Soul Of Lightning, a legend of korra fanfic

Soul Of Lightning

Book 1 – Air

Chapter 1 – Lin Beifong's Right-hand Man

Pain.

All he could feel was pain.

He had a splendid day, really, fighting the hardest battle in his entire life. He won, that much he could remember. At least he hoped he remembered correctly. Well, he was alive, for now, and if he had lost he would have been dead long ago.

A smirk found its way through the pain and appeared on his face. Everything he fought for, everyone he cared about, they were no longer in danger. He won.

Where was he anyway? The last thing he remembered was that massive burst of power, followed by a feeling similar to passing through the portal. Was he in the Human World? Judging by the air it was the most likely location, as vague as that was. It was raining, that much he could tell, he liked rain especially when it was accompanied by the lightning, but this time the rain didn't soothe him, what lulled him into the sleep was the pain that made him black out while the blood pooled underneath him.

The darkness of the night gave him a bit of comfort though as his consciousness slipped away. The yellow eyes that could see in the dark saw the glimmer of the cloudy black skies and he smiled in a quite satisfied way. If the death took him away right here and now he'd eagerly accept it.

Lin Beifong probably had it all in eyes of some people. She worked as the Chief of the Metalbending Police Force, she was the daughter of renowned Toph Beifong who not only helped the previous Avatar save the world but also invented the Metalbending. Frankly, she was an accomplished, albeit lonely, woman. Not that she minded the lack of company; it's just that living completely on her own had its downsides. At least no one was waiting for her to come back home since it was already past one a.m.

A voice in the back of her head told her she should have drove home. And she would have if she wasn't desperately needing some kind of activity after a long day of filling out paperwork.

Walking down the street she saw a body lying on the street, in the rain, her first instinct was that it was a robbery gone wrong as she went up to the body. The pool of blood underneath the body didn't surprise her, though the amount of it was disturbing even in the rain. She scowled; rain would make finding the culprit even harder.

And then she noticed the victim's hair. Completely white, so the victim was an elderly male. Lin reached out and touched the victim's neck, her eyes widened immediately when she felt pulse followed by a foot hitting her in the guts. Her uniform absorbed most of the impact but she still staggered back a bit.

The victim coughed a few times and clearly struggled to get back on his feet. He turned to glare at her, obviously pissed off because of something. His appearance surprised Lin, he was far from an elderly man, in fact, despite pure white hair, it didn't look like he was older than seventeen.

The child was unsure of what to do from now on, all he knew was that this person touched his neck. The years he spent fighting made him think twice before trusting anyone and he rolled back before forcing himself to jump on his feet. He visibly winced and glanced down. He had wounds all over his body, probably a few broken bones and his vision was getting blurry. He cursed being exhausted to the point where using his abilities seemed impossible but he wouldn't go down without fighting. His sight cleared just enough to realize that he was in a street in a Human World and by the looks of it, it was quite late in the night as only he and the strange middle aged woman stood there.

He looked at her eyes and for a moment let down his guard and relaxed his posture, but the woman was angry…

Tired from the work she had to go through and now being kicked away by some brat, there was only so much Lin Beifong would take and she kicked the ground making the child look at her in a puzzled way.

Child bit down a yelp when he felt the ground beneath his left feet rise up and break his balance, he managed to jump away. He knew some humans could bend elements but he wasn't that familiar with the methods of doing so.

Figuring out that he was at a disadvantage on the ground as soon as she used Earthbending to catapult the ground that he was going to land on he managed to slightly alter his position in midair and grab onto the post, he pulled himself up and stood on the top of it.

Lin noticed the injuries, the deep cuts, bruises, and the exhaustion clearly visible on his face. Realizing that she was venting out her frustration at someone in that condition made her reconsider it.

"Get down here, I don't want to fight," she tried to sound willing enough to just talk with him but being tired made her sound as if she was ordering him to follow her words.

Child didn't like the tone she used, and he made it obvious by glaring at her. Still he didn't quite trust her, deciding to go with the safest route he jumped down and ran to the opposite side.

Lin merely sighed at that.

"Tch," the child clicked his tongue in annoyance when the earth wall stopped him in his tracks; he turned around to see the Chief of Police at the end of the street.

"Quit running kid," Lin said as she approached the white haired child. "Come on now, I don't have anything to arrest you for, yet."

The first words he said to her, well they were quite charming. "Drop dead," the child that couldn't be older than seventeen with piercing yellow eyes and pure white hair grumbled through his teeth.

She halted, not because of the words but because of his eyes. Yellow with slit shaped pupils, color aside the pupils were downright unusual. And that moment of pause allowed the boy to surprise her once again. This child was no bender that much was clear, what he did was the product of sheer physical strength, but he slammed his fist though the stone wall and made hole big enough for him to jump through.

Wordlessly Lin stopped him in slipping away by bending the ground he stepped on to trap his feet.

"What did I just tell you kid?" she grew annoyed at him as she saw him breaking through the earth bind that had caught his feet; tired of his resistance she brought the earth up to his shoulders thus rendering him motionless.

He refused to beg for mercy, he refused to plead for her to let him go; he just gritted his teeth as she walked up to him and stopped just a foot away from him. "Never heard of a personal space?" the boy hissed and scoffed.

Lin looked at his eyes and the boy's fierce glare revealed discomfort at the situation and the fear of his own weakness, she could understand it, not many non-benders could even keep up with benders, of any level, let alone someone as skilled as her. Yet she was sort of impressed, he managed to put up some fight even in the state he was in, they may have not fought directly but from his reflexes and the power he had behind his hits she knew that he was a capable fighter, even when he was injured and exhausted.

The eyes however lost their fierceness and life as fatigue took him over once again, Lin retracted her bending and the nameless child passed out in Lin's arms and she sighed before she took him to the hospital.

Three days later and Lin found herself thinking less about the boy she met on that night and more about what to do next. The wounds were serious; he lost a lot of blood and probably spent a long time in the rain. The chances of making it out alive were slim and frankly she was furious with herself because any day now she would receive a call from the hospital and the assault case would turn into murder case. Given the fact that there was nothing besides the boy himself on the scene it would likely remain unsolved. They couldn't even identify the boy and there was no missing person report anywhere that matched him. They wouldn't have missed it, with that appearance there would be no way the boy wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb. White hair alone was enough to make it obvious. If it wasn't for heavy rain that likely erased all the evidence Lin would have dared to think that the boy just appeared without solid explanation.

Well, that might explain the small pieces of some strange armor healers found in some of his wounds. She didn't see them, but they assured her it wasn't made out of material they knew about.

And then the phone in her office rang.

She picked up the phone. "Chief Beifong."

"Good afternoon ma'am, Republic City Hospital here. We're calling to inform you that the young male you brought three days ago-"

There it was, she was ready to hear it. Which didn't make it any less frustrating, not to mention the kid clearly knew how to fight so it was truly a wasted potential.

"-woke up roughly fifteen minutes ago."

Yes, wasted potential.

Wait what?

"Woke up?" even Lin Beifong couldn't hide surprise in her voice over that statement.

"Yes, it appears he's going to make a surprisingly quick recovery."

"I'll be there in less than an hour," Lin quickly informed the healer.

When the white haired male woke up he felt a very odd feeling, pain, a lot of it. Which wasn't supposed to happen, his body shut down, he lost consciousness so natural defensive mechanisms should have kicked in.

They didn't.

His wounds were closed and he somehow survived the blood loss but his body didn't heal the way it usually did when he lost consciousness like this.

Slowly he managed to sit up and immediately realized how stupid the idea was, but he needed to get up and freshen up a bit. Maybe he just needed to rest a bit longer. Looking around the room he guessed he was in the hospital, those places were similar wherever you were as far as his experience went. He stumbled to the sink and realized that he had no idea how to get the water running. There was a faucet but he couldn't figure out what to do to save his life. Back home there was a simply switch, pull up to get the water running and push down to stop it. So the male fiddled with the faucet for a minute or two before finally turning the mechanism the right way.

"This is embarrassing," he muttered and washed his hands, he then proceeded to splash his face a few times. Absent-mindedly he glanced at the mirror and froze. His eyes widened. Yellow eyes. Not red.

The world seemed to spin around him as he dropped down to the floor feeling dizzy and nauseous for reasons that had little to do with his physical state. Everything made sense now, speed of his recovery, his eye color changing; there was only one more thing he needed to confirm. He raised his hand and concentrated, a couple of sparks emerged and circled around his hand but as soon as he did that he began coughing violently, he felt excruciating pain in his chest and neck and his vision was getting blurry.

There was no doubt about it, he went and got his soul damaged; more importantly, seeing as it didn't get better by now there was nothing he could do about it.

And then, to make the situation even worse the doors opened and the woman he fought with briefly, along with a person he assumed was a doctor walked in. He fought back the pain and looked at the older woman, there was no need for anyone to know that he was in pain, plus she likely saved his life. Even if she did touch his neck prior to that. Well, he shouldn't hold it against her; she probably didn't intend to harm him.

Upon seeing him on the floor the male's eyes widened and he turned to the hall. "Healers-" he went to call for someone to come.

"No need to call them, I just got a bit dizzy," the boy pushed himself back to his feet and turned the water off to prove his point. "Blood loss perhaps?" there was no way he was telling them the real reason he was on the floor. With about as much vigor as he could muster he walked over to his bed and sat down. Luckily it seemed to calm the man in white mantle down just enough. "So? Here to question me and do all the law enforcement stuff?" he guessed as he looked at Lin.

Considering the fact that she had her coat on and the boy had no way of seeing that she was indeed the Chief of Police Lin raised an eyebrow.

"You mentioned arrest," he reminded her and explained his assumptions.

"I'm surprised you even remember that," Lin admitted with her arms folded. "Anyway kid, what's your name?"

