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“And this is the city’s Future Industries factory,” Asami said, casting an arm around to encompass the entire site. She smiled at General Iroh as he stepped around the car to survery his surroundings, but then she frowned, turning away. “Or one of them, I suppose.”
“There are more sites than this one?” Iroh asked, turning a quizzical eye on her.
“One more, at least,” Asami answered. “Beneath a secret tunnel in my home. Who knows how many others my father built...”
“Ahh,” Iroh nodded in understanding. “We don’t have to be here if it makes you uncomfortable.” He looked at her earnestly, and Asami could feel the accompanying friendly arm on her shoulder it offered, though he didn’t touch her; too professional for that.
Asami shrugged. “No, I said I’d show you around the city. That includes the places I don’t like.”
She walked forward, heading to the building that housed the main production line; Iroh followed, only hesitating slightly.
It was only after the tour of the refining labs that he said, “I know something of unstable relationships with one’s father.” He turned to her, serious and honest. “My grandfather never resolved the conflict with his.”
Asami said nothing, and then nothing, and then more nothing, and then—she sighed. “Being here just brings it all up again. Makes everything feel fresh and brand new.”
“Still hurts?” he asked.
She didn’t say precisely what she meant, and he didn’t ask, so: “Of course it does.”
They left the compound, climbing into her new satomobile, and drove off without further comment. Asami watched as they sped through the city, concentrating on the road and the drivers around her, taking in just how far the city had to go to truly recover.
If it recovered.
“Somewhere pleasant,” Iroh said suddenly. Asami glanced over at him. “Somewhere pleasant this time.”
“With no skeletons in the closet?” She glanced down the intersecting road they passed, plotting out a course in her head.
“Nothing uncomfortable.”
The tip of Asami’s mouth curved up in a small lop-sided grin, and she pressed on the gas pedal, speeding towards the race course.