Disclaimer: Avatar: Legend of Korra belongs to Bryan Konietzko, Michael Dante DiMartino and Nickelodeon.

Initial notes:
1. This story is an alternative reality in which Korra dies facing Zaheer;
2. The Panopticon is a prison system designed in the eighteenth century in which the prison is circular, the watchtower is in the center of the circle and, in the end, are the cells. It is a system designed for a constant observation of the prisoner.
3. I must apologize for any spelling/grammar mistake. I'm not a native speaker of English.

Asami got up from her seat and left the room, searching for refuge from the oppressing mood in there. The engineer needed space to breath or would get crazy; she couldn't handle the idea that, just a few hours earlier, Korra's body was buried just beside Aang's.

All that Asami desired at that moment was that she had had courage to speak up the words that burned her throat for quite some time, since she and Korra started spending some time together, just the two of them, and the engineer discovered she really liked the Avatar's presence. But the fear of her friend's reaction had stopped her, and now she would never have the opportunity to say the words again.

The engineer looked to the clean and starry night sky above the Southern Water Tribe, wondering what she would do from that moment. She felt as if she was alone against the whole world after losing her father for his betrayal and Korra being gone. Tears fell from her eyes for the first time since she saw life fading away of Korra's eyes as Zaheer laughed behind all of them, already imprisoned by the metalbenders. He didn't care that he would be locked, because he won.

Asami heard steps coming closer and, after carefully dry her eyes with the sleeve of his coat, she turned back to face Mako and Bolin, both having identical expressions of sorrow and pain in their faces. They stood on each of her sides, and Asami was sure they left the house of Korra's parents wondering how was she. They weren't as coward as her, they weren't running away from that.

While turned back to look again to the sky, Asami expected that Bolin make some silly comment about the occasion that would make her smile unwittingly, but even from the earthbender seemed to have running out of words. The warm and optimistic Bolin. No, nothing was being easy for anyone of them.

Mako hold Asami's hand tightly and, for the first time since their second and last break up, the engineer didn't feel the urge to of pulling him away. That wasn't a romantic gesture, it was a comforting one for both of them.

"Asami, you don't need to hold back what you're feeling," said the firebender without turning around to look at the woman by his side. "Bolin and I realized that things changed between the two of you guys, and Korra probably realized the same. You can talk to us."

"It's true. Korra was never happier and more excited about the future as she was at the last couple weeks," Bolin said, and he sounded surprisingly melancholic.

So, they knew. The engineer wondered if Korra would have realized too. With the tears in her eyes and her face flushed by her crying, Asami thought that the sky's colour made the engineer remember of Korra's eyes when she looked at her sometimes. Desire, she realized. Maybe Mako and Bolin were right, maybe Korra really felt the same. The realization just made her feel more stupid. She should have told Korra about her feelings.

"This is part of the past now," said Asami, at least, trying to convince herself. "Korra is death, and this isn't important anymore. We need to think about the future."

Mako didn't seem convinced, but Bolin started listing things he was thinking about doing from that moment, as if he was trying to convince himself that life would follow and everything would end up okay.

"The White Lotus will start to search for the new Avatar. Maybe we should try to help them, try to make what happened with Korra does not repeat," Mako said, at last interrupting his brother.

"Seems like a great idea, bro," exclaimed Bolin, turning around to Asami. "What do you think, Asami?"

Asami didn't know what she could say that wouldn't hurt the two brothers. On her opinion, protecting the Avatar was a useless task. After all, Korra was protected from Zaheer during all her childhood and teenage years, just for him return afterwards and kill her anyways.

It was the Avatar's duty to help to restore harmony and balance to the world, and nothing anyone could do would protect them forever.

"You're right," Asami said, after a while, expecting that her lie sounded convincing. No, she wouldn't join Bolin and Mako on that adventure, but she wished more than anything that they could find a new motivation, a new path.

The two brother sighed in relief in unison. Mako turned around to Asami with a smile, but the woman didn't face him.

"Let's go back inside? It's freezing here," said Mako, kindly.

"You can go," said Asami, releasing Mako's hand. "I want to be alone for a little while more. Need to think, you know."

Bolin opened his mouth to ask in what Asami wanted to think, but Mako interrupted him with a look. The firebender someway understood the engineer's feeling; after all, he also loved Korra. Mako and Bolin walked away, at last, leaving Asami finally alone with her thoughts again.

She couldn't join the White Lotus, because she knew she wouldn't be able to know the new Avatar and learn to love them just to lose them again. Because the Avatar didn't belong to anyone, they were a entity that give themselves to the world in favor of keeping the balance in it. She couldn't lose them again.