He stopped for a moment, thinking things through and deciding whether or not to say his name. "Well, you did save my life. Vergil Leonidas," the boy, Vergil replied.

Lin observed the boy looking for signs of lying; it appeared that he was being completely honest with her. "That's far from a usual name," she pointed out.

Vergil simply grinned. "What can I say, my parents liked to screw with tradition."

To say that Vergil was miserable would really be going too far. Sure, he was losing hope after three months without any progress, hell no one even tried to find him and he was sure at least Grom would give it a try.

Three months and he had nothing, his health wasn't getting better but it wasn't getting worse either. And that bothered him. If he needed to live his life like this then he would have been much happier if he just sought battle and died, at least while he still had some dignity left.

Aside from his health he had a few other things to come to terms with. Like how dependent on Lin he was.

She got him a job, sure delivering newspapers wasn't the best paid job of the century, but it was paying for rent and food. Plus it allowed him to get to know his surrounding; now he more or less knew every part of the city.

He even figured out, all on his own, how to function in his apartment, like how to turn on that radio thingy, or turn on the other devices. Seriously, was the human technology so ahead of devil one? It was a completely different world but still...

Functioning in the society though, that was his biggest challenge; people were freaked out by his hair color and overall appearance. Then there was the fact that he was simply too blunt for their norms. Most people he met deemed him as rude, even Lin took notice of that, it didn't bother her in the slightest, but she did notice. And the clothes were so differently made, he just didn't feel as comfortable, but perhaps it was nostalgia getting ahold of him. Eventually he managed to match a simple black jacket and blue T-shirt with plain pants and boots, again mostly black, though there were small blue details here and there on his pants.

But this wasn't the way he wanted to spend the last of his days, with that thought in mind he walked into the Police HQ.

Most of the cops pretty much knew him; Chief herself scolding you combined with his white hair really did make him stick in their memories. This time it was one hell of an advantage as he quickly found himself on the top floor of the building in front of Lin's office.

He knocked on Lin's doors and heard her saying, in a rather grumpy, sort of annoyed voice, to get in. So he did, all caution thrown into the wind and all the recklessness that came with probably choosing to come and ask for a job on a day he was willing to bet Lin was about as cheerful as a starving animal.

"Hello, Lin," Vergil still greeted her with a smirk on his face.

"Brat…" the Chief of Police felt her eyebrow twitch at the sight of him today of all days.

"Let's cut to the chase, I'm here to work for you," she surely knew what he was when she saved him. Saving lives of strangers rarely came without some expectation and Vergil frankly doubted he would get lucky twice.

Lin took a deep breath to calm the storm of anger brewing inside of her. "And why would I hire you?" she really put an emphasis on 'why' as she bit out the question.

"You know what they say: better the devil you know than the devil you don't," Vergil replied with a small grin on his face, it quickly disappeared when he realized Lin wasn't exactly getting it.

"What the flameo is a devil?"

And that's when Vergil realized just how screwed he was in this world. "Wait, so you saved my life, you are keeping me alive and you don't even know what I am?" he asked incredulously.

Lin narrowed her eyes clearly showcasing she didn't like the tone he used. "That has diddly-squat to do with that devil thing you mentioned."

Vergil raised an eyebrow at that. "I'll assume it means nothing?" when she just glared at him he decided to go on. "Quite contrary actually, it has to do with everything. I am a devil, a living weapon, a soldier from Thanatos," he revealed and this time his eyes narrowed when she snorted.

"Did you hit your head too hard, or were you delusional before as well? There had never been recordings about these devils you are mentioning, or that place. Sorry to burst your bubble, kid, but you're human," oh she had some nerve to just deny the existence of his kind, well half of it anyway, it was true that his mother was a human, but his father most certainly was a devil, so were his comrades, so were his enemies.

Vergil took a deep breath, no need to lash out because of this. "I'll just have to prove it to you then, eventually, you'll trust me," he chose to drop the topic for now and to concentrate on getting a job here. He could have showed her lightning, but from what little he knew humans could use it too and she'd just dismiss darkness as whatever explanation she could come up with. Plus it would make him cough up blood, which wasn't the best way to make someone think of you as a living weapon. Judging by how he was lately he began doubting he could even call himself like that, oh how the mighty have fallen. "Anyway, about the job, what's your decision?"

Lin stopped for a few moments, thinking it through; the teen in front of her was a peculiar one, that was for sure. No identification, no information on him aside from the last three months, frankly Lin was tempted to believe that devil talk if it wouldn't open up a can of worms in the process. Aside from that she figured he would be a good asset. Living weapon was an exaggeration, but he was strong enough to put up a fight against her, no matter for how briefly, and he recovered from those injuries. "You're starting tomorrow, help clean the HQ, scrub floors, vehicles, do the dishes, whatever else you're assigned to. We'll see where you get from there," his expression was quite amusing to her at that moment.

"Sure, but let me get this straight. You have a living weapon, a trained soldier and instead of throwing that weapon into the battle you use it to keep the place clean?"

Lin smirked. "Correct."

Vergil actually laughed at that. "Oh, you're good, really good. I think I'll enjoy working for you, Lin?"

Her eyebrow twitched at that. "That's Chief Beifong for you, brat."

He merely smirked. "That's Vergil for you, Lin. Prove yourself to me," he was challenging her and she knew it, they both knew it and she really didn't need that with a new councilman starting his work today.

Roughly half a year later Lin thought hiring Vergil was one of the better decisions she made as Chief, the boy was effective, really effective. Starting from cleaning, though he didn't seem to enjoy that so much, all the way to helping in investigations. She even let him lead a few and he was yet to disappoint. So perhaps she could award him with a special task. She picked up her phone and dialed the office a few floors down. "Tell Vergil to come up here," she said once one of her officers picked up.

A few minutes later the white haired officer was inside; it did annoy her that his armor was missing. It was slowing him down was what he said once. Well, at least he still had the decency to keep the badge attached to the front of his jacket.

"It's rare for you to call for me personally, what's going on?" he was serious, ready to jump into whatever fight or situation she was about to throw him in.

"Council wants a warehouse they're interested in checked. And they requested me personally. I figured you'd like a chance to join me," she didn't even need to ask; the grin on his face told her everything.

An hour later Vergil was wondering just how things ended up this way. It was an obvious ambush, thugs had them surrounded and by some crazy luck managed to electrocute Lin before Vergil could react and intercept it.

And then it went from bad to worse in a moment.

Vergil's eyes widened, those rascals actually decided to bring down the building and Lin was unconscious. He quickly ran over to her and checked her pulse, she was still alive but they couldn't make it out of here alive even if he tried to run now. As the building started crumbling a single thought came to his mind. "NO WAY!" in that moment all his wrath towards the cowards that attacked them, all his feeling toward his own weakness and a desire to keep this woman alive for whatever reason exploded in a blinding flash of electric blue lightning explosion. As the dust settled Vergil coughed out a mouthful of blood but the building, at least the part of it that was supposed to land on them was gone, obliterated by the lightning. The half-devil's vision started getting blurry and he was feeling his consciousness fade away, but he needed to get Lin out of here, now.

This damned thing was planned from the beginning… and likely by someone on the council.

Vergil gritted his bloodied teeth as thugs surrounded them. "Get the hell out of my sight or I'll kill you right here, right now," he was outnumbered, but the killer intent in his voice, in his presence was enough to make them halt, at least most of them. One of them dared to rush in and attack Vergil with a club.

It didn't even take electricity; a devil punching a human at full strength would be enough to knock the thug out cold. He even conveniently looked dead. The thugs ran away, screaming for their lives.

Vergil was jolted from his slumbering state when the doors opened and a bald, tall man with an arrow tattoo on his forehead came in. His eyes narrowed, with everything he understood by now anyone could be a threat and while Lin was unconscious they would have the best opportunity. "Not a step further," he warned and the man just seemed to notice him.

Though surprised the stranger stopped. "May I ask why?"

Vergil studied him for a moment. And that's when he recognized him. "As far as I know that was a bait to get Lin killed, I don't have a single reason to trust a stranger that just shows up out of nowhere, especially since it was Council that assigned that particular task, right councilman Tenzin?"

Tenzin's eyes widened at the accusation. "That's preposterous! I've known Lin for longer than you've been alive," he then took a better look at the pure white hair. "Probably," he muttered under his breath.

Vergil actually glared at him. "That's Chief Beifong for those who claim to be long time acquaintances yet it takes them a week to show up, councilman," he growled, letting all of his frustration seep into his eyes, those chillingly cold yellow eyes and perhaps it was the distance, but Tenzin thought he saw Vergil's pupils narrowing. It was probably his imagination, flickering of the lamp also probably had something to do with the lamp itself malfunctioning at the moment.

Tenzin sighed, he wouldn't get anywhere by getting frustrated. "Lin and I... Have been sort of estranged for some time, I was hoping it wasn't anything serious, but if she still isn't waking up... I had to come and check on her. Will you tell me how she is?"

Vergil contemplated on that and saw no harm in saying anything. "She's stable, but unconscious, she'll wake up soon. Injuries and overworking herself, she simply hit her limit."

Tenzin nodded. "And you are?"

"Just one of her officers."

"You are quite protective for 'just one of her officers', wouldn't you agree? Why?" Tenzin was threading lightly, unsure of where he was going with this himself. He didn't know how old this officer was, the white hair completely throwing any assessment off.

"Because I can be as protective as I want over people I care about, now scram it before I start doubting your story," there it was again, the threatening tone.

And again, Tenzin sighed, he got what he wanted; there was no need to stay here.

Roughly a minute after the councilman left Lin opened her eyes. "First a living weapon, now a knight in the shining armor. You sure know how to pick a role," she groaned as she tried to sit up.

Vergil smirked. "You heard that, eh?"

