Chapter Text
The Choir Invisible
Dusting off his sleeve, Mako stepped out of the goo that had been a poorly formed monster. For the seventh time that day Mako walked over to the warehouse and tried to get passed the property mark but was stopped by the same mysterious force that kept everyone out, even him. Taking a step back, Mako felt the exhaustion of the day filling his bones. He might have been part of the Choir Invisible, but that did not keep him from being tired. Even the allure of another cigarette lost its appeal in comparison to a few hours rest.
Vanishing from the warehouse lot, Mako instantly traveled to one of the three places he could rest, his grave; specifically, his tomb, which was in the royal catacombs just west of the Fire Nation Capital. Part of Mako wondered what would have become of him if Iroh had not died soon after and both families had not chosen to bury them together. The other part of him was just curious why Fire Lord Zuko felt the necessity to wrap Princess Azula’s sarcophagus in chains. Was it possible that the Dowager Fire Lord was more clued in than the Spirits thought? Mako shrugged and lay down in the plush double coffin and thought again how much of a waste it would have been if the Spirits had not brought him back. He checked to see if his other half was there but found the coffin empty. Pouting a little, Mako tried to make himself comfortable. Closing his eye, Mako drifted quickly into what was not quite a dream but the last few hours of his old life and his new existence.
.o.
That winter morning Mako woke up feeling his fiancé’s warm arms wrapped around him. Smiling Mako turned to kiss the man he loved, who kissed back but kept his eyes closed.
“I see you’re awake,” Mako whispered snuggling up to him.
“It’s kind of hard to stay asleep when you start squirming,” Iroh noted before yawning and stretching. He opened one eye. “Ehhh, It looks like it’s cold out there today.” His grip on Mako tightened. “I hate the cold.”
Mako turned and checked the window. “Yeah, it does look miserable, but not too bad. It’s not a blizzard out there.”
“But still do you have to go?” Iroh nuzzled. “It’s so cold out there, stay here with me.”
“I’ll be fine.” Mako chuckled. “You know for a guy who’s part southern water tribe you really don’t like the cold.”
“What can I say? I’m such a child of fire I’m flaming.” Iroh laughed and kissed him sloppily.
“Well, that’s very true.” Mako sighed, “but I have to get up and go to work. Protect and serve and all that.”
Iroh sighed. “Fine, but just make sure not to be late tonight.”
“I won’t be late, and I’ll make sure Bolin isn’t late either,” Mako assured him slipping out of bed and into the bathroom to take a shower.
After his shower was where things got fuzzy in Mako’s memory. He remembered getting to the police station and immediately being asked to go to Raiko who was reporting a crime at his residence outside the city.
“He’s just saying a crime?” Mako raised an eyebrow. “Nothing more specific than that? Just a crime?”
“Sorry Kid but that’s all I got.” She crossed her arms. “You should be done before your big dinner and announcement tonight, which I’m still sore you won’t tell me ahead of time.”
Mako smiled. “You’ll understand when you hear it.”
“Well, it better involve secretly dating a nice girl. You can’t be married to this job.”
Mako just smiled and headed out to the motor pool to grab a satomoboile and head up to Raiko’s residence. For a reason, he still couldn’t fathom all the cars were in use, and he elected to take his bike rather than take a cab or go to the different station to pick up a car. Unsurprisingly, halfway on route Mako crashed or more precisely, tried to avoid an accident and slid off the road into some dead trees twenty meters below.
From there Mako remembered nothing until waking up in his tomb with the Spirit of the Day in her creepy theater mask sitting on the edge talking to the spirit of Night.
“See I told you I could do it!”
Night crossed his arms. “I never doubted that you could do it, it was more of a should you do it.” He pointed to Mako. “I mean look at this! Looks at this poor creature!”
Mako felt like he should be offended, but he honestly was too confused to be.
“I made something new! Something-Someone that can deal with our issue!”
“You fucked up a perfectly good corpse! Look he has anxiety now!”
Day waved Night off. “Oh, he has always been anxious becoming a Wraith didn’t give him anxiety. Now step back while I bring his mate back!”
“What?” Mako asked quietly before turning over and seeing Iroh lying beside him. “Iroh?”
Iroh was pale and looked almost waxy in the torchlight. He was dressed in full royal regalia with all the metals he had won as a soldier. Iroh’s expression was sad like he had fallen asleep crying. Cautiously, Mako reached out and touched his cheek it was cold, stiff, and covered in makeup that covered even paler skin. Mako drew back.
