The tent was dark and gloomy. Lit up by only a few oil lamps hanging on the metal walls.
It was octagonal in shape. Made out of steel, with a steel floor and roof.
In the middle Korra was hunched over a metal table in her uniform.
Assami was sitting in a metal chair, on one side of the table, and across from her there was a double field bed also in metal. At the foot of the bed was a chest with some of their personal belongings, apart from that there was nothing else in the tent.
She looked impressive in her uniform. Asami had to admit, Bataar jr had done an outstanding job of combining practicality with a design that showed whoever is wearing this is not someone you want to mess with.
It was all covered in desert camouflage. Different shades of sandy beige and yellow, combined with rocky reds, and with small white painted on, rocks sprinkled over it.
She was wearing big military boots, with a steel soles that looked like they could smash a skull. Thinking about it they were probably designed to do just that.
Instead of her normal training pants Korra was wearing large cargo pants. Held up by a dark blue belt, and riddled with pockets for all sorts of things. Maps, patrol schedules, medical equipment all the things a general needed.
Her top was nearly the same, except it was in a desert beige, and on her chest the White Lotus', lotus could be seen peeking out under her vest, denoting her rank as high general. Really the rank was just avatar, but the official name was high general because the next avatar wouldn't become the leader of the White Lotus the moment he or she was born.
Was it gonna be a he or she? The last earth avatar was a woman, and the sex of the avatar alternates, but that avatar lived over 400 years ago. Surely there had been more than 3 avatars in that period.
Asami got herself out of her thoughts, she could ask Korra when she was done meeting the governor.
Korra was now trying to make out the details on a map, on the table. Her face was just a few centimeters above the map, and she was trying to use the flame in her hand to give herself some light. Stubborn as always.
"Korra just put your reading glasses on." Asami said with a smile.
Korra got up and let out a reluctant "okay" and fetched the glasses from her vest as slowly as possible, in some sort of attempt to avoid wearing them for long in front of someone.
The vest was actually the most impressive piece of clothing Korra was wearing.
It did sadly hide her upper body, but on the other hand it made her a lot bigger and scarier.
It was in the same camouflage scheme as the rest of her uniform, held together by a strap just above her waist.
On her chest there were two pockets. In the one on the right Korra kept a compass, her glasses, and a watch, which was almost never set for anything else than Republic City time.
In the other, she had some personal stuff. Korra almost never opened it, but Asami had looked inside it once, when Korra was taking a bath. Back then it was almost empty, with only a few Yuans, but also what at first looked like a piece of paper. Asami's curiosity had gotten the better of her, and she taken and folded it out. What she found was a little picture of her, taken by Korra not long after they had returned from the spirit world all those years ago. She was wearing her normal clothes, and was standing on the balcony of the Sato mansion with a smile on her lips, behind her the construction work going on outside the old city center could be seen. She had silently folded it, and put it back in the pocket. She decided to not speak about it. Korra would only have been embarrassed, but it was really sweet and had warmed Asami's heart at the time, and still did whenever she thought of it.
But that was also the only nice part of the vest. If you looked a little below the pockets four grenades were sitting in straps designed to hold them. Korra really shouldn't be wearing them out of combat, but she always forgot to take them off.
From reading the text on them Asami could make out that that 2 of them were flashbangs, and the other two were smoke grenades.
Then there was Korra's upper left arm. Covered in different colourful ribbons denoting all the forms of bending she had mastered throughout her life.
Yellow for energybending, blue for waterbending, red for firebending, green for earthbending, and a greyish white for airbending.
Each of the ribbons also had some smaller pins on them, denoting all the subelements Korra had mastered. But there were too many of them to describe them all, and they would all rustle, and twinkle in the scarce light whenever Korra moved her arm.
In her now 27 years long life Korra had never stopped trying to learn new bending styles. The moment she had mastered one she would start on the next, spending all the time she had on learning it, and if she wasn't learning something she would spend her time training her skills to perfection. Asami had sometimes overheard the soldiers talking about Korra and it was mostly about how terrifying she was in battle, usually followed by someone saying something along the lines of "I'm just glad she is on our side." Everywhere they went her reputation preceded her, and sometimes fights had ended just because she had shown up.
Asami could spend hours just admiring her girlfriend. But she was ripped out of her thoughts by the angry governor of the state they were in. "What do you mean you wont attack them? They're terrorists they need to be brought down now!" He shouted angrily.
The governor was a short, shorter than Korra, and slightly overweight man, dressed in rich green silk ropes like what is the fashion among the residents of the upper ring in Ba Sing Se. He hadn't done a great job of introducing himself. At first he thought he could just take command of the White Lotus' force stationed here. Then he had demanded to see the commander which to his great surprise had been the avatar. That hadn't stopped him from trying to take control though. He instead tried his best political strategies to get what he wanted. But both Korra and Asami were by now used to all the methods politicians used, and were well equipped to deal with someone like him.
"Not only would it take hours or maybe days before I can organize my whole force to move out when we barely just got here, if we moved out we would leave both the city and the base open to any attacks from the Red Lotus." Korra said sternly and turned to look the governor in the eye intent on staring him down.
"Even if you against all odds are right and the Red Lotus are hiding there then we could still easily be walking right into a trap."
"Not to mention" she added with a slightly softer tone. "Even if I knew their exact location and was ready to move out I wouldn't because I want to negotiate with them. The..." She said before the governor interrupted her with an angry snap.