"I did. You don't have to suspect Tenzin, he wouldn't do something like this," she assured him though she did find the interaction to be quite amusing to listen to. Still as amused as she was her thoughts still wandered off to the battle. "What did you do back there? More importantly, how?"

"I told you, didn't I? I'm a devil, I blasted the place with lightning," he explained, but Lin had different explanation.

"Again with that? Well at least now I know you're a firebender," she reasoned.

"I have never used fire in my life and I assure you I am no bender," he was getting tired of this.

"Then an abnormal case of lightning bending only, but you are most definitely a human," Lin had her mind set on that, there was nothing that would persuade her otherwise.

"Have it your way, it doesn't really matter what you think I am as long as you let me fight, Chief."

The use of her title surprised her. "Lin is fine; you'll also be living with me from now on. No arguments," she made sure he got it all clear.

All Vergil had as a response to that was a simple: huh? That was pretty much how he came to live with Lin...

Lin and Vergil were going over a new strategy to get crime off the streets at least a bit more when Saikhan entered the room.

"Chief, we caught the Avatar," he informed her and glared when he saw Vergil smirking.

"Oh, I've got to see this," Vergil instantly told Lin.

Now normally Lin wouldn't let him do it just because he expressed his desire to do so, but this time she could make an exception. "Fine, follow me."

Korra, the new Avatar, was sitting in the interrogation room, waiting anxiously for whoever was supposed to question her, and then she saw them. An older woman in a metal suit of armor that just shone with authority and confidence. Next to her was the strangest person she had ever seen.

Korra looked at the male that casually entered the interrogation room, he wasn't wearing the formal uniform of the Police, in fact his attire was quite casual, a black jacket with two blue stripes on each sleeve and red line across the shoulder line was covering the simple cobalt blue shirt he had underneath. The black trousers and army boots he had on had little to no detail but the simple clothes seemed to suit him. He had two wooden swords strapped to his hip and that was one of the unusual things about him. His pure white hair and yellow eyes with black slit shaped pupils were the other strange part of him, but the trait that made her look at him the most was the horrendous lightning shaped scar that covered most of the right side of his face.

"Let's see. Multiple counts of destruction of private and city property, not to mention evading arrest," Lin slammed the report on the table. "You are in a whole mess of a trouble young lady."

Korra really wanted to explain herself, she helped she shouldn't be here. "But there were some thugs threatening helpless shopkeeper and I-"

"Can it!" Lin interrupted her. "You should have called the police and stayed out of the way."

"But I couldn't just sit by and do nothing. It's my duty to help people. See, I'm the Avatar," that would probably work; it actually would work on most people.

Not on Lin though.

"Oh, I am well aware of who you are. And your Avatar title might impress some people, but not me," Lin was quick to let the young Avatar know that her title meant nothing in Lin's eyes.

Korra gave up on persuading her into seeing her reasoning. "All right, fine, then I want to talk to whoever is in charge."

"You are talking to her," Lin sat down. "I'm Chief Beifong."

"Wait. Beifong? Lin Beifong? You are Toph's daughter!" Korra realized.

"What of it?"

"Then why are you treating me like a criminal. Avatar Aang and your mother were friends. They saved the world together!" Korra tried to persuade her.

"That's ancient history. And it's got diddly-squat to do with the mess you are in right now," as she said that Lin's voice got a bit less passive and a bit more aggravated. "You can't just waltz in here and dole out vigilante justice like you own the place," Lin scolded her.

"Chief. Councilman Tenzin is here," one of her officers informed her.

Lin sighed; just the person she needed now. "Let him in," she stood up and faced the doors while Vergil glanced at Korra, then picked up the report and went to lean against the metal wall as he read it.

Tenzin walked in through the doors that previously slid open and first looked at Korra.

"Tenzin. I'm sorry. I, I got a little sidetracked on my way to see you," Korra apologized.

Tenzin took a deep breath to calm down and turned to Lin with a big smile on his face. "Lin, you are looking radiant as usual."

"Cut the garbage Tenzin," she was having none of that. "Why is the Avatar in Republic City? I thought you were supposed to be moving down to the South Pole to train her," the Chief assumed.

"My relocation has been delayed. The Avatar on the other hand will be heading back to the South Pole immediately where she will stay put," Tenzin declared.

"But-" Korra tried to argue.

"If you would be so kind as to drop charges against Korra I will take full responsibility for today's regretful events and cover all the damages," Tenzin offered before Korra could say anything else.

Lin sighed as she looked back at Korra. "Fine," she relented and released the cuffs that were holding the girl. "Get her out of my city," she demanded fiercely.

"Always a pleasure Lin. Let's go Korra." Before he left, Tenzin looked at Vergil who didn't shy away from the eye contact. The Airbending master was aware of the male's relationship with Lin that strongly resembled that of a child and mother at times, especially given the way Vergil took offence to anyone messing with Lin, even though he knew that Lin could easily deal with anyone. Tenzin would lie if he said that he wasn't happy because of that, ever since the boy came into Lin's life the woman seemed a bit more, relaxed, so to speak. Though he may have preferred having a bit less of a 'get out of my sight' attitude Vergil was taking when it came to any member of the council.

Korra followed the Airbending Master but then turned to look at Lin again. The Chief gave her a sign to show that she will be looking at her and Korra returned the gesture.

Vergil suppressed a chuckle at that, the girl was completely unaware of what Lin meant by what she did and Lin was not amused by it.

"She's going on your nerves, eh?" he smirked briefly at the woman.

Lin Beifong simply looked at the male, this was the same child she met three years ago on that night and now he was pretty much an adult, twenty years old white haired male.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to barge in here like that, Vergil?" Lin asked.

"Until you get tired of it?" Vergil suggested and sat down on the chair Korra had occupied just a few minutes ago. "So why did you let her off the hook? Just because she's the Avatar? You know that that's not an excuse."

"Don't teach me how to do my job," Lin simply told him, over the last three years the two had grown quite familiar and the relationship Lin had with the white haired male made her believe that the decision to not have any children of her own was the right one.

Vergil on the other hand grew oddly fond of the older woman, despite the fact that their relationship began in bad circumstances.

When Lin finished her work for the night and left the office, she wasn't surprised to see the white haired male leaning against the wall next to her doors.

"Come on kid, let's go home," she told him and he wordlessly he followed her down the stairs and out of the already empty building.

"That girl is either on her way home or with Tenzin on the Air Temple Island," Vergil suddenly spoke up.

"Knowing Tenzin she is on the Air Temple Island now," Lin wanted to end the subject though she knew Vergil wouldn't just stop with that, he simply pointed the two possibilities out to inform her that the conversation would be about the Avatar.

"You know she may have played a vigilante but what she did was right and it showed us the faults of our own officers. Saikhan, your official right hand, couldn't get there in time and we should talk about the competence of the regular officers," Vergil pointed out bluntly.

"You can't stop the crime, you can fight it but it'll never disappear," Lin stated, understanding where Vergil was coming from but also knowing how the world actually worked.

The white haired male scowled at that. "And you can't fight it without competent people. There are districts in the city belonging to the thugs."

"There's only so much we can do, haven't you learnt that by now?"

"Even so I don't feel like giving up, so I'll keep bringing you the criminals, until I can no longer keep going," Vergil said and Lin stopped, he ignored it and took the lead.

The Chief of Police didn't take that easily, she knew his condition, most of it actually, she knew about the disease and that even with everything he did to slow it down it would only be a matter of time before he died. She couldn't do anything, he refused to visit Katara, he didn't want the disease, as he called it a few times, to stop him from at the very least fighting, at least so far the only symptoms she knew off were the fits of coughing up blood when he was exhausted.

"By the way, how come this is the first time that girl came to the city as far as I know," he got the conversation back to Korra.

Lin sighed. "She's been living in the compound on the South Pole; she never left the place in her life," she briefly summed it up and Vergil nodded that was all he felt like he should know about the girl given the fact that they never even talked to one another.

As it usually happened Vergil was doing the daily paperwork he had when the programme on the radio caught his attention.

'Hello. I'm Korra.'

The girl speaking at the conference sounded nervous.

'Your new Avatar'.

And of course the reporters bombarded her with so many questions about who she will be fighting, about whether or not she'll work together with Lin and the Police, oh he knew the answer to that one, even if the girl wanted to Lin would have none of that, at least not until the new Avatar proved herself.

'Uh yes, I am definitely here to stay but honestly… I don't exactly have a plan… yet. You see I'm still in training… but…'

Good thing she decided to pause for a moment she no longer sounded nervous, now she sounded like a nervous wreck.

'Look. All I know is Avatar Aang meant for this city to be the center of peace and balance in the world and I believe we can make his dream a reality. I look forward to serving you. I'm so happy to be here. Thank you Republic City!'

'All right that's all the question for now.'

Vergil heard Tenzin ending the conference and was half impressed, the part of the speech about Republic City being the center of peace and balance was fine, even good in his opinion, the way she spoke and the confidence behind her words meant that she really meant what she said. The part about being happy and thanking the city well he didn't quite like that, but to each their own.

"Leonidas," he heard an all too familiar voice.

"Saikhan. What is it?" Vergil turned to the right hand of the Chief of Police, Saikhan.

"I just figured I'd come and see what you think about the new Avatar," Saikhan cut to the point, the two didn't get along that well but from time to time the older officer would try to make a conversation in situations like these.

For what reason, Vergil had no idea.

"I don't care about her being an Avatar. I'd rather reconsider the efficiency of our own officers if someone else has to deal with the thugs of that caliber," Vergil pointed out shutting the chances of reconciliation between the two quicker than ever before.

"She did more harm than good," Saikhan argued.

"She avoided potential casualties," Vergil countered.

"There wouldn't be any."

"There is nothing that can guarantee that."

Saikhan was slowly losing patience. "She should have called the Police."

"Your unit was already nearby and they couldn't arrive until everything ended. What good would calling one do?" the younger male inquired.

