We can see spirits casually mingling among a few rocks scattered throughout the desert landscape early in the morning. We had arrived in a local Earth Kingdom desert village with hopes to track down Aiwei. Naga stops to sniff the ground.
I pull in the jeep behind Korra.
"Aiwei has definitely been through here." Korra says. "Nice tracking, girl."
"Let's ask around. Maybe someone's seen him." Mako suggested.
We all hop out our vehicle and walk inside of a tavern as Mako pushes the curtain aside at the entrance. We enter and everyone in the tavern glances at us.
Bolin notices something on the wall of the tavern and it's a wanted poster of him. "Ohh look, they have a mover poster of me." Mako looks at the poster with mild surprise. "Must be big Nuktuk fans," Bolin rubs his hands together. He starts to walk forward. "I should go out and say hello."
Mako grabs Bolin by his sleeve. "No. Those are wanted posters and there's one for each of us." We look closer to the wall to reveal wanted posters of all five teens on the wall. Mako reads Korra's poster. "Wanted by Her Majesty, the Earth Queen, for crimes against the Kingdom." Mako as he raises an eyebrow while Korra is fuming behind him. Glances back at Korra, rolling his eyes. "I'm guessing this is because we took her airbenders."
Korra is frustrated. "They weren't hers to keep! I swear, if I see her pinchy little queen face again," Asami glances back into the tavern. "I am going to-"
Asami interrupts with alarm. "Uhh, guys..." I look across the various patrons of the bar. One man pulls out his sword while another shows off his spear. "We should get out of here."
The group walked out and Korra does a gesture to all the men in the tavern before she departs. We made our way back to the jeep, I let Asami drive this time.
Naga is running with Korra on her back and the rest of us follow, after a while we make it to a windy road.
The jeep follows closely and Naga runs up a small slope. Naga sniffs the ground for any scent near a bunch of rocks.
"Naga found something." Korra gets off her mount and Naga sits. The Avatar earthbends a giant boulder to the side to find Aiwei's jeep hidden behind a small clearing.
Naga bumps her head on and nudges Korra and awaits a reward. "Oh... Sorry, I forgot to bring treats," Naga whines and bends down as Korra affectionately rubs the polar bear dog's face. "but, good girl."
Naga responds by whining once more and turn to walk away. Her tail whips and slaps Korra in the face, causing her to groan. Asami, the brothers and I walk up to the vehicle in the background. Korra hunches her shoulder's from Naga's cold shoulder attitude.
Asami walks toward the jeep. "This must be Aiwei's jeep. He can't be far."
Mako looks at the Misty Palms Oasis and walks to the edge of the slope. "Bolin and I will investigate the Misty Palms Oasis, and see if he's hold up there." We look down the cliff to see the view of a town nearby.
"Yes!" Bolin folds his arms. "I love it when you talk like a cop."
"I'm coming too." Korra said.
"No." Mako replied. "You, Asami and Fara wait here in case he comes back. Besides, we don't want to call too much attention to ourselves."
Reluctantly, Korra said. "All right."
Excitedly, Bolin says. "Ooh, Mako, Mako, Mako! We should wear disguises and pretend we're going undercover! That way," he places a hand over his mouth and the other on his forehead. "no one will recognize us. Haha, police work is so exciting!"
Bolin runs to the trunk of the jeep, unzipping a bag of supplies. Bolin pulls out a bright yellow raincoat and drapes it over his head and body. His eyes as bright green goggles are worn. The brothers dressed in identical outfits. Korra, Asami and I look askance and unconvinced at them, as if questioning the effectiveness of their disguises.
"You two look ridiculous." I coughed out.
"Agreed." Asami commented.
"All right, now we need our undercover identities!" Bolin now as he regales a sad story. "I'm an ex-United Forces operative named Ting-Ting. War was the only woman I ever loved, until Ivy came along and showed me what real love is. Tragically, she was taken from me by my archenemy Dr. Razor and he-"
Mako interrupts. "Enough!" He starts walking. "Let's just find Aiwei."
"But I haven't even told your backstory." Bolin pouted.
Mako heads to the city. "I'm a cop. I don't have a backstory."
Bolin catches up with his brother, leaving the girls and I.
Half an hour had passed.
I sit inside Aiwei's jeep. "I'm taking this as well." Asami is beside me as we search Aiwei's car. We turn to see Korra sulking on a boulder, watching the view of the city.
Asami glances at her friend as she's observing Aiwei's jeep. "Are you okay?"
Korra sighs. "I'm just frustrated. What does Zaheer want with me? What's his plan?"
