"Hello, Mako." She spoke from the dark corner of the room. She smiled at the thought of him being shocked and confused. But he didn't even hear her.
Mako's hands were bound behind his back. She watched him frantically searching around him for escape route, ignoring her.
"That's no way to greet your girlfriend." Asami stepped forward into the small light from the lamp sitting on the bare floor. The room was completely empty aside from the lamp and the two of them.
"Asami?" He finally looked up at her, confusion setting in.
She had his full attention now. A smug grin spread across her face, she loved attention.
"Who else, honey?" She laughed, keeping her voice light just as she had when she had to be around him or the others.
"What are you doing here? I thought you weren't on your father's side. I thought you were on ours."
"I was on my own side!" Asami yelled in his face.
"So all of it was a lie?" Mako screamed. "But I was there when you turned on your father!"
"My father was a rich fool! He drove my mother away. It was his fault she died." Asami let out the anger she had been holding in all these years pretending to be the loving daughter. But no tears came. She was stronger than that.
"I don't understand." His voice forced her back to the present.
Asami hated the stupid boy in front of her. She hated how selfish he was. She hated that she had to pretend to even like him.
"Maybe this will help."
Asami raised her gloved hand. She pointed her fist at Mako and sent a metal rope flying towards his face. The metal cut into his right cheek. Mako cried out in pain.
"I'm a bender. But I was what you would call a late bloomer. The day I discovered my bending was the very day my mother died at the hands of a firebender. From that day on my father hated all benders." Asami's voice didn't betray any emotion. Years of lying had perfected her acting abilities.
"So, I kept my bending a secret. I met a metal bender a couple years ago, he taught me everything I know today. Do you see where this story is going?" Asami turned to look at Mako.
He sat in silence, too shocked to speak.
"I loved him." Asami lowered her voice. "We were going to get married. I knew my father would hate him but I decided that didn't matter. We would run away together if we had to. But do you know what happened?"
Asami lunged at him, slapping him across the face. "Answer me! Do you know what happened to him?" She repeated.
Mako shook his head.
"Amon took away his bending." She didn't bother telling him the rest. Without his bending, her love had become depressed, lost all hope, and eventually killed himself.
Asami lowered her head and turned away from Mako.
"Then why are you here? Why are you fighting along side them?" Mako asked.
"What?" Asami turned. She had forgotten he was even there. "Have you not heard anything I just said? I'm not fighting along side them, you fool! They are all but pawns in my plan."
"And, what is that? What's your big plan?" Mako spat.
An evil smile spread across Asami's face. "Wait and see."
….
"You know I can't stay here." Korra said.
Amon turned away from her. He knew she was right but hated to admit it even to himself.
"Republic City needs me. If your men go through with the plans you've made, I have to be there to protect my people."
"Your people need more than protection from the Equalists." Amon muttered as he looked up at the clear night sky.
"What do you mean?" Korra took a few steps towards him.
"I told you once that there are more dangerous things out there than me." Amon turned to look at the young Avatar standing before him.
He was going to have to let her go. He realized that now. She wouldn't stay with him. Why had he even thought she might? Korra loved Republic City. She loved the people, she loved the arena and pro bending. She loved the music. She loved the night life. She loved the island. She loved those airbending children. Korra was in love with Republic City not him.
He knew all of this. Amon had watched from a distance. The Avatar fascinated him.
Korra didn't speak. He knew she was waiting for him to continue.
"You're right. Republic City does need you, young Avatar. Things, things you can not began to imagine, are unfolding quickly. People will get hurt, benders and non benders alike."
Amon reached down and picked his mask up from the ground and replaced it over his face.
...
"Amon." Korra didn't know what to say. She wanted to say she would rather stay here with him. They had just began to get to know one another but she felt as if they had known each other for years. The connection between them was undeniable. The electrical current they shared grew stronger each day.
Korra wanted to tell him everything. She wanted to share stories with him. She wanted to sit next to him as they cooked fish over the fire. She wanted to stay here and watch as he secretly gave Naga extra bits of fish when he thought Korra wasn't looking. She wanted to stay and get to know the mysterious man behind the mask.
But Korra didn't say anything. What she wanted didn't matter.
"We'll leave in the morning after you've had some rest."
Korra cleared her throat. "Well, I don't know about you but I could go for some more fish. I'm starving." She lied.
"You start the fire and I'll get the fish." Amon responded.
….
"Where do you think they took him?" Bolin's voice came from the other side of the dark cell.
"I don't know." Tenzin sighed.
Lin sat in the corner of the cell by herself. She had failed. She had failed the brothers, the Avatar, Tenzin, and her men. She ignored the two talking. Instead she focused on the metal around her. They claimed it was pure, with nothing in it that she could bend, but maybe if she concentrated hard enough she could find something, anything, to get them out of here.
