it had been stamped out until only a tiny flicker was left. He did manage to singe the rope enough for it to catch on fire by itself, disintegrating and its remains falling to the floor. "Your goons broke me outta jail…after I got them arrested," he said with a shortness of breath as he weakly pulled down the blindfold. "They must be stupider than I thought."

"I hardly think 'goon' is the right word. For being so new to the business they are proving to be infinitely more competent than some of our previous recruits," Alejandro spoke as if to a colleague before changing his tone to be more severe. "You should know since you burned one of them half to death."

"I don't know what you're on, yo," Vito replied with a grunt, a feeble puff of smoke curling from his mouth. He wanted to stand, to fly out as fast as possible, but his legs, those stupid human legs, still felt like massive boulders.

"You thought you could stay under the radar and change your identity so we wouldn't find you again? I heard all about what happened at that disgusting fruit stand—you're not as discreet as you used to be, clearly," Alejandro continued, starting to circle the chair like a shark.

"I got a lot more to worry 'bout nowadays than what you think I do or do not be, Al," Vito growled.

"I don't care much about your worries so much as your loyalties, amigo. You were in jail despite helping the police with an arrest!" Al pointed out. "They wouldn't keep you there if they liked you, now would they?" He gestured with one hand, the other still obscured. "But we would be thrilled to have you back here-!"

"No. I ain't coming back." Vito grabbed the arms of the chair and with stable but weakened legs stood up. "I'm not who I was before, yo."

"Oh, let me guess, you figured out who you are, what you're here for, and all that smoke you used to spit out, didn't you?" Al was not smiling anymore. "Well good for you, Yizo, but that doesn't change the fact that you had the audacity to leave at the most crucial time possible."

"You gonna throw that at me like it was my fault things went bad so fast? I couldn't tell here from there half the time! Nothing felt real, yo, I thought I'd burn from the inside out before it'd stop," Vito started feeling his strength returning little by little. "I was always gonna leave eventually, somehow, some time, but I never could on my own 'cause you kept me needed, and I needed someone to tell me I was real."

"I thought we were friends. I thought you'd have come back when you saw what we'd accomplished on our own," Alejandro's normally smooth voice was bracing, on the edge of cracking through the facade he always kept up. "We needed you when they…" his voice fell off and he clenched his teeth. His hands had left its place behind his back and Vito could see his metal hand.

He'd never seen it before.