I slide up the driver's seat and reach out for something in the glove compartment, I pull out a note. "I don't know. But I think I found a clue." I pick up the paper and lend it to Korra.
Korra reads the letter. "Xai Bau's Grove, sundown. This must be where and when Aiwei's going to meet Zaheer!"
Asami looks at Earth Kingdom map. "All right. Xai Bau's Grove, where are you?" Suddenly a blue-colored spirit stands on the map, screeching. "Go away! I'm trying to find something."
Korra and Asami observe the map. I watch as Mako pulls off his disguise and walks towards us with no Bolin by his side. "We found Aiwei hiding in an inn."
"That's great!" Korra responds.
"We found something too." Asami hands Mako the letter. "It looks like he's gonna meet Zaheer at sundown at a place called Xai Bau's Grove. But I can't find it anywhere on the map."
Quickly, Korra said. "Let's go bust down Aiwei's door and finally get some answers."
"No. Once Aiwei knows we're onto him, we lose our advantage. I say we stake out his room and when he leaves for this meeting, we follow him." Mako says.
I turn to Korra who looks serious. "And he'll lead us straight to Zaheer."
✧༺♥༻∞༺♥༻✧
We make it to the Misty Palms Inn, as the team and I try to get a room.
"Good afternoon." Mako said to the innkeeper. "We'd like a room on the ground floor, across from 102, please."
"Forget it! Last time a bunch of teenagers came in here, they trashed the whole room."
At the entrance, a deep toned voice shouted. "We found you!" The team turns around in alarm and get into fighting poses. Mako lights up a ball of fire above his palm and Korra bends fire daggers in both hands. Team Avatar gets ready to fight.
"Hey," the elderly innkeeper warned. "No bending in here! Take it outside!"
The man places both hands out to appease the team. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We're not here to fight you." A goofy smile appears on the couple's faces. "We're here to meet Nuktuk and oh my spirit is that Ash?!"
The women walks up to Bolin and I and pulls out a poster of Nuktuk and Ash, holding eachother dreamily." We're your guys' biggest fans. Can you make it out to Lily and Macao?"
I cringe as I look at the super fans. "Uh..."
Bolin interrupts me. "We'd be happy to. Always love meeting our fans." Bolin signs the poster and hands me the pen to sign as well.
Lily pulls out a doll that looks like Bolin. Holds it up to him and squeaks it. "I made this Nuktuk doll for you."
Bolin starts to smile, awkwardly. "Oh, it's... cute." Bolin grins as Lily squeaks the doll in a sound of agreement.
"Why didn't you tell me your friends were mover stars?" The innkeeper said, happily. "I'd be happy to rent you any room in the inn."
"We'll just take the one across from 102." Mako replied.
"But that room is too small for the five of you!"
"Trust me." Mako crossed his arms. "It'll be perfect."
Minutes later, the Team and I are all squished in our new room.
"I'd just like to say, for the record, this room is definitely not perfect." Naga's tail hits Bolin in the face. "Naga!"
Mako and Korra look out the window, and see Aiwei peeking out of his across for them. "There he is."
"I thought stakeouts were supposed to be exciting. This isn't. At all!" Bolin looks in the highest bedside table drawer. "Ooh, I wonder if there's any snacks in here." There are no snacks, so Bolin keeps look in the other drawers and finds a Pai Sho board. "Hey, look! A Pai Sho board! Mako, you want to play?"
"Kind of busy here, bro."
I shrugged a shoulder. "I'll play."
"Oh, well, ugh, no offense but I learned street Pai Sho from Shady Shin, and I'm pretty good. So, wouldn't really be a fair game." Bolin snagged.
"So? I learned to play from fire Lord Zuko." I smiled sweetly before saying. "I'll destroy you."
"Well, looks we've got ourselves a Pai-Shodown." Bolin and I set up our boards. "Ladies first." We exchange a couple moves, but I stop and think on one of my turns. "Uh, I don't mean to rush you, but let's speed things up a bit."
"Why?" I question. "This game is all about slow, methodical strategy."
"No, it's not. This is a fast-paced, edge of your seat, game of chance! Don't think. Just go."
"I don't know what Shady Shin taught you," I slightly laughed. "but it wasn't the real Pai Sho."
"Oh really? I think Mr. Rulebook might disagree with you." Bolin reads from the rulebook. "The origins of Pai Sho date back over ten thousand years. It is a game of both strategy and chance. Wait, how can it be both?"
"Let me see that. " I take the book and start reading from it. "There have been countless variations of Pai Sho through the centuries and each culture has its own rules and variations of the game."