"What do you mean negotiate? People are dying these people are dangerous! You should go out there and end them!" The governor was starting to get on Korra's nerves but she was keeping it well hidden, only Asami could see it. The slight furrow of her eye brows, a subtle tension of her muscles but she kept it together.
"If you had let me finished I would have explained why." She said forcing the anger back. "Now I'm going to ask you to keep quiet and listen to me."
She took a breath.
"Most of the members of the Red Lotus aren't really anarchists, and they don't really believe in the ideas they're fighting for. Sure they might say they are willing to die for it, but in the end the real reason they joined the Red Lotus is that they are desperate. The poor, the neglected, the starving they all flock to the Red Lotus' banner in hopes that they can bring about change for the good. The Red Lotus knows this and uses it in their propaganda, telling them it's their leaders fault, and blaming society while using them for their own gain."
"Only few in the Red Lotus actually believe in their ideals but those are few and far between. They are also rarely part of these bases and stay on the run to avoid being restricted, sometimes teaming up with other like minded individuals, but never forming larger groups."
Korra took a deep breath, and gave the governor another stern look to keep him quiet before continuing.
"The people at this base are probably gonna be the former, they will have leaders that in reality are just power hungry, and desperate people following them in the hopes of improving their lives. While we may not be able to make them drop their weapons, and become Air Nomads, if we at least know the reason why they feel the need to resort to violence and terror we can maybe fix those issues."
"If we don't we'll just see another uprising again, maybe under the banner of the Red Lotus maybe under another banner. But the peace won't last if we just kill everyone and leave." She said with a little gasp after her long speech.
The governor looked something halfway between surprised and angry. It took him some time but he finally had a reply.
"But you are in my state and surely that means you should do as I sa-" Korra was quick to cut him off. "This isn't your state, YOU are just the elected representative of it for this term, and I am under no obligation to follow your orders. If I wanted to my army could just sit on it's butt all day playing Pai Sho."
"I am here to help protect civilian lives and stabilize the state NOT as your personal army. I do not take orders from anyone and if you don't have anything that can help me in my job then I would ask that you leave now." She continued sternly while looking him in the eye.
Asami saw that Korra had discretely raised a little platform from the floor so she was even taller, and was now towering over the governor.
The governor looked shocked, he opened and closed his mouth like a fish, trying to come up with a good counter argument. After a few seconds he realized that there was nothing he could really do, and his expression changed to one of anger over not getting what he wanted. He quickly turned around on his feet and walked out of the tent with his head held high, in an attempt to retain some dignity.
As he exited through the blue cloth that covered the entrance a warm sandy breeze flew in from outside.
They didn't stay quiet for long after the governor had left. Both of them burst into laughter at the behavior of the governor. It was rare, but when ever you could get a politician really angry it was worth it.
"Did you see that?" Korra asked rhetorically. "He was like a little child that didn't get his seal jerky."
"Well that would imply he didn't want it." Asami responded jokingly. She had never quite learned to appreciate Water Tribe cuisine.
"I still don't get how you don't like that." Korra quickly responded.
"I do at times wish that Raiko was as easy to handle as this guy." Korra said returning to the original topic. "You have gotten better at it ever since you reformed the White Lotus." Asami pointed out. "Yeah I guess having an army behind me only gave me more political power." Korra responded with a grin.
"When it's suddenly only him that is going to need help, he doesn't really have any sway anymore." She continued with a hint of satisfaction in her voice. Korra was quite proud of the new White Lotus and while she wouldn't really say it, that's just something a commander couldn't and shouldn't say too much, it was clear to anyone who listened.
"Well you're not completely independent the White Lotus still relies on donations from the five nations you can't just do anything." Asami pointed out.
"I know and it's not like im planning to invade Republic City or anything." Korra replied.
"But now I at least don't have to rely on Raiko directly. If he pulled the support he would never get reelected." She said, before continuing. "The new White Lotus is loved by everyone, unlike the old one, we're seen and heard. Be it directly intervening somewhere, or on the radio. People know who we are and they love us for it. I mean the polls are showing it, where ever we go people love us, and when we return to the base in Republic City people are cheering, and celebrating in the streets." She said, pride beaming from her.
Asami got up from her seat and walked over to Korra putting her hand on her chin, and turning her face to look into her wonderfully blue eyes. "Well I certainly know someone who loves you." She said softly. "Really who?" Korra asked with a grin on her face.
"You know who." Asami said and kissed Korra on her lips. She felt a warmness spreading out through her body. They got far too little time alone these days so she was happy to use any opportunity.
Eventually Korra had to let go. "I have to go inspect the base. I can't stay in the tent all day." She explained. "But it looks like I will have the rest of the day off. If nothing goes wrong." She continued. "Yeah there's always an 'if'." Asami said a little disappointed. She had hoped they could get a little more time together.
"I promise I will try to make room for some more alone time but you know how it is when we're deployed somewhere." Korra said almost reading Asami's thoughts. "I know sweetie." She said. It was after all part of being the avatar's girlfriend, and she knew it, but she could still never really stop wishing for them to have more alone time.
"Let's go inspect the base so they know the commander hasn't fallen asleep in her tent." She said a little more cheerfully. "Let's" Korra responded as she walked to the exit with Asami just behind her. "Ladies first." She said lifting the blue piece of cloth. "Thank you" Asami responded smiling. That joke had never been good, but it also never got old.
Authors note: First attempt at writing a fanfiction, any criticism is very much appreciated, especially if I have made any grammatical mistakes, since I'm also doing this to improve my English. Also for anyone wondering, no Korra having a picture of Asami in her pocket does not mean she's going to die because she hasn't shown it to anyone.