“What? What’s going on? Why is Iroh dead? Why am I here?!?” Mako started to panic and scrambled back falling when tried to lean on his left arm and found nothing there. “What?! I can’t! It can’t! What happened to my left arm?!?”
Day wrapped her arms around him. “Shhhh, it’s ok, my child. Just breath and I will explain everything, but first, let’s wake your husband up too.”
Mako tilted his head. “Husband?”
“Yup, Husband.” Night confirmed walking over and standing on the other side of the coffin. “While you were dead you were married and promptly got laid…to rest.” The spirit chuckled.
Day groaned. “That was a horrible joke Night; you should feel bad.”
Night shrugged. “I should, but I have been dying to tell that joke as soon as I found out they were performing a White Wedding.”
Day shook her head. “Night please, let me just wake the other prince so I can fill them in. This is more important than your bad jokes.”
“Oh, I know that.” Night took off his helmet revealing a handsome water tribe man with a ponytail. “But allow me to wake this one up. After all, he is family.” Night waved a hand over Iroh’s face, and the prince opened his eyes revealing bright blue orbs similar to nights. “Time to wake up, Iroh.” He said softly.
Iroh looked up at Night confused. “What? Grandpa Sokka?”
Sokka/Night held out his hand. “Come on kid we have a lot to go over.”
.o.
Suddenly Mako was woken from his slumber by a cold hand on his cheek. “Whoa, that’s cold!” Mako sat up to see Iroh leaning against the coffin his icy mist cascading off his shoulders like a cape. “Oh good morning dear.”
“Morning,” Iroh responded softly. “Is there a reason you decided to come back here to rest?”
“It’s restful,” Mako confessed. He looked at his icy companion. “So did your research at the library bare any fruit?”
Iroh shook his head. “No, just like how the spirits of Night and Day are new, and the result of a cosmic shift in balance so are those monsters leaking out of the warehouse.”
Mako frowned. “Great, not only can nothing seem to get into that place but we have no idea how they are being made besides using pieces of the baryon tree like Varick’s spirit bomb. You know the last one I fought was made of ink and bone!?!”
“Was it part of your missing arm?” Iroh asked.
“Uh no. It looked rat-like, not human.” Mako snorted black flames. “I’m still pissed about my arm, and all the other body parts that jerk stole. I mean who steals an arm, eye, knee, and various internal organs?” Mako rolled his eye. “Ok, I’ll give him the arm, which supposedly was still radiating spiritual power from when I blew up the vine ball but still what the hell was interesting about my knee?!?”
“I don’t know, but trust me when I find the man who desecrated your corps I’ll make sure revenge is slow and cold.” Iroh made a fist which encased itself in ice.
Mako patted Iroh’s arm. “I know you will, though we’re under strict orders to try not negatively to affect the living. Day made us because she and Night can’t interfere at all with the living and the living are shredded to pieces by those things.”
“And the Avatar wouldn’t listen to them,” Iroh added.
“And that, though I get the feeling they really didn’t try that hard because they didn’t want to explain how fucked up the land of the dead really got during Aang’s time.” Mako blinked. “I’m still not sure how you wipe out a bunch of Death Spirits and then have one of the two new death spirits live a full life while essentially being the grim reaper.”
Iroh shrugged. “Well he was a politician for the rest of his life so was he really doing two jobs?” He flashed a smile making Mako chuckle.
“I guess not.” Mako pulled himself out of the coffin, the spiritual black smoke that made up the missing parts of his body supporting him. “So I guess we need to get back to Republic City? Unless you have other ideas?”
Iroh shook his head. “Not really. What I want to investigate is in Republic city so we might as well head there.”
Mako nodded. “So is this monster related or personal?”
“Personal,” Iroh confessed. “I want to go over the car logs again. Figure out why you didn’t have a Satomobile that day.”
Mako shook his head. “I didn’t have one because they were all in use, that’s all it happens. My death was an accident caused by a slick road and me riding a motorcycle in the snow. There’s no conspiracy, if you want to solve a murder why not solve yours?” He paused. “I mean that was a murder right?”
“Of course it was!” Iroh snapped. “But I don’t remember anything about that night beyond the phone ringing. Trust me; if I were going to off myself, it wouldn’t have been by getting plastered and then freezing to death.” Iroh sighed. “I just think that our deaths are connected somehow. Maybe if I solve your murder, I’ll find out who murdered me.” Iroh hung his head. “Baby please, I need to find this out.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to make sure you didn’t die because of me,” Iroh whispered. He bit his lip. “Because of who I was those I loved were always in danger, and I’m worried someone murdered you because of that.”
