Ghost

Bolin raised the collar on his jacket and then jammed his hands into his pockets. The days had grown shorter and the temperature had begun to drop in Republic City. Construction took place all around him. The Equalist attacks had taken a toll but the city was resilient. He was lost deep in thought, however. He had grown troubled recently. He felt disjointed within Team Avatar. While he was a respectable and talented earth bender he didn't have the raw power Korra did, the intelligence Asami had, or the deductive skill and tenacity of Mako.

Speaking of Mako, he had goals of joining the police force. He had been working hard to that end. Bolin had been seeing him less and less. Their nice new apartment was feeling rather large and empty without his brother. He'd not been without his brother for a very long time and in fact had depended on his presence after their parents had died. Great, he realized, I hadn't even thought of that. Guess that's one more thing to add to my plate.

Bolin wasn't one to be mopey, generally. He always tried to look on the bright side. But he really did miss his brother. Team Avatar itself had been seeing even less of each other as of late. Korra was spending more and more time mastering her air bending and meditating on her new found energy bending powers. As such now he was the leader of the Fire Ferrets and had been trying to put together a new team. That had proven to be fairly difficult…

As for Asami, well she was trying to hold Future Industries together. He hoped that sometime soon she would be able to come around more, but her father had done a lot of damage to the company's image. She was doing everything she could in public relations and advertising to reverse it. She was making progress, it was slow, but it was progress. Because of this, once again, Bolin found himself alone.

"And why not?" he mumbled aloud. "I'm just a screw up. If this was a book I'd be the comic relief. What do I really offer the team? An earth bender? Korra can do that. I'm only here because I make them laugh, unintentially mind you, and I'm Mako's brother, that's it!" Bolin had been talking to himself for quite some time. He wasn't even paying attention to where he was going.

It was at this point he ended up on his rear. He heard a woman yelp accompanied by a flurry of papers. He shook his head and looked up to see Asami, also on her rear, with papers floating down all around her. Though she'd been knocked to the ground she still managed to look like a painting, not a hair out of place. He looked around and realized he found himself in front of the Future Industries building and had walked right into poor Asami while he berated himself.

"I am so sorry, Asami!" he said scrambling to his feet, "Let me help you up!" He reached down and easily hauled her up to her feet, she was a lithe young woman and Bolin was built powerfully.

"Oh!" she said in surprise as she was brought to a standing position. "It's okay, Bolin, really, relax," she reassured the young man.

"No, that was stupid of me, let me help you get these papers!" Bolin said as he quickly began scooping up papers.

"Bolin, slow down, it's okay, it's just me. Now save some of those papers for me," she said chuckling as she picked up a paper.

"No, I have it, really!" Just then a wind kicked up and took the last paper down the street. Bolin took off after it with Asami close behind. The paper seemed to finally be free of the wind and it floated down to the ground. Bolin leapt forward and held it down with his foot. He had just grabbed it when he heard Asami shout.

"Look out!" Bolin looked up to realize he was in the middle of the street and a Sotomobile was coming directly towards him. He almost rolled his eyes at his own idiocy. Even when I'm just trying to fix my own screw up-

He was taken off his feet for a second time that day as Asami tackled him out of the way. She had never slowed down from racing after the paper, in fact she'd sped up. She caught him just at the midsection, wrapping her arms around him as she dove. She delivered them both safely from harm's way.

Bolin looked up into Asami's green eyes, he could see amusement in them. Greeeeeeeeat… She merely folded her arms across his chest and looked at him. There was a hint of worry in her eyes. Bolin was acting strange…stranger than usual.

"Bolin, are you okay?" she said, getting slightly more serious.

"I'm fine. Really," he said.

She looked into his eyes and said, "Good, how about we get up off the side walk now. People are starting to stare."

"Do we have to, I was just getting comfortable," he joked, hoping to redirect her attention away from him and any concern she may have. "Besides, I'm an earth bender, a little rock to the noggin is nothing, though being an air bender could have been beneficial a couple of minutes ago…" he said with a smirk, though a slightly sad look in his eyes. Asami pushed herself off of him and offered a hand. He took it and rose to his feet.

