Chapter Text
It had been a few weeks since Asami burnt that man and briefly met the Avatar. Those events weighed heavily on her. Many thoughts occupied her mind about this whole conspiracy around her eye. Her father had explained the full story to her when she was old enough to understand how to maintain her circuitry.
His friend, a ex-Fire Nation soldier named Ruzo, had been working for the Triad unbeknownst to him. The Triad were a greedy sort, Hiroshi had explained, they didn’t like seeing nonbenders in high-ranking positions. So, Ruzo had agreed to kill the Sato family and steal their fortune. On the day of the fire, he managed to kill Yasuko and maim her.
It made sense to Asami at the time. When she was ten, she thought that all benders were inherently evil. She had her doubts about it now that had been exposed to the world. The past seven year provided a lot of opportunities to try to understand people more. Though it was somewhat hard to understand something’s about how people work. Or rather how they didn’t. Machines had a straightforwardness that individuals lacked. Perhaps bending was one of those things. It didn’t change the fact of the inherent power imbalance between bender and nonbender.
According to Chief Beifong, her father had lied about the maiming. More specifically, he added a part to it that wasn’t actually there. If his invention just required the removal of an eye, then he could have just told her. Right? It wasn’t like she would get seriously mad at him for restoring a whole limb and essentially making another functional eye. Well, the creepy light of the mechanical eye not matching her other eye did peeve her off sometimes but that was besides the point!
He must be hiding something about my eye!
There had to be a good reason for him lying. Her dad would never hurt her like that. If he lied, it was for her safety. He wouldn’t tell her if she confronted him. Which meant that she had to find out for herself. But where would she start? See Beifong again? She sighed in frustration.
“Asami!” Her dad was standing a few feet away from the automaton she was working on. She must have been so distracted by her thoughts that she didn’t notice him step into the room. “How’s that neat walker of yours coming along?” Her newest project was a human shaped machine. The first thing she had built was a pair of legs. It wasn’t much yet and it would continue to be that much as long as she was occupied with finding out the truth.
”The legs can function but there’s a lot that could be changed to make the motions smoother.”
“I see. I’ve never made a leg before but perhaps you should pay closer attention to the anatomy of the limb. You wanted it to be able to accomplish feats like moving as humanly as possible, right? It can’t do that if it doesn’t look indistinguishable from human.” Asami knew this. It was how her arm managed to fool so many. She couldn’t replicate the same results with this thing though. Her fuel was not steam or coal even though she was certainly a machine of some odd sort.
“So, you know how there’s an Equalist rally tonight. I can’t go unfortunately. You know how difficult those miners are now that they have unionized, ha!” Asami frowned at that. Those Earth Kingdom miners had been mistreated by their company. Hiroshi rolled his eyes. “Tough crowd? Fine. Could you go and tell me what happens? Amon is gonna be revealing something important.”
That sounded interesting. Amon was a strong speaker and most of his views made sense to her. Whatever he was revealing, it’d be cool to find out what it is. “Sure, I’ll go.”
”You’re the best, kid!”
As he turned around to leave, an idea suddenly popped in her head. What if she got him to tell her more about the eye without bringing up his inconsistency. “Hey Dad. Could you show me how to make a new eye?”
Hiroshi froze in his tracks. “Is something wrong? Is it hurting? Are you able to see?” He asked frantically.
sh*t, he was freaking out. Perhaps she should specify something not too serious but still a valid complaint. “No, nothing like that. It’s working alright. I just wanted to see if I could make some modifications to it. Like the odd glow when it’s dark. It’s a little hard to hide that.”
Her dad sighed in relief. “You had me worried for a moment there, child. You’re gonna give me a heart attack one of these days.” He exaggerated. “I’ll work on a solution for that first thing tomorrow.”
“Why not you give me your notes on it so I can do it myself? I don’t want to disturb your schedule.”
“Nonsense. I always have time for my daughter.”
The place was discreet and hard to find. She parked her moped outside a pawn shop a few blocks down as to have deniability. The fact that the Sato’s were Equalists was a highly kept secret, mostly for sales reasons. Her disguise consisted of an eyepatch and a bowler hat.
A couple that was clearly new to the Equalists had arrived before her. It was always good to have new members. After they were welcomed by the bouncer, she walked up to him and showed her Revelation poster.
