Not Your Hero

Chapter 7

Wow, the couch felt so comfortable. The academy never had soft couches. Heck, they barely had couches at all. But this was heaven. Korra could lie here all day with Asami. Something about Asami's presence soothed Korra's otherwise very much stressed mind. Maybe it was her faint but sweet perfume Korra could smell--the potent, fresh, yet addictive smell of white jade suited Asami. Maybe it was Asami's fast-turning brain that seemed to say there's no need to worry about the situation. Maybe it was just Asami in general. With a hidden chuckle, Korra realized that she loved being around Asami. At first, it was just the heart-felt talks: finally, a person comes that understands her so well that everything just felt easy. But then it was the little things: how she would get a slightly distant look in her eyes when she talked about engineering, how her eyes would narrow in concentration, how she would so often give that heart-melting smile of hers. With Asami, Korra was just herself, not the young and talented Captain Korra of the United Special Operations Force. Was Korra getting attached? Most definitely. Every minute spent around the woman made her joyful, even when the circumstances were not. But frankly, they were both on a dangerous mission. Feelings would get them side-tracked. And there's no telling which mission would be their last. They all knew that when going into a mission, and it was the undertone of Korra's professionalism.

Turning her attention back to the task at hand, Korra decided to run things over with Asami. "So let's clear things out. Amon said something about resources being limited. What was that about? I'm assuming you know more than I do--I didn't grow up elite. Err... No offense."

"What he means is that resources aren't free. A lot of people are starving, they don't have clean water, and we've almost hunted a lot of animals down to extinction. Even the oil that cars and factories use for fuel is limited. There are too many people to share those limited resources with." Asami explained. Korra stayed silent while she continued, "It bothers me because Amon is partly right. Resources are limited. But killing the poor just isn't the solution." Korra slowly nodded. She could see the truth behind Amon's words. But then, if getting rid of the poor is out of the question, what isn't?

"Alright let's focus on the task at hand." Korra decided. "We're supposed to go to this Saviors' rally, or secret meeting, whatever they call it, this evening. So we need to figure out their strategies. We need to know how they'll act. Then we're rendezvous with the team and come up with a plan of action." Asami nodded.

--

"This is Captain Korra. Privates Mako and Bolin, do you copy?"

"We copy. This is Mako. What's your update, captain?"

"We've figured out Amon's motive. It's something way beyond a few manslaughters. He says that resources are limited and there should be fewer people to share them with. So he, and a lot of elitists, want to get rid of the poor. There's this gathering tonight, Amon is probably going to share his strategies and we're going to attend. Asami got us invitations. What's your status?"

"I think we know how those people died. Their water supply was contaminated. Their water pipes were replaced by old lead pipes. Normally a small concentration of lead isn't fatal, but from water samples the concentration was huge. It was like those people were taking lead mixed with some water down into their stomachs. They probably died on the same day. And the victims all lived in secluded places, so no other families were affected."

"And then one of the saviors left the note saying these people were 'saved'. They're probably trying to raise awareness. Have any other victims been found? They can't be this small scale."

"I don't know if it's fortunate or unfortunate, but no. These people are all unnoticed, no one cares about them. So we won't be able to know the total number of victims."

Korra sighed. "Hopefully tonight will explain things. Thank you for the update, Mako. Get some rest, we'll come back to the compound tomorrow."

--

To say the gathering riled Korra up in more ways than she could imagine was an understatement. Asami had to grab her forearm the whole time they were there, or Korra might have really lept forward and punched Amon in the face, all the while yelling "You can't do that!". Amon proved Mako's theory correct: they were going to mess with the piping system. Only this time, their method would be more efficient. Instead of lead pipes (which had just been an experiment that turned to be ineffective), they would poison the entire city's water supply--except the high-class circle of course. They were going to set free pathogens into the water supply. Water factories don't bother to treat water with chlorine now, they got their water from creating atomic bonds. That meant they could sneak anything into water distributors without being the contamination detected. Republic City had different distributors for different parts of the city, all they had to do was contaminate water factories that weren't serving the higher classes. Once Republic City began dealing with its water crisis, other cities would become victims. And so, "the wheels of revolution are set forth".

--

"Stay the night at my place?" Asami asked. Korra agreed. She had nowhere else to go anyway. It was going to be a treat after her years at the academy and later the USOF compound.

The bunk beds were nothing compared to the soft plush queen-sized bed in the guest room. There were also a lot more amenities Korra never had in the compound--the huge bathroom, for starters. It made Korra feel like this was the sort of teenage sleep-overs she never had.

After bidding each other good night, the two girls went to bed in their respective rooms. At the back of Korra's half-asleep mind, she realized that she wanted this. She wanted to be with Asami every day, even living with her.

A/N: Science explanation: lead from the pipes often leaches with tap water. That's why most pipes aren't built from lead now. Also, chlorine is used to kill pathogens in the water. But combing two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom would get you almost perfect water (if that's possible and cheap). So chlorine is certainly not needed. I just did a project on water contamination, but this information is not spot-on. Don't rely on this stuff for your science test... I'm just saying.