Asami watched the portal to the Spirit World; very far, but visible. The engineer remembered of when Korra told her about finding the old general Iroh, Fire Lord Izumi's great-uncle. In some cases, the person's spirit left for a rest period at the Spirit World before reincarnating. Maybe, Korra was there. Maybe, at this time, the new Avatar didn't born immediately after the death of the previous one.

Maybe. Just Maybe. Asami wondered if she would be able to talk to Korra for a last time and, at least, reveal her feelings. It was a vain hope, but she needed to try.

~~/~~

When she finally reached the Spirit World, Asami didn't know from where she should start. She looked around, facing the immensity of the place, completely empty of people and spirits, and almost gave up the hope of finding Korra.

The engineer turned again to the portal, wondering if she would be able to live knowing that, maybe, Korra had never known about her feeling toward her. No, she needed to find the Avatar one last time. Korra had to know, even though Asami didn't knew the motive why she had to. She was being irrational and, deep inside, knew Korra's understanding about her feelings wasn't really a basic need for her surviving. She found, though, that it was a perfectly fine moment to be irrational; after all, the woman she loved was dead and her father, her only family, had betrayed her.

The engineer faced the compass she always carried when she was on a trip, trying to decide from where she would start looking. There weren't any more probable answers and, after some seconds, she decided to follow always to north, taking shifts to west when it were necessary.

She walked for a while without finding anyone, wondering where were the spirits. Sometimes, she stopped and yelled Korra's name twice or three times, then she listened for a moment, alert to any sound, before resume her walking. It was a reckless attitude, Asami knew, but she didn't care.

After a long while, she finally started seeing the spirits from far. They always disappeared when Asami tried to approach of them, even though she had attempted to convince them that she wasn't a threat. Well, at least now she knew she wasn't really alone at that apparently vast world.

At last, Asami reached the edge of a forest. She stopped for a while, wondering if she should enter in there and take the risk of losing inside it. Until that moment, she was absolutely certain that she would be able to come back to the portal if she needed. Forests, though, were treacherous and she wasn't certain if she would be able to guide herself out of one.

"You shouldn't go inside there, this is the forest where Koh's spirit lives," said a man's voice from Asami's right.

When the Asami turned around to face the voice's owner, she found a somewhat familiar face. He was an old man, looking at her with a calm, but worried expression. She tried to remember from where she knew that man, but she couldn't.

"Oh, sorry about my manners," said the man, realizing she didn't recognize him. "My name is Iroh, it's a pleasure meeting you."

So, Asami remembered of the photo she saw once, long time ago, in a book about the Hundred Years War. Iroh, the general who accompanied Zuko during his exile and teached him about how to be a better firebender and leader. Asami leaned her body in a small reverence, as she learned to do when she faced a Fire Nation citizen.

"My pleasure, I'm—"

"Asami Sato, of course," said Iroh, his smile calm and kind. "Why don't you me join me? I have tea at my house, and maybe you can entertain an old man with a Pai Sho match."

"I'm very sorry, sir. In other circumstances, I would have much pleasure joining you, but now I have to hurry up to—" she stopped herself of revealing more about her plans, unsure if Iroh would understand. She didn't want to piss off this particular spirit, but she didn't want to lose her las chance to find Korra.

"You won't find her here, Asami," said the old man, his smile suddenly becoming sadder. "She already reincarnated, as we expect to happen with all the Avatars."

Asami swallowed hard, trying to stop, in vain, the tears from falling from her eyes again. So, Korra was lost forever to her, her last hope of finding her was a waste of time.

"Come on, let's finish this conversation with some tea," said Iroh, his hand on Asami's shoulder. "You know, things always seem less painful when you have tea and nice company to share it."

Asami couldn't see how tea could appease all the pain and sorrow she was feeling after losing Korra again, but accompanied Iroh anyway. After all, what else she could do? Going back to the Physical World wasn't really a priority at that moment, not when she felt that there was nothing there for her to come back for.

After a while of a silent walking, they arrived in a small house. A spirit fox went out as soon as they reach the front garden to salute them, and Iroh greet it happily. They went inside the house and Iroh prepared the tea while Asami sat at the table watching him.

When the old man served her the tea, she waited for him to sit and fill his own teacup before raising her own and lead it to her lips, focusing on the taste to distract herself from her painful feelings. Didn't work out.

"You must believe in me when I say that I understand what it means to mourn someone, but there are important things to do at the Physical World," declared Iroh when both of them landed their teacups at the table. "You know, when I lost my son, I mourned him for a long time before realizing that my younger brother, Ozai, was acting behind my back and taking the throne. The deaths I could have prevented if I had been stronger haunted me for a very long time after that. Just when Aang reappeared and Zuko began training him I realized that this was for the best."