Mako rolled his eye. “Iroh, if someone had murdered me, and that is a big if, the likelihood of it being because you and I were in love is very unlikely. I was a member of team avatar, an outstanding cop, a known close friend of King Wu, which unfortunately did put a target on my back, and I still got hate mail from my time as a pro-bender.” He shrugged. “I just don’t see the point of trying to figure it out, especially since I know if it could be solved Lin and Bolin would have by now.”
Iroh shook his head. “Either way I want to check those loges. It will at least give me some peace of mind.” He stroked his husband’s cheek.
Mako kissed his hand. “Fine but be careful. I know Night gave you the ability to be invisible and intangible, but people do notice icy cold spots. Too many people walk through you, and they’ll start thinking the place is haunted.”
Iroh cringed. “They probably already think that since I’ve been there so often Chief Beifong’s windows are almost always frosted over and the notes left instructing her to keep people away from that warehouse.”
Mako was stunned for a moment. “Whose bright idea was that? Never mind sounds like a Night idea.”
“Can’t argue with the results, Lin is pretty firm about people staying away.”
Mako rubbed his temples. “How that man is remembered as one of greatest strategic minds of his generation will forever baffle me.”
Iroh smirked his blue eyes glimmering. “It’s a family trait. Most people couldn’t believe I managed to become a general at 25.”
“Well, you’re brilliant.” Mako kissed him. “Now let’s go.”
.o.
Bolin woke up to the sound of someone opening the door. Soph walked in holding a tray of tea and breakfast. Opal stirred and sat up yawning.
“Oh, Soph you didn’t have to bring us breakfast.” She said kindly taking the try from Soph and setting it down between her and Bolin.
“I know, but I wanted to since today is your Birthday.” Soph smiled before leaving the room.
Bolin felt his stomach drop, and he slapped his forehead. “Today is your birthday! I am so sorry I forgot.” Pabu jumped on to his shoulder and made a sad noise. “And Pabu’s sorry too.”
“Apology accepted.” Opal kissed him on the cheek. “I didn’t expect you to remember, with everything that’s been going on. You seem so stressed lately, more so then when it first happened.” She gulped. “You know no one is going to judge you if you take some time off.”
“I know but I can’t. The city needs me, and I need the distraction though it’s gotten harder with the weird stuff happening at the station and in the city.”
“The heater still not working in the records room?”
“Well that and the Chief’s window, but also there’s this warehouse near the where Amon used to have a hideout has some bizarre shit going on. Including but not limited to monsters and maybe Mako’s ghost hanging around there.”
“Mako’s ghost?” Opal shook her head. “You can’t seriously think Mako’s ghost is haunting a warehouse right? I mean that’s why we buried him with Iroh and did that whole dead people wedding thing so he would be at rest.”
“I don’t believe that it’s actually Mako’s ghost.” Bolin lied. He knew Opal was very sensitive about ghosts and keeping spirits happy, not surprising considering the past few years. She saw ghosts and the dead coming back as very bad while Bolin had yet to come to either a positive or negative conclusion about it. Secretly he wanted Mako’s ghost to be real so that he could talk to him for a moment. “But I do think something weird is going on there, but the Chief has forbidden me from checking it out.”
“Do you want to go there?” Opal asked.
“I feel like someone from team avatar should.” Bolin was quiet for a moment. “Something is going on, and it needs to stop. Maybe I’m the one to do it.”
Opal leaned against him. “Let’s not rush into anything. Maybe we should just send a letter about this to Korra and Asami over in Ba Sing Se. If spirits are involved, she needs to be involved. I’ll also talk to Jinora about it today when I see her. She might know more.”
“If indeed the dead have come back to assist the living then it might be prudent to give the area a wide birth,” Soph said startling both of them. “Sorry.” She held up a sugar bowl. “I forgot to put this on the tray.” She handed it to Bolin. “Sorry I startled you.”
Bolin took a deep breath. “It’s ok. At this point, I’m almost used to it.” He shook his head. “Thanks for the sugar.”
“You’re welcome.” Soph nodded and left the room.
Opal looked over at Bolin. “How long was she just standing there with the sugar?”
“I don’t know, but I am going to have a heart condition if I can’t get her to wear a bell.”
Opal giggled, “That’s awful, but she does sneak up on people. I don’t think she means to; she’s just quiet.”