"We would have prevented the damage," Saikhan seemed fairly confident in that.

Vergil looked fairly annoyed. "And by the time you got there thugs would be long gone. Furthermore how do you expect her to know the number she's supposed to call? It's not like she has the phonebook with her all the time."

"She tried to escape," the arguments grew weaker.

"It's natural thing to do for someone like her. I am aware, from what Lin told me, about the way she lived thus far; someone who grew up under those circumstances isn't capable of handing that kind of situation right away."

"There's just no arguing with you," Saikhan gave up. There was no way he could ever work with Vergil alone, the white haired male was simply too stubborn.

"I figured you knew that by now. I'm done with my paperwork, tell Lin I went to take a stroll and don't mess around the next time you go on a patrol. We can't erase crime but we can at least make sure we stop as much as we can," Leonidas stepped out of the office leaving the Captain alone with other officers that once again witnessed the verbal beating Saikhan took from the white haired officer. Of course they remained silent…

Yet another peaceful night on the Air Temple Island and the Avatar was spending it by practicing the usual move set of an Airbender.

'Good evening, my fellow Equalists. This is your leader, Amon.'

As Korra heard the dreaded man's voice via radio she turned to look at the radio.

'As you have heard, the Republic Council has voted to make me the public enemy number one. Proving once again that the bending oppressors of this city will stop at nothing to quash our revolution. But we cannot be stopped. Our numbers grow stronger by the day. You no longer have to live in fear; the time has come, for benders to experience fear.'

And oh did she fear, she was scared out of her mind, not that she would show it to anyone else.

Lin and Vergil were eating dinner when Amon's speech was broadcasted and the two shared a brief look.

"He's getting an upper hand," Vergil stated matter-of-factly, more than anything he knew that when there was a problem, the best choice was to keep doing something about it, even if it was just talking.

"There's not much we can do about it," Lin had to admit it, without something leading them to the Equalists they remained stuck.

"And we don't actually have a plan in case we can do something," the white haired male grumbled, his interest in the topic was quite low up until they received the information that Amon could take bending away. Of course it didn't concern him, there was nothing Amon could take away from him, but Lin would be out there and if things went wrong she could lose her bending.

"You've always been good at long operations. Do you have any idea where to start?" Lin asked out of blue and Vergil knew where this was going, in fact he had the similar idea himself.

"It'll take time, but I think I can get a few things done before Amon steps up with his plan. Well first of all I'll need all the information we have so far. Give me a few days off and I'll get things set in motion," Vergil requested knowing that the only way to get this done was to take it one step at a time.

"We'll get to it the first thing in the morning, you'll get the days off so make sure you can get us something to work with," it was an order and they both knew it, the white haired male nodded and stood up.

"I better get some sleep then, I get a feeling I'll be too invested into this to get enough sleep," he said jokingly. "Good night."

"Good night," Lin was left alone as Vergil made his way into his room.

-*/

And just like Lin said they got to it the first thing in the morning. Vergil took the available documents; newspapers and overall information Lin had access to and placed them in a couple of boxes.

When he finally had three filled boxes to go through he gave both a sigh of relief and of soon to be fatigue. He was glad that they had so much information that pretty much led to nowhere at this point, but they had information and if there was one thing he knew how to do it was to single out the decent info from the rubbish.

"I'm off to work," Vergil picked up the boxes and left the headquarters. Instead of usual walk to the apartment he had his bike parked in front of the headquarters waiting for him to drive back home.

Vergil set the boxes down behind his seat, tied them to the bike and just when he was about to take a seat he saw an unpleasant sight.

One thing that the white haired male didn't feel like doing was talking to a certain councilman that clearly had intention of speaking to him, well if the fact that he heard his name being uttered by the man was anything to go by.

The man in question was a tall middle aged waterbender that spent too much time on looking presentable.

"Tarrlok. The hell are you doing here?" Vergil asked, he didn't like the councilman, not that he liked the other ones, especially after one of them nearly killed Lin for whatever reason.

"Always a pleasure speaking with you Mr. Leonidas," Tarrlok gave him an utterly fake smile, one that made Vergil feel like punching him in the face.

"Can't say that the feeling is mutual," and there it was again, Vergil being blunt.

"As I see you are in a hurry how about we cut to the chase so to speak?" Tarrlok offered.

"How about we skip the details and get right into the part here I refuse whatever you have to tell me?" Vergil offered a better solution.

"Now, now. I know you want to help take down Amon as well," Tarrlok began.

"I won't help you in anything you might plan on doing, I don't work with people as self-centered as you," Vergil cut him off. "Been there, done that, don't want to try again," he made it perfectly clear to Tarrlok that the man was simply wasting his time.

However Tarrlok was just as stubborn about it as usual. "Maybe I could try to change your mind."

Suddenly Vergil grabbed the man's collar anger flashing in his eyes. "Listen up, last time I got involved with something concerning council it nearly cost me everything I care about, so get out of my sight," he didn't even want to remember that time.

"We wouldn't want to repeat that, now would we? Though I keep telling you, I regret agreeing to send Chief Beifong just as much as everyone else on the council. You do have a point Mr. Leonidas. While your capabilities are much to be desired in task force with stopping Amon and his revolution as its objective it would be better for both of us if I gave up at this point," Tarrlok came to conclusion that he didn't want to be reminded of what happened either. It nearly cost him his place on the Council and frankly it was the only time he saw Tenzin that angered.

Vergil released the man's collar and calmed down. "Good. Now unless you have anything to speak about with Lin scram it," he said as he sat down on his bike and drove off.

Tarrlok could only fight back the need to teach the disrespectful male some manners, he could cause it now, just a little bit of intervention and an accident could kill Vergil, but knowing how resilient Vergil was he chose against it. Still, even with Vergil refusing to join him he still had one person that would jump at the chance to join the battle, or so he thought.

"We are grateful for this delicious food, for happiness, for compassion and," and as Tenzin was stating that at the dinner table Tarrlok walked in.

"I'm not interrupting, am I?" oh he most certainly did.

This is my home, Tarrlok. We are about to it dinner," Tenzin stood up, clearly the last thing he wanted was to deal with his fellow Councilman.

"Good, because I'm absolutely famished," and this of course made Tenzin narrow his eyes. "Airbenders never turn away a hungry guest, am I right?" the councilman was almost daring Tenzin to say otherwise.

"I suppose so," as Tenzin sat down he was met with a glare that his wife, Pema, sent him, he just shrugged in a 'What-can-I-do' fashion.

Tarrlok was quick to go up to Korra. "Ah, you must be the famous Avatar Korra."

At this Korra couldn't help but smile confidently.

"It is truly an honor. I am councilman Tarrlok, representative from the Northern Water Tribe," he introduced himself as politely as he could.

Korra stood up and offered him a light bow as a greeting. "Nice to meet you."

As soon as the two sat down Ikki bombarded him with questions. "Why do you have three ponytails?" she sniffed the air. "And how come you smell like a lady? You're weird."

Tarrlok put up with it though. "Well aren't you, precocious."

As Ikki glared at the man he turned to Korra. "So. I've been reading all about your adventures in papers. Infiltrating Amon's rally, now that took some real initiative."

"Oh, thanks," she paused for a moment due to not being used to this kind of reaction. "I think you are the first authority figure who's happy I'm here."

"Republic City is much better off now that you've arrived," he knew exactly what to say.

"Enough with the flattery, Tarrlok. What do you want from Korra?" Tenzin joined in on the conversation.

"Patience Tenzin. I'm getting to that," despite Tenzin's obvious disapproval Tarrlok continued. "As you may have heard, I am assembling a task force that will strike at the heart of the Revolution. And I want you to join me."

"Really?"

"What?"

It was clear that both Korra and Tenzin were surprised.

"I need someone who will help me attack Amon directly! Someone who is fearless in the face of danger! And that someone is you!" and he tried his best with the best words he thought could work.

"Join your task force?" Korra pondered on it for a moment. "I can't."

To say that Tarrlok and Tenzin were shocked would be an understatement.

"I must admit, I'm rather surprised. I thought you'd jump at the chance to help me lead the charge against Amon," Tarrlok admitted, as good as he was at hiding what he actually felt even he couldn't suppress the surprise.

"Me too," Tenzin admitted.

"I came to Republic City to finish my Avatar training with Tenzin. Right now I just need to focus on that," for once Korra was thankful her training wasn't going so well, it gave her more of an excuse to refuse and make sure she didn't face Amon yet. Or at all if she could help it.

"Which is why this opportunity is perfect. You would get on the job experience while performing your Avatar duty for the city," Tarrlok tried again.

"Korra gave you her answer. It's time for you to go," Tenzin interfered before Tarrlok could persuade Korra into joining.

"Very well. But I'm not giving up on you just yet, you'll be hearing from me soon. It has been a pleasure, Avatar Korra," Tarrlok began leaving.

"Bye bye ponytail man!" Ikki waved at him and the councilman suppressed showing any signs of his irritation.

If there were two things that remained constant for Korra during the week it was her fear from Amon and annoyance at receiving gifts from Tarrlok that ranged from flowers to brand new satomobiles. Eventually one thing led to another and at the moment she was at a press conference at the gala in her honor…

As Korra was digging her own grave by having a press conference the white haired male was outside. Despite the night being a bit cold he was outside of the restaurant. The weather allowed him to cover his white hair and scar with the appropriate clothing he wore at the moment. The hot tea in front of him served more as a distraction rather than enjoyment though he did quite enjoy it.

The reason why he was here? Well the Equalists had one of their bases where they trained chi-blockers here. Right there about twenty meters away from him and from this angle he could easily overlook it without being too suspicious.

Almost a week spent like this later he had a few faces and a bit of a schedule confirmed for this particular building.

"You seem to be quite regular around here," someone came up to him and he turned around to face one of the Equalists.