The rational part inside Asami knew that she couldn't hide forever. She had friends that loved her, and business to take care of; even so, she couldn't avoid feeling empty inside, as if nothing more was left for her in both worlds. Maybe she could stay there, with Iroh, playing Pai Sho and drinking tea. She certainly felt closer to Korra at the Spirit World.

"Korra meant a lot to me," explained Asami, after a moment of silence. She felt that telling Iroh about her true feelings with every single word would make them more real, and the pain would become unbearable.

"My dear, there is no way of being close to you at the Spirit World and not feeling your pain, your angry and, of course, your love for Korra. Why do you think no spirit tried approaching of you? This combination of feelings is one of the most powerful and dangerous that exist in both of worlds."

Asami thought for a moment. At first, she thought Iroh was exaggerating; evidently, she was feeling all those emotions at that moment, but, before, when there was a chance of seeing Korra again, she had left those feelings buried inside her. It was the only way to keep going with her plan. Were the spirits so perceptive?

"It was because of that that you knew who I am."

"Oh, no. Last time I talked with Korra, you touched her at some point while she meditated, don't you? I could feel your love to Korra through her," said the former general and, again, he drunk a little of his tea. "It wasn't difficult to identify someone through their emotions at the Spirit World."

Asami nodded, remembering the moment when she took Korra's hands at some point when she meditated for that one last time. She was brawny and almost never behaved like people think women should behave; but, somehow, her beauty and and features became more delicate and feminine while she was meditating. Asami found so fascinating watching her that she forgot for a moment that she should behave as a friend.

That didn't explain how Iroh knew her name, but she didn't care to ask. It didn't matter, after all; not when she was feeling as if there was a huge hole inside her chest that didn't cease to hurt and bleed.

"There will be a new Avatar, and you must search them and protect them at the years that will come," declared Iroh with a quiet seriousness. "Not all the Avatars are capable of finding their kindred spirits, but the kindred spirits can never turn away from their duty to the Avatar when they met their."

"Kindred spirits?" Asked Asami, with curiosity and fear; her teacup forgotten in front of her.

"Of course. Also called soul mates, the kindred spirits are intrinsically connected to Raava and the Avatar. It's obvious that you are one of them, because I could reach you through Korra."

"Is there more than one?"

"Yes. I met two others," said Iroh, smiling.

"Katara, I imagine," Asami said, with a sigh, looking at her teacup, thoughtful; Katara was someone that Aang, Korra and even her learned to like.

"Yes, that's right, Katara. And my nephew, Zuko."

Asami looked at Iroh. She needed a moment to get what Iroh was saying. The engineer understood about Katara, who was Aang's wife and kind of a second mother to Korra, someone for who Asami had some instantaneous empathy. The former Fire Lord, on the other hand...

"Zuko and Aang were the best friends and they accomplished a lot together. They weren't lovers, of course, but were great friends and co-workers," declared Iroh happily. "Zuko and Katara, together, devoted to keep Korra safe while she grew. Even though my nephew couldn't see her as much as Katara, he always kept an eye on her from far."

Asami nodded, she knew well enough the story about how the Red Lotus tried to kidnap Korra when she was a kid, and the White Lotus, along with Zuko and Katara, decided that would be safer for her to be locked up in the Southern Water Tribe.

That, however, brought several painful memories. Because Zaheer did escape from the prison and killed Korra anyways.

"Are you saying that I have the duty to protect the next Avatar?"

"It's not that you have a duty, but you certainly will feel compelled to help when you meet him," said Iroh, thoughtful. "It's part of your essence."

Asami's desire was to not being involved on this fight anymore, she just wished to live peacefully on Republic City, rebuilding her father's business and creating new things to make the people's lives easier. She didn't want more pain, and having her destiny intertwined to the Avatar's would necessarily bring her more pain.

"Fighting against your destiny won't stop it to come," explained Iroh, and Asami sighed.

"I know," said Asami. "I only wanted to live peacefully from now, don't have to worry about the world's fate."

"Having your live intertwined to the Avatar's isn't easy. It will bring you suffering and pain; certainly, you will pass a lot of time worried about their safety. But it will also bring love, and, if this isn't a good reason to keep fighting, I don't know what it is."

Love. That world that Asami had never had the courage to speak openly to Korra even though it haunted her thoughts for so long. The word in which she tried not to think since Korra's death and, now, resonated inside her head and her heart, bringing a warm feeling for the first time since then.

Maybe, if she could remember of what she was feeling at that moment, the pain that Korra's death had caused to her wouldn't fill her entirely. Maybe, finding the new Avatar could fill her with love again.

She decided she needed to find them, what wouldn't be easy. Then, she would have to hide them, stopping people to use them for the world's sake, impeding them to end up like Korra, in a battle they couldn't win.

At last, Asami nodded and stand up, thanking Iroh for the tea. She had a mission to accomplish and urgently needed to decide how to do that.