Title: Disobeying Destiny

Summary: AU in which Tonraq and Senna never revealed Korra as the Avatar, and like Aang, had initially avoided her Avatar duties out of fear of global enemies. The world is in chaos due to her cowardice. While fighting in the front lines of another Water Tribe Civil War, Korra struggles with trying to ignore her destiny, and all her enemies from the entire series at once.

Chapter 2

"Nice to meet you, Ms. Sato," said a young voice. Asami Sato had looked up from her menu to view the young man standing by her table. He was tall and lean, with sharp black hair and haunting amber eyes. Everything about his clothes screamed street-rat meets hired-muscle, and the young woman knew then and there that her contact had sent this man to negotiate with her in his stead, but first, she had to be sure.

"Who sent you?" she asked quietly, raising her cup of tea to cover her lips very nonchalantly. She wanted confirmation, but hopefully this hired-muscle had the common sense to not respond with the name of her actual client.

He sat down next to her in the booth and smiled, waving a waitress down from the other end of the café. "The rice cakes were delicious, thank you for making them," was all he said as he watched the waitress walk towards him, "Much better than your traditional family recipe."

"How can I help you, sir?" asked the waitress, pulling out her notepad to take his order.

Asami slowly put down her cup of tea and registered his words. He was speaking in code, of course, using the words that only she and Viper had assigned. The leader of the Triple Threats thought that the safest way to make illegal business was to make it seem like people were only exchanging recipes. Code names had to blend in with every day conversation, not words that seemed out-of-the-blue. Rice cakes meant small packets of explosives. Family recipe simply meant the old models her father had made before his death.

"Just a green tea," the young man asked with a smile, adding a wink when the waitress said she'd be right back, making her blush. As the woman walked away, the man turned back to face Asami.

"Name's Mako, by the way. What's the recipe of the day?" he asked, trying to charm her with his smile as he did with the waitress. Asami pondered for a second, wondering if this rookie knew the entire lingo she shared with his boss.

"Roast duck," she said finally, leaning against the table, trying to read his reaction.

Mako nodded, raising his eyebrows as if surprised by this answer. "Oh, really?" he asked, "I thought that took too long to cook?"

"They do," Asami answered, "But I really want to get a prototype out-" Mako furrowed his eyebrows in disapproval, shooting her a warning glance at her slip up from the word-game. Catching herself, Asami continued, "I would like to go hunting for one…"

The man was lost, trying to decipher her hints at this new language. The waitress arrived and placed the tea down in front of him. "Thank you, sweetheart," he said with another smile. The waitress giggled and nodded, retreating back to tending the rest of her diners.

"In order to properly make the roasted duck, we have to get a fresh one from the woods," Asami continued, trying to be interpretable. Sighing, she shifted down the booth to be closer to Mako and whispered as she pretended to drink once more, "I have suits that could possibly withstand chi-blocker attacks, but I need them to be tested, and the only way to test them is to find a chi-blocker to attack a subject."

His eyes widened as he finally understood, and turned to look at her, concern written on his face. "You want me to go duck-hunting?"

"I need one to properly follow the recipe," she said. She knew what she was asking was dangerous, but in order for the bending resistance to gain some ground was if they could evade the chi-blockers better. The suit she was making had special padding around key chi-points that severely affected bending. She needed to see if the padding would absorb most of the attack so that the benders could withstand hand-to-hand combat with them better.

Mako nodded along as he watched the ripples in his green tea. Suddenly, he looked up at her and asked, "Would you like to come over for dinner tonight? We're having sirloin steak." Payment. Viper always used beef, one of the most expensive meats, to reference getting paid.

"I would love to," Asami answered without missing a beat.

"Usual time?"

"You can count me in."