"You can't argue that tea here is one of the best in the city," Vergil said, he was doing a decent job at covering his scar by leaning onto the palm of his hand.

"And you spend hours at night sipping at it?" Equalist questioned suspiciously.

"We all have our own little occupations and hobbies, now don't we? Though do tell me, why would you be concerned about how I spend my time?" the cop inquired.

"I suppose you do have a point. I shouldn't worry about some lunatic's ways of spending time," with that the Equalist left and Vergil couldn't help but smirk. Unknowingly to him about an hour later he would begin cursing around the entire apartment he and Lin shared.

"Rewind that last part," Vergil requested as calmly as he could when he heard about Korra joining the task force.

"Are you going deaf? Avatar joined the task force," Lin repeated.

"Damn it. There goes my investigation," and he began pacing around like he always did when he was frustrated. Now normally the Avatar joining in would be amazing thing but the way Tarrlok planned on handling things they'd only do more damage and in turn they'd only take care of the small fries. He on the other hand planned on infiltrating once he took all the available information he could gather by observing. Well he could kiss it goodbye now.

"How much progress did you make anyway?" Lin asked, they haven't really spoken about it over the past few days, mostly because of the fact that the white haired male didn't have anything certain, up until now.

"Enough to say that I'm doing a good job. Amon is working gradually, I believe he made a close circle of a select few people and then went to gather small number of supporters on his own. Those two groups are probably making up Amon's most informed followers. In the inner circle we have Amon at the top and man named Lieutenant, he is seemingly the only one in Amon's closest inner circle but I'd say he also has someone powerful behind him to provide sources, either that or Amon himself has financial sources," there was the first thing and he began with what proved to be the most hypothetical observation. It was also the one that they couldn't do much about.

"The Equalists train chi-blockers at night; they are actually quite organized about it. They have groups at random locations, though usually in underground facilities. The tricky part is that the groups are never on the same place and the members of the groups are never the same. Say you have team A and team B and each team has three members. Member 1A, 2A, 3A, 1B, 2B and 3B. One night you'll have that order but the other night the members will mix by switching places of 2A and 3B members. Now imagine that kind of organization on a much larger scale of, as far as I've seen between ten and fifteen chi-blockers in one group."

"The locations are also quite random; you can't actually take the map of the city and say that there aren't any chi-blocker trainings going on in a certain area. One thing that does go in pretty much patterns is that the training can start around 9PM to 10PM and end around 2AM. Despite the switches in groups I managed to identify a couple of Equalists based on our data, none of them are criminals, well except for a parking ticket or two. All of these things would go much smoother if we didn't have the task force going in ready to fight and that could be our downfall," the young officer looked exhausted now that he was faced with the realization that everything he would have to do about this from now on would be twice as hard as he first thought it would be.

Lin, who has been taking in the information he had gathered, remained silent up until that point. "What else do you have to back up the downfall part?"

Vergil sighed, not liking what he was about to say. "Generally speaking Amon hasn't done anything specifically wrong. He had taken away the bending of criminals and thugs," he walked over to the window and looked at the city. "Non-benders see that and they are more willing to help him out. Unless something proves Amon to be a mere manipulator we might cause a riot by taking him down. And while the way he goes about it is questionable what he is aiming for isn't wrong. What can be done to make his influence a bit lower could be allowing the non-benders to join in some major decisions when it comes to the city. Of course we can increase the patrols around the city and get more thugs into the jail," Vergil stated and sighed again. He knew haw naïve that sounded, they could very well dig their own grave if they tried to mess with Council, at this point Amon could even use it against them if they tried that.

"So even if we defeat Amon we could lose," Lin leaned back against the chair.

"We would win the battle but lose the war. If non-benders rise and start a riot we will prove that Amon was right, just by trying to stop him in a violent way makes his cause right."

Even though the task force was seemingly doing a great job Vergil wasn't happy. "Just like I supposed, the damn task force is destroying everything that might lead me to something bigger than just a few chi-blockers in training," he tossed the newspapers to the table.

Lin ignored him pacing around in frustration, honestly she was feeling frustrated as well, Vergil has been making a progress in his investigation but it was being nullified by the task force.

'Avatar Korra has bravely answered the call to action. With the two of us leading the charge, Republic City has nothing to fear from Amon and the Equalists.'

"Great, just what I needed. Tarrlok's annoying voice to fix my mood," Vergil muttered but nonetheless kept listening.

'Question for the Avatar. Amon remains at large. Why have you failed to locate him?'

'You wanna know why? Because Amon is hiding in the shadows like a coward! Amon. I challenge you to a duel! No task force, no chi-blockers, just the two of us, tonight at midnight at Avatar Aang's Memorial Island. Let's cut to the chase and settle this thing. If you are man enough to face me.'

Vergil couldn't help but smirk, if there was one thing he figured about Amon it was that the man wouldn't let this opportunity slide when it comes to gaining the mental edge over the Avatar.

"Can you get me a boat? I'm paying a visit to the Memorial Island," the smirk remained intact.

Lin looked at him, frowned at him but figured that there was nothing else they could do. The Avatar losing her bending was about as bad as things could get. "You better be careful," she reminded him.

"It's my best choice at the moment. Trust me; I can take care of myself," Vergil assured the older woman in a surprisingly soft tone.

"I'm going with you to the harbor," Lin decided.

The white haired male nodded, determined to get something out of this situation. "As long as I get to the Memorial Island alone I'm fine with that."

Avatar Korra was standing in front of Aang's statue waiting for Amon. Suddenly she heard something behind her and turned around ready to fight, when she saw nothing she lowered her guard.

Clock informed the city of the time with a loud gong.

And of course being as scared as she was Korra yelped almost jumping out of her skin right then and there.

When the current Avatar realized what just happened she sighed. Taking a deep breath and puffing up her confidence was a must do at this point.

She turned to the city and waited, patiently, bravely…

As Tenzin and Tarrlok waited for anything to happen Lin walked up to them.

"So she is already there?" Lin cut to the chase startling both males.

"Lin?! What are you doing here?" Tenzin asked incredulously, the last thing he expected was for Lin to show up, even more so since she was on her own.

"Vergil is on the island as well. I'm waiting for him," Lin explained just for the heck of it.

"And why would he be there if we may know?" Tarrlok questioned.

"Vergil has been investigating the Equalists, he went to the island to face Amon," Lin felt no need to hide the facts as she kept close watch on the island.

Korra, who has been waiting for quite some time now stretched her body a bit and yawned. "Guess you're a no show Amon. Who's scared now?" she asked no one in particular. She stood up and was clearly intending to casually and carelessly stroll out with her arms raised behind her head.

A fatal mistake it would seem as she was caught off guard by a rope tying her legs and tripping her.

"Aah!" she exclaimed as she was pulled into the temple.

Korra regained her composure and burnt down the rope that was binding her only to find herself surrounded by chi-blockers, many of them. The darkness hid their presence and the shining red eyes were amongst the last things she clearly saw.

The attack was swift and effective. They disabled her arms by pulling them to the sides with ropes. Though she managed to fight off the ones in front of her by Firebending and Earthbending she couldn't protect her back and a couple of chi-blockers temporarily disabled her bending.

She lost consciousness and fell down.

Time passed as the Avatar lied down on the floor surrounded by the chi-blockers and exposed in her weakness by the light of the one simple lamp. She could do nothing as two chi-blockers pulled her to her knees and restrained her arms; she was helplessly giving in to their hold. Korra wasn't the one to easily take defeat and give up but she was powerless.

Her breathing was heavy as she raised her head and looked in front of her, what she saw made her gasp. Amon walked out of the darkness and her fear intensified.

"I received your invitation young Avatar," Amon's voice was cold and terrifying to Korra who could only look away as his hand approached her.

Still, instead of taking her bending away he grabbed her chin and made her turn her head back to him.

"Our showdown, while inevitable, is premature. Although it would be the simplest thing to take away your bending right now," at those words Korra's eyes widened, she was unaware of someone else watching the scene, but that was fine, so was Amon. And that someone would interfere if needed. "…I won't. You'll only become a martyr," Amon removed his hand and Korra looked down. "Benders of every nation would rally behind your untimely demise."

She somehow found it in herself to glare at him.

"But I assure you, I have a plan and I'm saving you for last, then you'll get your duel," he assured her calmly, his voice as cold as it always was. And is eyes, that look sent shiver down her spine.

Defiance was once again replaced by fear.

"And I will destroy you," he stood up and knocked her out with one precise hit. She grunted as she fell down to the floor once again. Her vision was blurry but she saw Amon and then she heard an unknown voice calling Amon's name thus making the Equalist leader look up. Then she fainted not even knowing if what she witnessed in the moments of losing consciousness was true.

But it was.

"I figured I'd make my presence known before you walk away," he was there, they couldn't see him but he was sitting in the main construction of the temple's roof.

Amon remained silent; he knew where the voice was coming from so he knew that he was looking at whoever was there with them.

"Don't force your eyes so much, I'm coming down anyway," Vergil jumped down and landed right in front of Amon. White haired male's smirk was the first thing Amon saw, the second thing was a lightning fast fist directed right to his face. Still the Equalist leader blocked the punch, though he couldn't exactly nullify it as the force behind it pushed him back a few steps.

Amon remained unfazed despite the received punch. But, he narrowed his eyes; this man was trouble if what just happened was anything to go by. Despite what he did he barely blocked the punch.

"Eh, not bad," Vergil complimented him honestly and then ducked under the rope; the chi-blockers were ready to interfere as well.

Vergil slipped into the shadows, away from Korra's unconscious form; he didn't feel like protecting her so he at least put her out of the direct line of fire by moving away.

Though the chi-blockers remained alert they only realized where the white haired male was when he stepped back into the light, though this time the source of light was the moonlight.