“Welcome, Sister.”
Asami entered the old factory building. The couple that had arrived just before her were staring in awe at the crowd before them. It was pretty impressive, to be fair. She remembered her first Equalist rally a few years ago having a quarter of the amount of people.
“I knew some people hated benders, but not that many.” Wait, Asami knew that voice! It was Avatar Korra. She had spent an afternoon with her at a police precinct. They didn’t get to talk that much beyond their names and how stupid the police were in this town but she was hard to forget.
If I was able to recognize her, she might be able to recognize me.
That thought was a little disquieting. If the Avatar turned around and saw her, then her entire life could be ruined. It wouldn’t take long for her to connect Asami to Asami Sato and cause a disaster. She couldn’t lose track of her, not while she did whatever she was here to do.
Asami had been so caught up by what would happen to her cover that she hadn’t asked herself why the Avatar and her friend were at an Equalist rally. It wasn’t safe for them here. Why would they come here willingly?
As the shuffled through the crowd to get a closer look, Asami remained at most three people behind them. The crowd was lively today. Many of the conversations she overheard were about what each person believed this so called “revelation” was. Whatever it was, it had to be bigger and much more real than “bender are an alien race”. Seriously, who actually believed that sort of craziness? For the sake of not short-circuiting tonight, she focused only on Korra and her friend. They were whispering, which was impossible to hear over the hundreds of other conversations.
The light dimmed and all attention turned to the stage. Amon was raised to it by a platform. Asami took advantage of this pause to move closer to where the Avatar was standing. From her current position, she could watch the Avatar and the stage at the same time.
She looks really pretty in that outfit.
Actively ignoring that totally random and out of place thought, she paid more attention to the stage. Amon was explaining his background. She remembered hearing it for the first time and resonating with it deeply. He had also been maimed by a firebender who had killed his family. His speech took a strange turn though.
“The spirits have blessed me with the ability to take someone’s bending away!”
Asami let out a little gasp of surprise. It was not thought possible for a bender, much less a nonbender to have such a power. No one but the Avatar has ever possessed it. A curtain was pushed back to reveal four tied up men.
“Behold ‘Lightning Bolt’ Zolt! The leader of the Triple Triad. One of the most notorious criminals in Republic City.” Old hatred rekindled in her heart. He was the one who had ordered the hit on her family all those years ago. If only Amon was killing him instead. “I’ll give him a chance to fight to keep his bending.” Asami grit her teeth. That was a questionable call.
Zolt shot beams of fire at Amon, who dodged each one with ease. The firebender shot a lightning bolt but to the crowd’s shock, Amon grabbed Zolt’s wrist and aimed the lighting towards the wall. Amon wasn’t finished though. He grabbed Zolt’s head in a strange motion. The lightning turned in to flames which turnt into nothing. The firebender collapsed on the ground. Zolt struggled to get to his feet. He tried to bend at Amon but not one lick of flame came out. Asami almost smirked at the fear in the man’s voice when he asked Amon what had been done.
“Your firebending is gone, forever.” Was losing the ability to bend like losing an arm? She had not believed it a suitable punishment at first but if it made him go through the same emotional turmoil that she went through then she felt content with it.
“You use the steam to cause a distraction while I get Bolin out.” That guy and Avatar Korra were going to try and stop this?
Not while I’m around.
Asami started to creep towards them, taking the glove off of her metal arm. She charged her hand’s electric shock in preparation for a knockout.
“Sounds like a plan. We’ll get your brother back, I promise.” Asami stopped charging the weapon and paused.
Why are you so soft? She’s disappeared now and you can’t stop her idiot!
She couldn’t do it. They were around the same age as her and looking for a family member. It was not likely that they’d avoid the guards anyway. It didn’t matter.
This is fine. Everything is fine.
Looking back to the stage, the waterbender gangster was still struggling to fight Amon. He, too, fell to Amon and lost his bending. Disappointingly quick, she might add.
The earthbender ganger was a much more capable fighter. He chucked hunks of rock at Amon that were dodged with effort. The Equalist leader used an especially big rock to jump on and use to propel himself at the earthbender. The gangster fell to the ground. Without hesitation, Amon roughly yanked his head up in the same hold he had the other two in. Three down. One to go.
