-Asami—

The day wore on. While Bolin and Mako shared their lunch, their old friend was ignoring constant calls. Ascendia calling about car antennae. Novak Industries asking about brakes. News about Cabbage Corp being overtaken by the government. Metalbenders being fired from factories because of innovative metal molding technology, then being rehired as Graft took over.

Asami ate at her desk. Behind her was a life-size platypus bear her father had stuffed. It towered over her desk and scared her every time she looked to either side of her and saw its paws out of her periphery. She had meant to take it away, get rid of it, but got caught up in business. Soon being around items that reminded her of her father didn't affect her like they used to. Asami had become desensitized to things like this.

Her assistant Kiyoko reported all the calls Asami was missing. Asami was out to lunch. Asami was in a meeting. Asami was held up, when really, she was purposely ignoring her phone. She looked out the window at Republic City and wondered if she would have to downgrade to a building that didn't have this great view. At least her mansion was paid off. She would always have that home. But would she always have food? Would she always have a car? She had been relying on her scooter because of gas efficiency. But how long could she last like this?

"Call from GP Motors, Asami. They are on line one." Asami had no plans to answer. Yeah, it had been a year since Amon's reign of terror. Since her father tried to kill her. She should be getting over this by now, but it was hard. Asami was not too bothered by her father's beliefs. To her, they were understandable. Firebenders took away the woman he loved. Took away her mother, and he had worked his way from a poor life to an extravagant one through his vision, intelligence, and innovation. He used no bending to get where he wanted, and those that did probably made him upset at such unfairness in nature.

From the beginning, Asami was sure that her father did not want to kill anyone. He and Amon wanted to suppress bending and maybe that was all. Asami knew he would always have a stigma on benders. But what bothered her was that in all of that, in Amon and Hiroshi's plight to end bending, the only person he actually tried to kill was Asami. Did that make her worse as a person to him than those who killed her mother? If he went after benders only to take away their bending but was ready to kill his own daughter, what did that say about her? She had no bending for him to take. She had nothing. She was his embarrassment. His shame. The side of him that questioned his ethics. The only force that could persuade him to stop what he was doing. The side he tried to eliminate. In the end, her hatred toward him did not stem from his prejudiced ideas, but from the fact that her own father proved to her he had given up any trace of love that he ever had in order to get what he wanted. His lust for control, his relentless hatred blinded him from the one he supposedly "loved".

Asami never thought she would be sitting here alone, trying to bring back a once prominent business. Initially it was just hard for her to get her balance in this gigantic failing business. Learning the terminology, working the phones, talking to partners, arranging meetings. It was so difficult to adjust.

Once she got the hang of it, she was faced with the threat of government takeover. This man, Graft, was absorbing her competitors and propelling them to a much higher level and Asami could not keep up. Her business was barely holding on in Graft's wake. Few private companies still existed that would agree to work with her and get her resources she needed for her products, but she was currently ignoring their calls. She thought Graft just left her alive as "competition" to show that private business still exists.

"Do not worry, Asami," he had said. "I understand your connection to this place. I see it as an opportunity. Every great business needs a competitor so that they will have a drive to innovate and improve. It's the only way to move toward the future. Whoever is left standing! May the better man win."

He was just toying with her. He had all of his resources at the snap of his fingers. He was a genius. It seemed like he was taking bits of shards and turning out all kinds of motors and car frames and plane engines. The police were driving around Graft's cars and flying his airships soon instead of hers. Ugh.

Asami accepted his challenge, but he wasn't playing fair. She knew things were getting bad for her, but she wouldn't let someone like Graft think that all this unfair play would pay off. She would sweep him from underneath. Did she really believe this? Maybe a third of her did. But that was enough to keep her going. She knew it was no longer straight competition seeing that the police and council, the new government, were working with Graft.

Maybe things would change, but Asami was scared of the future.