Without waiting for the direct order chi-blockers charged at Vergil who smirked as he took one of his wooden swords and pointed it at the first chi-blocker in front of him, he ignored the circle formation and dashed at the one in front of him.

Despite having a wooden blade in his left hand he didn't use it, he found no need to attack, only to defend if needed. He swept away a rope that was thrown at him and tripped the chi-blocker in front of him. Said chi-blocker was knocked out with a simple punch in the guts. Grinning he used his right palm as a footing to kick away two chi-blockers and then push himself up in the air. A hand shot toward his neck but he grabbed it and threw the male down before elbowing another one.

"How about we get to the main part, Amon?" Vergil taunted and though the taunt wasn't what made Amon charge at him the two finally clashed.

The Equalist Leader charged at Vergil who took the other wooden sword and sliced at the Amon just as he was closing in, masked man effortlessly slipped by the two slices and almost connected a fist with Vergil's abdomen. He would have done so if Vergil didn't slide to the side. Vergil attempted to kick him, but like with previous attacks Amon jumped over the leg and being slightly out of balance Vergil was forced to kick away from his current position. They were both quite agile, that much was clear.

Two opponents looked into each other's eyes and Vergil broke the staring contest by pointing one of the blades at Amon and dashing forward, the intention of the attack was to stab, perhaps even kill but Amon easily dodged It. Knowing that the blades were a bit of a problem Amon locked down Vergil's right arm and made the male drop the wooden blade, or so he thought.

Vergil kicked the blade back up and while doing so attempted to kick Amon as well.

Amon jumped back and halted for a moment. "It would seem we both underestimated one another," Amon finally spoke.

The white haired male smirked, eager to continue the battle. "I guess. You are better than I expected," Vergil agreed.

"But out duel ends now," Amon made a sudden change in his fighting style and instead of charging up ahead to Vergil he made swift yet elegant motions, the small movement allowing the body to react and block or dodge was clear intention.

Vergil smirked once more and put his blades away.

Amon finally closed in just enough for Vergil to throw a punch. The Equalist Leader stepped to the side and grabbed the officer's forearm. "Now you're just underestimating me," Vergil pulled his arm and then abruptly slammed it into Amon's chest. The man jumped back to lower the impact and Vergil followed right away.

It looked like Vergil let the anger blind him as he threw a punch at Amon, one that the man easily ducked under. And then he saw a smirk appearing on Vergil's face.

'A feint.' Amon realized just in time to roll to the side to escape the quick kick.

Vergil refused to stop at that moment; he dashed toward Amon and connected his left fist with the abdomen of the leader.

Amon grunted barely loud enough for Vergil to hear him, but being resilient as he was Amon wasn't giving up and neither was Vergil.

Amon just stepped to the side lightly as Vergil tried to punch him. Amon aimed to stab Vergil in the neck with his fingers but a growl and lightning quick reaction to slap his hand away was all he got. Amon blocked the punch with his elbow, pushed the white haired male away and kneed him in the abdomen. Vergil skidded back, blocked a left hook and jumped out of the way of the right uppercut.

Amon's eyes were still narrowed as he sped up his advances, but no matter where he targeted only a few hits actually connected. To make matters worse as his fist connected with the side of Vergil's face his opponent went and punched him in the stomach.

"I suppose offering you a place in my ranks is futile," Amon stated as they both stepped back.

Vergil smirked and wiped the blood on his chin away, the punch to the face was really going to leave a bruise. "I'd be walking right into a trap. You did your homework, I'm sure you know I'd sabotage you in every way I can."

Amon couldn't help but smirk behind the mask. "You're a troublesome opponent, I'll admit that. Perhaps we will have to continue this fight some other time. Tonight is not that time. After all you didn't come here to take me down."

"Can't say I'd mind if I did, but no, at the moment go ahead and leave," he suddenly pulled his sword out and dashed, stopping right in front of Amon. The killer intent clear in his eyes as the edge of his sword touched Amon's neck. "But keep in mind this could have chopped your head off. I'm letting you leave."

Amon chuckled. "Fair enough, Vergil Leonidas," he turned around and began walking away, his Equalists, stunned as they were, followed him.

Vergil dropped his stance, it was over, Amon was gone and so were his Equalists. Still the spar that occurred was just what Vergil needed, insight on how Amon fights and for that he couldn't help but smirk. The white haired male turned around and saw the Avatar lying on the floor unconscious in the dim light of the lamp.

He sighed as he walked up to the girl. She had a long way to go. Korra might never find out but he saw the entire thing, from her falling into the trap set by Equalists all the way to Amon knocking her out unconscious. Why he didn't help her sooner? Well he would have if Amon tried to take her bending away, however as it seemed like there was no danger of that happening he allowed himself a peak at her abilities and was greatly disappointed.

The white haired male leaned down and picked Korra up bridal style. He caught himself looking curiously at her face for a couple of seconds before turning his attention to thinking through the events of the night.

Korra didn't wake up when he set her down into her own boat and she didn't wake up during his paddling to the harbor with the paddle he previously left at the shore.

"Korra!" Tenzin exclaimed when the boat approached.

"Don't lose your head now, Tenzin. She's fine and she didn't lose her bending, she's just unconscious and needs some rest," Vergil scolded him and then turned to Lin. "Went better than I expected," he kept it at that, no way in hell would he spill anything in front of Tarrlok.

"Good," Lin nodded but hid the relief she felt at seeing him uninjured, well aside from a few bruises. "Tenzin, we'll leave the Avatar to you."

"Of course. Lin, Vergil, thank you," Tenzin bowed lightly. He couldn't even start to describe how relieved he was.

Vergil returned the gesture and then he and Lin left.

Without much delay Tenzin made sure Korra got back home to the Air Temple Island.

Once Lin and Vergil arrived to their apartment Vergil sat down on the couch. "I've got a couple of good and a couple of bad news. Which ones do you want to hear first?" he gave her an option to choose as he pressed a bag of ice to his cheek.

"Just tell me what you've got, it doesn't matter which order you pick," Lin said, she took a seat as well, but on the sofa.

"Well bad thing is that Korra is a decent fighter but she is too inexperienced and careless, if she wants to stand against Amon she'll need to be a bit better at fighting," the white haired male began.

"Doesn't surprise me, training can only get you so far," Lin commented knowing that even if Korra was being taught by some of the best benders she most certainly didn't get enough training in plain hand-to-hand combat.

Vergil nodded agreeing completely with her. "Well, good thing is that Amon isn't better at hand to hand combat than me so in that aspect I can prepare Korra to take him on or do so myself in needed. Amon is a good strategist; that much we knew from the start but this proved it. His fighting style reflects on that as well. He might seem like he is rushing in at first but he is actually going for the fear and psychological edge over the opponent. His movements are fluid and he quickly adapts to opponent's fighting style, not to mention that he is surprisingly resilient. So yeah, we are dealing with a tough opponent that can be defeated," Vergil cut to the point and revealed the most important things he got out of this encounter.

Lin pondered on his words, once again the white haired male managed to prove that he was capable of doing his job better than most veterans. His specialty lied in war and overall combat tactics, given his age the accuracy and confidence behind his words and actions was another layer of mystery, the seventeen years Lin knew just a small bit about were the answer.

The images flashed in Korra's mind, her past life, Aang was trying to tell her something if the images of an unknown man, Toph Beifong and the Avatar of that time himself were anything to go by, but it wasn't enough to spark some realization in her. She woke up in her bed just when Tenzin walked in.

His eyes widened when he saw that she was awake. "Korra! Korra are you alright?" the Airbender asked her worriedly as he went to her side.

Korra sat up.

"Did, did Amon take your bending away?" he had to hear it from Korra as well.

Young Avatar made flame appear at her palm to prove that she still had her bending. "No. I'm okay."

Tenzin released the breath he had been holding up until that moment. "Oh, thank goodness."

Korra finally let her emotions through as tears streamed down her face and she clung onto Tenzin. "I was so terrified! I felt so helpless."

Tenzin reached out to her to comfort her. "It's all right. The nightmare is over," he assured her.

Korra backed away. "You, you were right. I've been scared this whole time and I don't know what to do!"

"Admitting your fears is the first and most difficult step in overcoming them," Tenzin said as she cried in his arms.

Finally calming down after crying her heart out Korra couldn't help bus ask. "Did you get me back here?"

"Only from the harbor. Vergil was the one who brought you back to the harbor," Tenzin replied and Korra nodded but then realized that the name never came up before.

"Vergil? Who is that?"

"You already know him, in a way. He is the white haired male that was with Lin back when you first came to the city," Tenzin referred back to the time Korra was at the station.

Korra certainly didn't see that many white haired people around her age so it was easy to remember him. "The one with a scar? Who is he anyways? Didn't seem much like a cop to me."

"He doesn't wear uniform but I assure you that he is a part of the police. I don't know much but Lin found him unconscious three years ago and from that point on he has been living with her," Tenzin explained but he just confused Korra more.

"Why would anyone want to live with her?" now Korra had met the woman in question a couple of times, none of which ended on pleasant terms and she found no answer as to how a sane person could live with the Chief of Police for three years.

"Lin can be a bit… challenging at times, but she isn't all that bad," Tenzin tried to defend the woman in question.

"Suuure," Korra dragged the word out on purpose clearly showing that she wasn't convinced. "But why? It's not like he couldn't go back to his parents or something."

Tenzin looked down and Korra felt a bit bad for asking that. "Maybe he can't. I don't know his story to be frank, and I think Lin is the only one who knows. All I can do is assume that he either left his parents or that he no longer has them."

Korra remained silent, not really knowing how to deal with answers like that. The one in question wasn't present so she couldn't actually apologize.

"Anyway as Lin told me Vergil has been doing a bit of an investigation on his own, which is why he went to the Memorial Island in the first place. He got into a fight at the very least with the chi-blockers, if not with Amon himself," Tenzin decided to change the topic.