Before meeting with Viper and his close council for dinner, Asami dug through her files at Future Industries looking for a particular file called Project Waterfall. For the past week, Asami would look at the contents of this file with excitement, anxiously reading through the details. They were her weapon plans for the Southern Water Tribe. The first few pages of the massive stack of papers were filler, designed to fool a noisy person into believing that Asami was drafting a man-made waterfall for the city park, but further into the stack of papers, there were blueprints for special armor, upgraded melee weapons, pyrotechnics and ballistics, and wilderness versions of sato-mobiles designed to be the perfect convoy in harsh winter weather. But she often found herself wondering why she was putting such work and effort into this deal with the Southern Water Tribe's liaison, Varrick. He had intrigued her by the promise of the Avatar being on their side, but she had moments of doubt. She couldn't deny that she was excited to hear that the Avatar was alive and well, and knew that the best way to keep it that way was to keep quiet about the Avatar's location. Varrick had said that the Avatar had chosen to help resolve the Civil War, and then once that would happen, would reach out to the rest of the world, especially aiding Republic City in the bending resistance. But she knew there was a possibility that it could just be a hoax to get Future Industries to supply them, but whether the Avatar was in the picture or not, she would still be making sales, but… there as a part of her that wanted to do this not for the sake of capitalism, or for the sake of somehow aiding benders, but that the thought of the Avatar was not neglecting the world had given her a hope and drive to make sure that the Avatar could save the world. She still didn't want to be taken as a fool though. She wanted to see this Avatar for herself. She had to somehow organize a trip down to the South Pole first before agreeing to sell her products to the cause.

"Our Leader, Amon, is here to see you, Ms. Sato," said her receptionist, who had creaked open the main door to Asami's office. Asami froze in her chair with the file still in her hand and nodded to her receptionist, trying to slowly, but casually, put the file away before Republic City's dictator came through. She pulled open a desk drawer and gently laid the folder inside before quietly closing it back up, just in time too, because Amon had stepped into her office. He wore his usual jacket and mask, with his hood pulled up, and had his hands behind his back as he walked towards her. Asami gracefully stood up from her chair to bow to him in the traditional fashion.

"It is a pleasure to see you, Leader," Asami said, immediately going into her acting skills. "It is such a surprise, especially since it is so… late."

"I know, I am sorry for coming on such a short notice and for it being close to the end of your business day, but I just wanted to come down and personally thank you for all the support you have given to the Equalist cause," Amon said coolly. "I know that with the loss of your father, you could have easily discontinued your company and products, but like a true citizen, you carried your grief into sustaining your father's legacy of Future Industries. The Equalists would not be where they are today if it wasn't for you and your father's genius and ambitious contributions."

"Thank you," Asami said, trying to sound genuine. She watched as the man walk around her desk to stand in front of her. "Is there any other way I can help you?" she asked, feeling her soul shrink under his gaze. His blue eyes watched her from underneath his mask. He reached over and placed a hand on her shoulder. Asami shuddered on the inside.

"You are the true example of a perfect citizen, you know that?" he said, his voice still in the collected tone he always demonstrated. "Smart, beautiful, generous, and loyal. If the people ever needed a role model, it would be you," The hand he had resting on her shoulder slowly slid down her arm, and gently squeezed for a brief second before removing himself from touching her. "I think you should be more of a public citizen than you already are, Ms. Sato. It would mean a lot to me and the cause to have you standing next to me at rallies."

Asami blushed at his invitation, picking up on his signals and screaming in her mind. Was there a way to politely turn down a dictator without being assassinated for rejecting them?

"I'm too young," was what her mind went with, and Asami immediately hated herself for it.

"Nonsense," Amon said, still just as collected, "You can run an entire business on your own at such a young age, surely you have what it takes to help lead our revolution. You're a natural leader," He stepped in closer to her. "I'm not forcing you to do anything, Ms. Sato," he said, "I have no objection to being traditional, but I am the most powerful man in Republic City, and you are without a doubt, the most powerful woman in this city. You are the only kind of person I would dare share my power with. What I offer you is a great opportunity. Think about it."

With that, he turned around and showed himself out of her office, leaving Asami feeling violated from only his words and cold gaze. She had to turn him down. She couldn't possibly keep fueling the bending resistance while under the eye of Amon.

She slowly sat back into her chair and examined her dilemma. Was it possible though, to keep aiding the resistance while being Amon's bed-warmer? She shuddered at the thought, but was utilizing her sexuality her only option? She wondered if she'd ever get to see his face. Shaking the thought out of her head, Asami tried to focus on her "dinner plans" with the Triple Threats. She wouldn't allow Amon to intimidate her into consent. She'd rather go into hiding with the Triple Threats and lose her company than give herself to Amon. Heck, she'd rather fight the Water Tribe civil war among the fabled Avatar.

Author's note: Ew, Amon wants Asami. Can't have that can we? What ever happened to our awesome soldier Korra? How is Mako going to go duck-hunting?! Follow for updates to find out. As always, feed me comments. Feed the animal.