"That isn't what I'm talking about, Bolin. I heard you mumbling to yourself and then you acted like the whole world was coming to an end because you bumped into me-"

"Bumped!? I leveled you!"

"That, Bolin. That right there. What's wrong?" Asami asked, concern growing in her voice.

"Nothing, I'm fine. I'm sorry. I should be getting home. I told Mako I'd meet him for dinner. I feel like I haven't seen him in ages," he said with a humorless laugh.

"O-kaaay…" Asami said. "Just…you know where to find me Bolin. I'm here if you need anything."

"Thanks, Asami, I mean it. But I'm fine."

"Would you like to have lunch tomorrow? We could just go grab something down by the pier, get some fresh air, what do you say?" Asami asked hopefully.

"Sure, it sounds great. I'll meet you at the office," he pointed back down the street, "by Asami." With that Bolin turned and headed for home.

. . .

Bolin walked down the hall to open their apartment door. He hadn't lied, he was supposed to meet Mako to make dinner. He would have invited her but he was feeling a little selfish. He wanted his brother to himself. Besides, he wasn't sure if it would be awkward for Mako and Asami to be together in a setting like that. After all they had been dating, then they broke up, now Mako was with Korra, honestly it was a lot to keep up with. As Bolin approached the door he noticed something wasn't right.

The door had been kicked in. Bolin's heart jumped in his throat. He carefully pushed the door open. I'm glad we have these granite floors, but if I have to earth bend I doubt we'll get our deposit back… He shook his head. That didn't matter now. As he carefully and quietly entered the room he saw burn marks on the walls and on furniture. Mako. He had at least been here at one time. He may still be here.

He took a few careful steps into the room and noticed a canister on the floor. His brow furrowed as he looked at it. Is that a gas canister? It was at this point he began to notice the broken glass. He looked to the window and noticed it was broken. Bolin frowned and looked at one of the burn marks on the wall. He noticed they were askew and everywhere. They didn't look aimed or precise like he knew Mako to be. They looked frantic. Bolin touched the marred surface of the wall. Cold. This happened a while ago. I looks like it was fast and violent.

"Mako?" Bolin called out. Silence answered him. "Mako!" Bolin called, a little more alarmed this time. "MAKOOOOO!" Bolin screamed this time, tears in his eyes. Not again. I'll not lose my family again. I swear.

. . .

Chief Beifong looked around the room. There were detectives crawling all around the apartment. She frowned. She didn't like the way things looked. It was a bold move, breaking into the apartment of the Avatar's boyfriend and taking him. Even if one just looked at Mako as a pro bender they should have known better. But this didn't look like the work of a bender. And that chilled Beifong to the bone. She didn't want to admit what this looked like…

"Chief Beifong, have you found anything new?" Bolin asked her, a slight crack in his voice evident.

"I'm sorry, Bolin, no. You did a fine job of combing the apartment before we even got here," Beifong said, a little annoyed, "you swear you didn't touch anything?"

"No, ma'am. Trust me, I wouldn't do anything that might hurt my chances of finding Mako."

"What do you think happened?" said a concerned Korra. She'd been mostly silent since she'd arrived.

"I don't want to guess or go on conjecture…" Lin began to try to dance around the question.

"Chief Beifong, please…" Korra pleaded.

"…Look, Korra, we just don't have much information…" Lin began again.

"Equalists." Bolin said darkly.

"What?! There's no way, Bolin." Korra began incredulously. "We kicked their butts, they're long gone," she said, trying to dismiss Bolin's idea.

"Are you sure, Korra? I don't see any evidence of earth bending, nor fire bending aside from Mako's own flames, and the floor is dry. Air benders are out and we both know it." Bolin shot back, a hint of hurt in his voice.

"Bolin has a point, Korra." Asami piped up. "Look at that gas canister, the Equalists used these. Someone came in here knowing who and what they were up against and they weren't benders."

With Asami's backing Korra began to consider Bolin's words.

"We didn't get all of them, Korra. The Lieutenant. We never got him. How many countless others just melted into the crowds? They could easily be out there." Bolin finished his argument. "I've been sitting here thinking since I came home. It's all that made sense…"

Korra looked at Lin, "Chief?"

Lin let out a sigh, "It's early, but…I'm coming up with the same answers, Korra."