"What about his bending?" Korra felt somewhat alarmed at that.

"Never had one. He is a non-bender," and this of course shocked her but at the same time made her even more intrigued about the white haired male.

Having a busy night never came with proper rest the following morning when it came to Chief of Police and as she was buried in paperwork she heard her doors opening. By now she didn't even need Seismic Sense to recognize the male's footsteps, light on his feet but steady.

Vergil walked up to her table and lowered a cup, filled with black coffee, strong, just the way she liked it.

"I'll never understand how you can drink this abomination of a drink, but to each their own," Vergil grinned slightly, it wasn't his usual confident, even somewhat cocky smirk, it was just a plain and simple happy grin.

Lin rolled her eyes at that and shook her head slightly. Frankly, the coffee was exactly what she needed.

The two simply shared a small smile between one another and the boy Lin saved three years ago went back to continue with his job.

Roughly a month passed and because of the Task Force Vergil found himself without any solid lead. Equalists were getting more careful, he couldn't even think about infiltrating in any way shape or form and no matter how many sleepless nights passed he just didn't manage to get anywhere closer to bringing an end to all of this. It left him frustrated, angry at himself for being so powerless to do something and they were all running out of time here.

On the other hand, while Vergil was struggling with his wok Korra had it all going quite smoothly at the moment.

The Pro-bending team Fire Ferrets was in the arena training for their final match of the season. The underdogs of the tournament that reached the finals, it was a miracle and now they only had one opponent to face and defeat in order to become the champions.

"Man I've got a great feeling about tonight, I don't care if we are the underdogs we can take those pompous Wolfbats," Korra said to her teammates Mako and Bolin.

"It'll be our toughest match ever but I think you're right," Mako took off his helmet and Bolin quickly placed his left arm around his brother's shoulders.

"Introducing your new champs! The fantastic Fire Ferrets!" Bolin mimicked the voice of the tournament's commentator.

Korra was in a good mood, but that seemed to change when the dreaded voice spoke through the radio.

'Good morning, citizens of Republic City. This is Amon, I hope you all enjoyed the last night's pro-bending because it will be the last. It's time for this city to stop worshiping the bending athletes as if they were heroes. I am calling on the Council to shut down the bending arena and cancel the finals, or else there will be severe consequences.'

That was the message he had for the city.

"That guy's got some nerve," Bolin huffed, seriously, from the moment that guy showed up in Korra's life she couldn't catch a break and now it seemed to be affecting even more people.

"You think the Council will give in?" Mako asked the only person who could perhaps know the answer between the three of them.

"I'm not waiting to find out; we need to get to the city hall," Korra decided and so they did.

Korra opened the doors and pretty much barged into a meeting with Mako and Bolin right behind her.

Tenzin stood up. "Korra you shouldn't be here, this is a closed meeting."

"As the Avatar and a pro-bending player I have the right to be heard. You can't cancel the finals," Korra cut down to the chase right away.

"I know winning the championship means a lot to you but as far as I'm concerned we need to shut the arena down," Tenzin stood firm to his belief.

"What about the rest of you? Tarrlok, there's no way you are backing down from Amon, right?" she tried to get the support from one of the rare people who wanted to fight Amon.

"Actually, Tenzin and I agree for once," Tarrlok stood up as well, his statement surprising the young Avatar.

"The Council is unanimous, we are closing the arena," Tenzin stated firmly.

"No!"

"You can't!"

Mako and Bolin had pretty much the same reaction.

"I don't understand, I thought you of all people would take a stand against Amon," Korra reminded the Waterbender.

"While I am still committed to bringing that lunatic to justice I will not put innocent lives at stake just so you and your friends can play, a game," Tarrlok put an emphasis on the word game and more importantly he may have, whether it was consciously or not, placed safety of others above what he wanted to get done.

Mako stepped forward. "Pro-bending might be just a game to you, but think of what it means to the city. Right now the arena is one place where benders and non-benders gather together in, in peace to watch benders-"

"Beat each other up!" and Bolin said the truth that might have ruined Mako's potential argument against closing the arena… "In peace! It's an inspiration to everyone!"

"I appreciate your naïve idealism but you are ignoring the reality of the situation." Tarrlok stated, he didn't have patience or desire to deal with them right now.

"The reality is, if you close the arena you let Amon win," Korra argued fiercely.

"Yes! Exactly what she said! Yes!" Bolin completely agreed with her.

"I'm sorry but our decision has been made. This meeting is adjourned," Tarrlok was about to end it by slamming the mallet down but it was torn into two by a metal cable.

As everyone turned around Korra recognized the white haired male standing next to Lin. It was hard to forget the white hair and the scar on his face after all. Some time passed after the incident at the Memorial Island and this was the first time she saw him despite thinking about paying a visit to the Police HQ just to thank him. She never did because of the woman standing right there next to him. Really, she didn't feel like walking into Lin Beifong anytime soon.

"I can't believe I'm saying this but I agree with the Avatar," Lin said surprising pretty much everyone.

"You do?" Tarrlok asked flabbergasted.

"Yeah, you do?" Korra was probably more surprised than anyone else.

"I expected this kind of cut and run response from Tenzin, but the rest of you? Come on. Show a little more backbone," she challenged them much to Tenzin's annoyance, especially due to her comment. "It's time that the benders of this city display some strength and unity against these Equalists."

"We must prevent the conflict between benders and non-benders from escalating into all-out war. The Council is not changing its position Lin," Tenzin declared.

Tarrlok pondered on it for a moment. This could provide him with a perfect opportunity. "Now just a moment, Tenzin. Let us hear what our esteemed Chief of Police has in mind," he gave Lin a chance to speak and Tenzin gave up but stilled folded his arms to show his displeasure at this.

"If you keep the arena open, my Metalbenders, Vergil and I, will provide extra security during the championship match. There's no better force to deal with the chi-blockers. Our armor is impervious to their attacks," Lin assured them confidently.

"Especially if you keep your hands out of this Tarrlok," Vergil added matter-of-factly.

Tarrlok felt his eyebrow twitch at that but ignored the comment that left Fire Ferrets confused. "Are you saying that you will personally take responsibility for the safety of the spectators in the arena?" those who paid attention couldn't help but notice that Tarrlok was plotting something and Vergil was one of them. A slight glare right at Tarrlok was clearly noticed by the Waterbender, though he paid it no mind.

"I guarantee it," Lin promised without a slightest hint of hesitation or uncertainty.

"It is hard to argue with Chief Beifong's track record and Mr. Leonidas has only failed to complete his task twice, besides that he's got a flawless career," Tarrlok said and then turned to the other Council members. "If she is confident that her elite officers can protect the arena then she has my support. I am changing my vote, who else is with me?" and of course everyone besides Tenzin raised their hands.

Tenzin shook his head, this was going to end badly, he could almost guarantee it.

"The arena stays open. Good luck in the finals," Tarrlok's words caused a cheer from the Fire Ferrets.

"Alright!"

"Yes!"

"Thank you!"

"And good luck to you too, Chief Beifong," Tarrlok added.

"A word please, Lin," Tenzin told her when he passed by the woman.

Lin turned to look at him but followed none the less.

"Korra, you should come to the Police HQ, there's something I should show you," Vergil said and without waiting for any response, he left the city hall.

Korra was finally in front of the Police HQ she took a deep breath and braced herself. Lin took her side and everything but she didn't feel like going inside so casually.

"What are you standing there for? Shouldn't you be preparing for the finals?" and of course one person that was going to find her standing there would be the Chief herself.

"Uh, I… Vergil told me to come here, something about showing me something…?" Korra tried to explain.

Lin sighed as a feeling of slight headache overcame her, clearly Vergil had something planned but that didn't mean Lin approved of Korra being directly involved. "Come on then, follow me."

The walk through the HQ went quietly and finally Korra was led to the doors right next to Lin's personal office.

"He's inside," Lin said and left Korra standing in front of the white haired male's office doors.

"I didn't think he had an office," Korra muttered to herself but then remembered that Vergil lived with Lin, of course he'd be high up in the Police. She knocked on the doors and waited for reply which came quite quickly.

"Come on in," she heard his voice and opened the doors. What she found inside surprised her; Vergil had boards with information written all over them.

"I've been investigating Amon and the Equalists for quite some time now. Well I've been doing it from home for some time but I ran out of space and moved into this office. Thought most of what you see here is more of a counter for him," Vergil nonchalantly stated when he noticed the way she looked at the boards.

"Tarrlok was right; with this much you must have a flawless career," Korra said feeling nothing short of amazement as she looked around.

"I'd hardly call this flawless, all I have here is vague and nothing too specific to go head first to someone and say. 'Hey you are working with Amon.' I ran a background check on all big names in the city and I can clear most of them out, but those that I can't still take positions that are too high for me to barge in without a concrete evidence, not to mention that there are still too many of those I can't rule out to make a narrow list of two or three people," Vergil sighed once he gave her a run-down on most of the things he had.

"Why the big names?" Korra couldn't help but ask.

He looked at her, contemplating on whether to let her figure it out on her own. In the end he chose to reply. "Because Amon needs financial sources. I can say that none of them are Amon himself, but someone must be helping him."

The Avatar raised an eyebrow at that. "Why would anyone want to help Amon anyway?"

"Amon did more good for the non-benders than any Council member or officer. The way he goes about it might be wrong but what he did was for the most part good for society," Vergil grumbled and then turned to Korra once more. "I called you here to talk to you about his fighting style. You'll sooner or later be in the direct line of fire and if there is something that can be done to lower the risks then we should do it."

"I'm sorry, I can't tell you much, I never fought him," Korra apologized.

"I did. Well it was more of a spar but it'll do at this point," his words brought back the memories.

'Anyway as Lin told me Vergil has been doing a bit of an investigation on his own, which is why he went to the Memorial Island in the first place. He got into a fight at the very least with the chi-blockers, if not with Amon himself.'

