On the streets of Republic City, common people, honest and hardworking, were standing out and screaming, holding up signs that showed their anger against the unjust system, demanding that everyone should be treated equally, bender or not.

In this world, benders got many advantages.

They were the first to get a job, be it in the police, medicine, or many other fields. The priority was always theirs.

They also got paid more.

Not to mention how many of them were forming triads to bully common people, take their money, and sometimes, their lives.

That left many people frustrated, and now, a man in a mask was promising them equality. All they had to do was believe in him and raise their voices.

They had developed weapons. Learned a type of martial arts that could bring any bender down to their knees.

And all that was left now was to conquer the city, and then the world.

The man with this vision was looking down at his followers from a window.

Everything should have been proceeding according to plan.

Everything was moving fine.

But…

Tarrlok hadn't finished his mission. Not only that, but he hadn't even come back.

The Dai Li's agency, which funded the whole Sato company for mass weapon-making, was now demanding them to bring Akashi.

If they didn't, then even if they were to succeed, they would be put under debt. Amon had learned in his life that no matter how powerful you are, you cannot change the economic wheel, how debt works, and how money works. And it's better not to mess with it, unless you want your money to be worth less than the paper used to make it.

'But if I kidnapped her and erased any trace of her involvement with the Equalists, wouldn't that just count as stealing, and no harm would come to the perfect world I'm building,' thought Amon.

A young man with a hat entered.

It was a scout boy.

"Sir!" declared the boy, "Mister Tarrlok has vanished…"

"I know as much," said Amon.

"But as we searched the location where he vanished, we found a note," he said as he approached Amon and handed him an envelope. "We believe that it's from the airbender."

"Did you read it?" asked Amon.

"No, sir," he replied, "politics are beyond my capabilities."

"Good boy," said Amon.

The boy turned and left.

Amon looked at the envelope.

It said, "To Amon…"

(*"To the man behind the mask. Yo. It's me, the one and the only… Slim Shady… you may wonder what that word means. It means nothing other than adding a rhythm…

Jokes aside. As there is a chance for someone to read it other than you, I had to make it look a bit goofy…"*)

Just by reading two lines, Amon felt like tossing the letter away.

But it seemed that the airbender did it on purpose for a good reason.

("I believe that the criminal you freed, Tarrlok, told you that I knew some part of his past. But he didn't give you the whole truth. That bloodbender had a brother. As you see, Yakone had two kids. By now, you should appreciate the first line.")

The face behind the mask opened his eyes widely, almost goggling out.

Akashi knew about Tarrlok and Amon all along. And even then, he gave him this note, writing it in a way that no one would understand Amon was that brother, except for Amon himself. Akashi seemed to have a message delivered to him.

("I was willing to let you guys do whatever you want. Build political power, take bending from people and all. But as you see, the thing between me and the Earth Kingdom is personal. And for you to intervene in my personal matter, it's personal between you and me.")

("The money she gave you for funding… I want at least 50 million.")

("Or else, you may never see your brother again…")

To say that man was outrageous was an understatement. He was demanding money for kidnapping Tarrlok.

But that wasn't what worried Amon.

It was the fact that he could defeat Tarrlok, who was a bloodbender.

But that didn't make sense.

Akashi wasn't a more powerful bloodbender, nor was he the Avatar to resist bloodbending.

'He has a secret helper. The Avatar Korra must have helped him defeat Tarrlok. She's his student after all,' Amon thought, as he had already investigated Korra. Her being his airbending student wasn't a secret. 'If he had other police hiding for him, they would have taken Tarrlok back to the station… But for Korra to defeat Tarrlok in a direct confrontation, she must have mastered the Avatar State. But I doubt it, as she's still learning about it.'

Amon started considering all of the options, from likely to less likely. As long as they sounded logical.

But for Akashi to defeat Tarrlok in a direct confrontation would be too illogical and too hard to believe.

There was one way, and it was to use external help, one that the police didn't know about.

It might sound out of line to say that Akashi knew about Tarrlok coming for him.

But that man was the same one who made a perfect plan to take down a bloodbender, push him to the corner, and make Tarrlok lose his composure.

He was the same man who unveiled the truth behind Tarrlok, their father, and the Earth Queen.

And he was the only man who knew about Amon's true identity.

His intelligence seemed too scary not to consider him predicting Tarrlok coming for him.

Well, he was the same man who vanished upon hearing that Tarrlok escaped jail, and was the same one who planned this all along.

In that case, it was better to do the least expected thing.

A bunch of men entered his office.

"Mr. Amon. What are we doing about Akashi?"

"The Dai Li are pressing us more."

Amon listened to their complaints.

He calmly said, "Leave Tarrlok and Akashi for now. Proceed according to the plan. To kidnap the Avatar."

"As you order," replied the follower.