Just then the thick door to their cell flew open blinding them all with the sudden light. A figure was forced inside before the door slammed shut.
"Mako?" Bolin asked cautiously.
"Don't touch me!" A voice growled.
Lin stood, listening. The voice was familiar to her. She had heard it before but only just once or twice.
"Who are you?" Tenzin asked with concern in his voice.
"He's Amon's right hand man." Lin answered before the Lieutenant could respond. "Why are you in here?"
"It's none of your concern!" The Lieutenant yelled in her direction.
"Well, it would appear that you are no longer in charge around here." Lin said with a smug voice.
...
The Lieutenant didn't respond. When he got out of here, he would be sure these disgusting benders were on the top of his list to destroy.
"Where's my brother?" Bolin demanded.
The Lieutenant continued to ignore them.
"Lieutenant, listen to me. We should to put our differences aside and help each other out of here." Lin offered.
"You would help me?" The lieutenant asked, disbelief painting his tone.
"Tell us where your men took the firebender and where they're hiding the Avatar and we'll help you out of here." Lin answered.
"Ha! You fools! We never even had the Avatar!"
"What?" Tenzin yelled "Then- then where is she?"
"How should I know?" The Lieutenant shrugged his shoulders. He was starting to give up. What was the point? Amon had betrayed him. The men had betrayed him. And now he was stuck in a cell with benders.
"Because Amon captured the Avatar from Tarrlok after taking away his bending." Lin answered as she narrowed her eyes in the Equalist's direction.
"Amon has been gone for at least a week. I have no idea what he's been up to. He doesn't tell me when or where or even if he's leaving."
….
Korra and Amon both sat in silence. Naga had nodded off to sleep with her head resting on her large paws. The fire was slowly dying down but neither added more wood.
Korra looked up at the stars, she looked at the fire, the trees, the darkness, Naga sleeping, everywhere but at Amon. She could feel his eyes watching her as she sat there fidgeting.
"What's on your mind, young Avatar?" He spoke up causing Korra to jump.
"I was just thinking," she began.
"Yes?"
"You said you didn't hate all benders." Korra was having trouble getting to her point.
"I don't." Amon responded.
"But why did you get so upset when I said that? And, if you don't hate all benders then why are you leading the Equalists?" Korra looked at Amon trying to read his reaction through his mask.
He sighed.
"That is not an easy question to answer, young Avatar."
Korra tried to ignore the selfish side of her that want to lash out at him every time he called her that. She thought they were past the stupid formalities.
"My mother was a bender." Amon stated the sudden fact with no emotion.
Korra swallowed the gasp which tried to escape.
"An earthbender actually. But, my father hated benders. He had always been jealous. At least that's what I still believe to be true. My mother knew this about my father when they first met. She kept her bending a secret from him." Amon looked away from Korra's gaze. "She loved my father, loved him more than her bending. She chose him."
Amon sighed and dropped his hand into his hands. It looked as if the pain of the past was hanging on his shoulders.
Korra wanted to comfort him but was frozen in place, mesmerized by his voice and story.
"My father eventually found out. I thought he was going to kill her. But he didn't. Instead he beat her. He hit her every day, hoping to somehow beat the bending right out of her. She never raised a hand, or rock, in defense." Amon looked back up at Korra.
"From that day on, he preached to me about the evil of bending. When the firebender came to our farm, my father tried to fight him. The bender paralyzed him from the waist down. He took advantage of our farm, keeping all the profits for himself."
Amon gaze captured her own. She could see the anger and pain that swam in those golden eyes.
"One day, I asked my mother why my father allowed the firebender to continue. I asked her if it was the same reason she allowed my father to abuse her. She sat me down and said that my father sat by and did nothing because he was not strong enough to protect the ones he loved."
"She stood by and did nothing because she loved my father and I too much to leave. The next day she to tried to fight the firebender. But she hadn't practiced bending in so long. She was no match for him. My father died trying to save her. She died trying to protect me. And I lived because the firebender didn't have enough time to finish me off. He was in too much of a hurry to get out of there."
…
Amon looked away. He had never told a living soul the truth about his parents and here he was telling the Avatar of all people. But she was so easy to talk, so easy to be around. The more he talked, the stronger the electrical current felt between them.
"I wanted to honor my father. He died in such a terrible way."
Amon's voice grew dark. "Revenge is a funny thing. It causes people's judgement to be clouded. I was so obsessed with avenging my father's death that I started to forget about my mother. That she was a bender."
The ember in the fires glowed softly casting an eery glow on both of them.
"What would she think of me? Of what I've done? Sure my father would be proud but my mother?" Amon stopped talking. He had revealed too much.
"Your mother would still love you." Korra whispered.
"Would she?" Amon looked at her, golden fire searching blue oceans.
"Yes."
"You are wrong, young Avatar. No one could love a hideous monster like myself."