"About that. Thank you for helping me," Korra bowed slightly.

Vergil just shrugged it off. "Nah, there's nothing to thank me for. I was there to get information, not to help you, so you shouldn't be thanking me," the bluntness of his response surprised her.

"You still brought me back to the harbor," the Avatar reminded him.

"Just as anyone else would have. Trust me; you won't be thanking me after this conversation is over," casually he walked over to one of the boards.

"Amon is a close range fighter, which seems reasonable given the fact that he is supposedly a non-bender. What I want you to do when you encounter him again is to be ready for anything, for all you know he might start Airbending out of blue, the ability to take away someone's bending, the ability that only the Avatar had up until now. I don't know how but if he really is a non-bender then he certainly ain't a normal human," Vergil addressed the most important problem when it came to Amon himself. "Besides the obvious use of his ability he is also using it as a fear factor, something that you yourself can vouch for and his actual fighting style is quite fluid, he adapts quickly and can take a hit. But the biggest problem we have here is you."

"Me? How am I a problem?" Korra took offense to that, great, this was their first time talking and he was getting on her nerves.

He smirked at that. "You are a decent fighter at best."

She has been praised for mastering the physical side of bending she has always excelled at the physical side of anything and here was someone telling her that she is decent at best?

"You've only seen me fight once!" Korra argued furiously.

"And that's all I need to see. Look at yourself, you have a short fuse, you are easy to provoke and you lack skill needed to stand up to Amon in hand to hand aspect of combat. All in all you are more of an amateur than an actual combatant," it sounded like he was scolding a child, explaining why it wasn't the best idea to do something stupid.

"Like you are any better! If you were so skilled you would have captured Amon!" she tried to retaliate by blaming him instead.

Still, he merely smirked once more; amused by the way she reacted. "While it is true that I couldn't capture Amon that has pretty much nothing to do with your situation and if you do want to know I had an upper hand in that fight."

Korra glared at him.

"For any action you have to take consequences, that's why you could have lost your bending. You ignored the consequences and tried to prove it to people that you were brave enough to face Amon. When there is something important don't barge in head first, take a step back and think. Is barging in really the best choice you have? Take your time sometimes, patience isn't what I'm asking from you, I'm asking you to learn how to think things through. For your own sake," Vergil said and took a paper from his deck. He handed it to Korra who albeit still angry glanced at it. It was a list with her name at the top.

"And this is?" she questioned as she stared at the list.

"The only structure of Amon's plan I have so far. The crossed ones are already accomplished."

Korra saw 'Inner-circle', 'Support', 'Chi-blockers', 'Followers' and 'Pro-bending' crossed. Above that were 'Police', 'Council', 'Republic City' and 'Korra'

Vergil sat down. "He already entered the mid stage of his plan, with tonight's events he'll achieve almost everything needed to get to the endgame… If we fail the faith in Police and Lin's position as the Chief will be at stake, we'll have one chance at best to regain the trust of the citizens," Vergil's voice became a tad bit softer, almost concerned.

"But you already crossed out pro-bending," Korra pointed out.

"Because this is a losing battle, Tarrlok is playing Lin, baiting her to fail so he can put someone else in her position or whatever else. We actually lost the moment we kept the arena open. Even with all the police force we can't identify the enemies so they can still sneak in as a part of the audience," the white haired male leaned back into his chair and looked at the ceiling.

"Closing the arena is what Amon wants!" Korra argued.

"Quite the opposite actually. Because with the arena open he can take the bending of the champion team and prove that pretty much no bender can stand against him. Once again it's a game of fear," Korra hated to admit it but he was right… Amon could do it.

"And you still say that I am the biggest problem," she muttered feeling hurt because with all the problems that were obvious he still thought she was the biggest one.

"Because you are. If we lose the Avatar due to her not knowing how to use her head it'll affect everything. Benders will lose faith, nations might attack but they'll never send someone strong enough out of fear that they might lose them; your loss signals the victory of Amon's revolution. To them you are the Avatar, they don't care about anything else, and Avatar is the strongest of them all."

"But I am the Avatar; it's my duty to fight Amon," gradually she calmed down.

"You are first of all Korra, and then you are the Avatar. Just because the world sees you as the Avatar it doesn't mean I have to as well. As far as I am concerned you are Korra, nothing more, nothing less," He made it clear, that's all she would ever be to him, Korra and for nothing in the world would he look at her as the Avatar. Avatar title, sure, he'd take it into account for overall impact of whatever happened to her, but on a personal level he just didn't care about it.

"You don't care about me being an Avatar?" Korra asked, this kind of approach was something she only saw Lin have so far. Everyone else had at least one bit of a thought about her being an Avatar. White Lotus, Tenzin, Tarrlok, none of them would come into her life if she wasn't the Avatar. Over time she just came to accept that being the Avatar came before being Korra. Hell, Bolin showed her just what kind of reaction it causes and even Mako stopped being completely rude to her when she revealed it.

"Avatar isn't even on my list of priorities. To be frank you are one of my last priorities but you are still somewhat of a priority so take it how you will," and now he confused her.

"If I wasn't the Avatar you wouldn't have called me here," Korra pointed out.

"Well you being the Avatar did get you into the entire mess so you have a point, if you weren't the Avatar I wouldn't call you because you probably wouldn't be involved with this. We can go back and forth on 'what ifs' but the point is that I don't care about you being the Avatar," Vergil kept the eye contact, she had calmed down, when provoked she was quick to act but if the one provoking her didn't back away she could gradually calm down as the conversation kept going.

"So to get back to the point of me calling you here. What you need is a bit of training in close combat, you need to learn how to fight when you are at a disadvantage, when you can't bend or when you are partially bound. Once you learn how to fight decently in these situations you'll see the progress in actual combat without the disadvantages," Vergil stated thus igniting the flame of anger yet again.

"And I take it you can teach me?" her voice gave away the anger that was building up yet he ignored it.

"I can and if you want me to I will," they were polar opposites, that much was clear, she was a bender, he was a non-bender, she was quick to anger, he never lost his cool during the conversation, she acted before thinking, he did the opposite.

Before she could answer they were interrupted by Lin opening the doors. "Vergil, it's time to go."

Leonidas glanced at Korra one more time, the slight anger in her eyes told him that the conversation wouldn't go anywhere until he showed her that he could fight, so he decided to leave it at that. "Good luck tonight," he said and walked out of the room.

Korra sighed when he closed the doors, he didn't tell her to leave so she didn't, she was left alone with all the information written around her. She looked around and saw the blueprints of the arena and all the places that needed to be covered on one board, other board had the more detailed version of the paper he gave her, the elements were the same but he had written down the reasons behind every element written down. Moving on she found the results of his investigation of the chi-blocker training sequences. Finally she found the newspaper articles and information provided by other sources on two boards. Final board consisted of a short summary of the case.

The way he phrased it wasn't the regular police work as far as she could tell.

Main target: Amon
-Close combat, strategist, psychological edge via fear, ability to take bending away.
-Potentially a bender.
-Good manipulator.
Potential suspects: Iknik Blackstone Varrick, Lau Gan-Lan, Hiroshi Sato, entire Council, top of the police.
-The only ones with enough financial and influential power to aid Amon.
Target of the enemy: Republic City, Korra, benders.

The board had a few more information written down on it but Korra was utterly surprised by the fact that he had written down the 'top of the police' on the suspect list. Korra looked at the rest of the room, a marker on the table, a few sheets of paper and a chair. Finally a small table with a case file on it in the corner of the room.

She walked up to it and picked it up, she was about to open it.

"Put it down," Lin's commanding voice pulled her out of her thoughts and she almost dropped the case file. "You finished your conversation, leave," there was something more abrasive in Lin's voice, more than usual.

Korra set the file down and looked at Lin. "What is this?" she asked, this was the only thing that seemed out of place, the only case file in the room and Lin told her not to touch it, it looked like it wasn't related to Amon.

"It's none of your concerns," the response was clear and simple.

Korra sighed and once again followed Lin down the same route they arrived before. "Why did he put the police on the suspect list?" she felt the need to ask.

"Because that might be true. Vergil doesn't look at things from perspective of sides but rather of chances, everyone who has a chance to get in contact with Amon is a suspect to some extent, that being said he is my primary suspect," Lin replied further puzzling the girl next to her.

"Don't you trust him?" Korra questioned.

"Keep your nose out of other people's business," Lin ended the conversation.

-Flashback-

This method began the first time Vergil investigated a more important case more or less on his own.

"I don't want to look at people and dismiss everything they might do. I want to keep my eyes open to change in behavior, because comrades, friends, family, no matter who it is under the right circumstances they can turn against you, even if it's to protect you," that was his explanation when she saw her name on the suspect list.

"So I am a suspect because I can keep silent about the information or give you the fake ones," Lin understood it but it still irked her to see her name there.

"That's the gist of it. That's why I want you to think of me that way as well and if I, under any circumstances, close my eyes and allow myself to act against my principles I trust you to put a stop to it. No matter what you have to do," his request was clear if he changed sides and aided the enemy she was the one he gave the right to stop him.

-Flashback ends-

And to this day she never had to even think of doing anything, she just kept observing his patterns, his usual behavior and felt assured that he wouldn't cross the line and aid what he stood against.

All right, here we go again with this. So, as you can see this version has much longer chapter than what I usually wrote. From now on my chapters will range from 10k to 20k words, though there might be some exceptions. This also means I'll have slower updates. However since I have an actual schedule now I won't be leaving a story with half a year break between the chapters. If you're interested in the schedule you can find it on my profile.

The reason I'm starting again is quite simple, I'm not too proud of the original story, it is one of my older ones and I'd like to do a better job. Also it would be a bit out of blue if I moved from around 3k to five or six times the length.

Next Chapter – Equalists Rising