"That's no help at all." Bolin says. "Korra, as the Avatar, you need to standardize these Pai Sho rules."
Sarcastically, Korra says. "Okay, I'll put that on my to-do list, right after bringing back the Air Nation and taking down the group that tried to kidnap me."
"That's cool." Bolin shrugged. "Whenever you get to it."
"Assuming we do find Zaheer, what then?" Mako asks.
Korra bangs her fists together. "Then I make him talk."
"He was locked away for thirteen years, Korra, and never broke. I don't think a little bending is going to intimidate this guy." Mako murmured.
"You have a better idea?"
"Yeah," Mako spat out. "We spy on them. If Aiwei and Zaheer don't know they're being watched, they'll talk freely. Then we'll find out who they are and what they want."
"That's just like Pai Sho!" Bolin is reading from the book. "In order to defeat your opponent, you first have to know your opponent."
"Then I guess I know you pretty well." I make a winning move. "I win. Thank you, Lord Zuko."
"What? Ugh. All right, you know what that was just a fluke. Best two out of three." We keep playing many times and I keep winning. "Oh, come on! Best four out of seven. Eight out of fifteen. Seventeen out of thirty-three?" Time passes by and it gets close to sundown, and Bolin gets close to finally winning. "Ha, ha! Looks like you're on the ropes this time."
"I can't believe it, after a hundred rounds, You might actually win this one." Right at that moment, Pabu leaps off of Naga and onto the board, scattering the pieces.
"Nooo, Pabu!" Bolin cries a little bit. "Why?" The doll's head falls off and rolls near him.
A couple more hours had passed.
"It's almost sundown. Why hasn't Aiwei left yet?"Korra impatiently said.
"Maybe he sneaked out when you weren't looking." Asami suggested.
"No, I just saw him peeking out of his window fifteen minutes ago." Mako pulled out his tiny ass journal. "It's in my logbook."
Angrily, Korra walks out the room. "I'm going over there."
"Korra, wait! You're going to blow our element of surprise." Mako shouts as the rest of us follow her. Korra busts down Aiwei's door with airbending.
"It's over, Aiwei! Where's...?" Korra looks and sees Aiwei meditating on his bed. "What?"
"That's a weird way to nap." Bolin commented.
I crossed my arms. "He's not sleeping. He's meditating."
"Wait! Asami, those spirits were trying to tell us something earlier. Xai Bau's Grove isn't on the map because it's not in the physical world! It's in the Spirit World! I'm going in after him." Korra sits down beside Aiwei.
"We'll watch him in case he wakes up. Be careful!"
Korra meditates and successfully passes into the Spirit World.
While Korra was in the spirit world, we had transferred Naga into Aiwei's inn. The sun had officially went down as time passed.
Mako glances out of the window and panics. "Uh, I don't know how, but Water Arm Lady and Lava Guy found us." Bolin gasps and Asami and I stand up.
"How?"
"I just said I don't know how!" Mako shouts at Asami.
Bolin frantically shakes Korra. "Korra, come on! Wake up!"
"What do we do?" Asami asks.
I grab Korra and carry her onto Naga. "We need to get Korra out of here."
Mako nods his head, agreeing. "Bolin and I will hold them off."
"What?" I gasp, "you two are going to fight, those two?"
"Have a little faith in us, Fara. Now go!"
Asami and I hop on Naga. The door opens and Asami rides off on Naga, holding Korra.
"The Avatar!" The waterbender shrieked.
Naga turns a corner, and the water arm lady fires ice shards at us, but I air bend the ice shards in a tornado, spinning them around and aiming them towards her as Asami and I flee the scene.
Naga has made progress and is running up a hill outside of the town, but she is quickly trapped in an earth tent.
"Fuck." I groaned.
Asami, Korra, and I were thrown into a truck by a group of air forces in a matter of minutes. They made sure to tie me up in a strait jacket so I couldn't bend.
After a lot of moving, we were thrown in some imprisonment in the middle of nowhere.
They had tied Asami up and had Korra in a strait jacket as well.
Korra finds herself tied up by a strait jacket and muzzled along with other restraints. "Zaheer, you tricked me! Let me go!" She sees me strapped up next to her and Asami handcuffed near her. "Fara, Asami, are you guys okay? Where's the rest of the Red Lotus?"
"What's the Red Lotus?" Asami questioned. "And Zaheer didn't capture us, the Earth Queen's forces did."
"Where are we?" Korra's voice was muffled through the mask.
"I'm not sure. Some camp by the desert. They're taking us back to Ba Sing Se."