The fourth prisoner was untied but unlike the others, didn’t try to fight. He backed away. His body language was of a cornered prey animal. Asami felt bad for the guy. He was clearly begging for mercy that wouldn’t come.
You shouldn’t be feeling bad for criminals, Asami. It’s a facade, no bender is innocent.
Her father’s words had always rung true before with a few exceptions. Except this guy wasn’t doing anything. He looked young from her spot in the crowd, especially compared to the other mafia bosses.
His age just means he’s especially ruthless.
Steam burst through the pipes and flooded the stage with an unnatural speed. The crowd started to scream. So, the Avatar was not caught by the guards. Asami’s severe miscalculation was a little embarrassing. A part of her was impressed. From what she heard in the radio, the Avatar was in a rookie Pro-Bending team so this feat was somewhat deserving of admiration.
People were stampeding to the exits very quickly. It was a little difficult to keep pace with others when they were moving in a disorganized fashion. The crowd shoved and pushed and Asami was on the ground. A bolt of fear struck her. Being trampled was a very unfortunate way to die. Not even being a bit inorganic would save her.
A heavy boot painfully dug in to her left leg and tripped her as she tried to get to her feet. Another person tripped and fell on her which caused a few others to fall. Adrenaline coursed through her and got her to stand up and run as fast as she could towards the exit.
People fled the place like rats in a storm. The fact that no one had complained about the thundering footsteps by now was a miracle. She had been one of the last ones out.
Asami stood next to the entrance for a moment, catching her breath. She saw Amon’s shadow before she heard him.
”Ms Sato. It is a pleasure to meet you. Where is your father? I was hoping to talk with him after this meeting.” The Equalist’s leader was an imposing man, most especially in a dark alley. Asami knew her father was involved with the Equalists. He had made her do their self-defense classes and they definitely did not come up with that many shock gloves and cattle prods on their own. In the back of her mind, she knew that he had to have met Amon at some point to do the latter part. It hadn’t consciously occurred to her though.
“He had to meet a difficult mining company’s CEO. They’ve been in negotiations for weeks now. He’s sorry he couldn’t come.”
Amon nodded. They stayed silent for a few minutes before Amon spoke again. “Your shock glove, is it a new model?”
Her shock glove? She didn’t have a shock glove. Not counting her arm, that is. She looked down at her arm and saw that her hand was uncovered. She hadn’t put her glove back on after hesitating like an idiot. It didn’t look like a shock glove to her but she supposed the engineering of mechanical prosthetics was not in Amon’s field of expertise.
“Yes, you could say that.” Did her father tell Amon about their secret? If so, it would have been nice to know before this.
Thankfully, Amon just nodded. “The Avatar, as you well know, is the most powerful bender there is. Her little bending team is down on their luck. I was going to ask your father to sponsor them so that our next move when according to plan. But your attendance at this meeting may prove fruitful.” Asami raised her eyebrow in confusion. “I have a request of you as a believer in the revolution. Come to the rescue of that pro-bending team, the Fire Ferrets. You would keep tabs on the Avatar and her companions for me so that they cannot interfere with the coming of the new dawn.”
A very demanding request but also a very exciting one. Like one of those 65 cent spy novels that were kind of bad but in a good way. Briefly considering her other tasks, she decided to go along with it. Her schedule was not that busy.
“It’d be my pleasure to do this. What are your plans with the team though?”
“The Avatar must be at the Pro-Bending arena for our plan. That is all I will say for now.” Was it going to be turned into some sort of political statement or something more? She didn’t really mind as long as the movement got big enough to change something. “You can feed us intel through dead drops. Here is a map of them across the city.”
The map was folded up but it was not that much bigger when she unfurled it. Easier to hide, she guessed. Eleven dead drops were marked by red dots. They were spread all throughout the city. The exception being that there was no dead drop on Air Temple Island or the Avatar Aang Memorial Statue. The Equalists obviously didn’t have any waterbenders, so going to the islands would be too much of a slog to manage a dead drop.
Sirens wailed and the sounds of policemen became audible. They had to get out of here. She folded the map and put it in her jacket. Amon and his bodyguards were already gone. She wasn’t planning on going with him if he’d offered to help her run anyway. Her bike was too important.
Asami snuck out through the backend of the alley. Her moped was still next to the pawn shop, untouched. She put her helmet on and took the long way home.
